Soulcalibur II HD Online is a nearly flawless update of a decade old title. And though it may seem like a chore, by today’s fighting game standards to have to unlock a good portion of the roster (something I had hoped wouldn’t have been the case for online play), Weapon Master Mode’s fun twist on the base Soulcalibur gameplay - many of the missions require battles happen under extreme circumstances such as fighting while poisoned or over deadly quicksand - makes it all worth the energy. Packed in the game was a plethora of diverse modes and bonuses to keep even the most casual of fighting game players engaged for countless hours and this HD upgrade contains them all intact (Well almost, as while Spawn and Heihachi are here, Link sadly didn’t make the cut).Īside from the standard arcade and versus modes, there are survival, team battle, time attack, training, and a brilliant RPG-esque outing known as “Weapon Master Mode.” Weapon Master Mode is where players will spend the majority of their single-player time, as it the easiest way to unlock and purchase new costumes, weapons, arenas, special modes (like the Weapon Exhibition theater), and the games remaining characters.

As I previously mentioned, when Soulcalibur II first graced consoles many, many moons ago, it was the envy of every arcade-to-home conversion. If online isn’t your cup of tea though, the rest of Soulcalibur II HD Online serves up enough delicious morsels to make it worth your while.

Hopefully, the folks at Namco are working on a patch, but with a release this late in the Xbox 360 and PS3’s lifespan, I wouldn’t count on it.

Soulcalibur IV’s online suffered from the same fate, which is the reason why so many stopped playing long before the series’ fifth installment. For casual play, the connection is adequate with rarely any actual slowdown (as long as you are fighting someone in relative proximity to where you live), but there is still much room to improve.

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