Is it April already? A quick glance at our calendars confirms that it's still January, and an extended glance at 1UP's reveal of Soul Calibur IV's secret characters does nothing to evaporate the reigning feeling of utter confusion. The lineup of saucer-eyed assassins, scantily clad combatants and bizarre pain fetishists in Namco's anticipated fighter is set to be joined by the Sith's darkest lord and the Force's most diminutive master. Our little green friend can almost manage to fit in to Soul Calibur's ye olde fantasy trappings, but poor ol' Vader appears to have gotten lost and disoriented after leaping over some sharks on his space jet ski.

Even better news can be found in 1UP's suspicion that even more Star Wars characters will waltz into Calibur's cantina, possibly via downloadable content. An interesting idea, but we reckon you'd save money by simply buying a copy of Masters of Teräs Käsi off eBay.

Update: Gamespot reports that Darth Vader is reserved for the PlayStation 3, while Yoda will be included in the Xbox 360 version.

[Thanks, Antonio]