First screens: Soul Calibur for XBLA looking sharp

by Randy Nelson { May 15th 2008 at 5:00PM }

click to enlarge

Been wondering what Namco's classic Sega Dreamcast fighter (and, as many would say, system seller) is going to look like when it hits Xbox Live Arcade this summer? So have we! Fortunately, before we had to storm down to Namco Bandai HQ, faux plastic swords in hand, they hit us up with these shiny first screens highlighting what to expect. We've laid down our arms, but our anticipation level has certainly picked up.

The screens show a port that looks decidedly crisper than the original, although featuring the same poly-count for the models and backgrounds. And what's with that "Insert Coin" stuff? Shouldn't it be "Insert Microsoft Points?" More on this odds-on, must-download (sure to take up a good chunk of your HDD or memory unit) as it breaks.

Gallery: Soul Calibur (XBLA)

Tags: breakingnews, namco-bandai, soul-calibur, xbla, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 5:12PM

Damn them for making this look good....

My only excuse now is no Sickle Wielder....

PojoMofo @ May 15th 2008 5:13PM

This is probably going to be a HEFTY download, arcade/core users need not apply. This game is the f'ing phenominal though, truely epic for its time

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 5:29PM

Does Texture Compression just not seem to exist in your world?

If this was a sprite heavy game, I'd agree. But considering they aren't even specmapping these models, textures will be your heaviest concern and that would be fairly light.

LiqwidZero @ May 15th 2008 5:32PM

If hefty is about 800(+/-)MB or so (Dreamcast games used 1.2GB GD-ROMs), then you may be correct.

Knight Marquise @ May 15th 2008 5:43PM

I doubt it, most likely less then even an xbox original. I'm happy I have the 120 gb, but sure wish it was open like the PS3 so I could put in my own hdd of the size of my choosing.

Anonim @ May 15th 2008 5:43PM

Actualy the most space-heavy are FMV movies then sound and music.
Textures don't take as much space as many peoples think and anyway they are compressed at preproduction anyway.
There is widespreaded misunderstanding that textures in games are uncompressed , in BMP ,etc.
Nearly all textures are heavyly compressed and takes relatively small amoun of space
see DXTn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression

For example all Oblivin data/textures/maps etc. takes ~2GB BUT sound and music ~2,5GB
Making sound and music taking more than half of the game.

You would be amazed by number of Sony fanboys that think that you cant fit HD game on DVD and you need 50GB for redundant, repeated data to speed up slow BR drive. ;)

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 6:21PM

You know, I could be a dick and ask why you decided to further the fanboy wars by slamming sony fantards (like I did in my first response) but instead I'll ask you how your point isn't self defeating. We are reaching a day and age where games ARE becoming sound and music heavy (which is where the 50GB went according to Kojima).

I could even point out the day to night cycles in PGR4 were cut because of lack of space for the textures needed.

But instead I'll point out that you basically said what I said. That texture compression as we had it in the past (during the Saturn-Dreamcast era) has been much improved and games which once took up a full CD are suddenly shrinking to ~100MB.

bobartig @ May 15th 2008 6:31PM

@Anonim: But, but, Sony told us that we'd need BluRay for next gen gaming! They TOLD US! How else would I play my dual 1080p, 60 fps, TRUE HD video games?

Knight Marquise @ May 15th 2008 8:15PM

@ sheppy

"You know, I could be a dick..."

What? You've never held yourself back before, why stop now?

Smoke_Dawg_187 @ May 15th 2008 10:34PM

+1 for Anonim!

dsub @ May 16th 2008 11:20AM

The MAME Rom is less than 50MB. This can't be that big.

Sean @ May 15th 2008 5:14PM

Check out those cankles.

DM7000 @ May 15th 2008 5:18PM

So is it going to have online multiplayer or not? I seem to remember hearing it won't.

PojoMofo @ May 15th 2008 5:23PM

IIRC, you are correct.

Assassin @ May 15th 2008 5:21PM

Wow! Thats pretty awesome! This could possibly turn out better than the DC version with the vga adapter! I am impressed! I have several copies of the original, but will not hesitate to pick this port up.

Ninjakamster (PSN: Chin-Poh) @ May 15th 2008 5:31PM

Wow very nice!

I am amazed at all the amazing things to download on Xbox Live but depressed at the proprietary HDD options. If only they made it like the PS3s. Sigh.........

ViagraFiend @ May 15th 2008 5:35PM

There was this guy...we called him the game scavenga. He used to come over just to play this game. Id answer the door and be like "Whats up?" He'd say "You wanna git dow on sum soul callibah dawg?" Id say "No man, not right now." Then he'd leave and I would go back to playing Soul Calibur.

phobic99 @ May 15th 2008 5:41PM

Uhh... I got nothing.

SWAT Kats are back! @ May 15th 2008 5:38PM

Shouldn't be too too big, the outer limit of a GD-ROM, iirc, was 1.2 GB, and the HD upgrades can't be all that match

SWAT Kats are back! @ May 15th 2008 5:39PM

*much

FireFox is feeding me error messages, screwing me up

AoE @ May 16th 2008 1:52PM

good god i thought i was the only person to have ever seen SWAT Kats!

joshua @ May 15th 2008 5:41PM

Its crazy to think this game came out in 1999! It still looks pretty good! If I had never seen it before and someone told me it came out in 2004 on the Xbox 1... I wouldn't have been surprised. Its just amazing what Namco's programmers and artists did with that game.

Rususeruru @ May 15th 2008 11:29PM

If I remember right the DC and related arcade boards had rendering tricks to help out the graphics... it could just be my rampant DC Inner Fanboy showing though I don't know.

KeenCommander @ May 15th 2008 5:56PM

Looks very nice. Of course, I'll just keep button mashing away on my Dreamcast - but for those of you who don't have one this should be a great way to catch up on a classic. Oh and guys, the discs may have held 1.2 GB but IIRC the actual game is no more than 500MB even in the original form, possibly less. *Receives evil eye* What, I don't know nothing about those burned games...*hides*

LeadBoxx @ May 15th 2008 5:59PM

I wish we could see some of the Tekken series come to the XBLA!

PojoMofo @ May 15th 2008 6:12PM

Ummmm, your kidding right?

LeadBoxx @ May 15th 2008 6:23PM

No I am not kidding. Why?

PojoMofo @ May 15th 2008 6:27PM

Since Tekken is made by Sony, I dont think you can expect that anytime soon

LeadBoxx @ May 15th 2008 6:30PM

Uh no Sony never made Tekken. Its from NAMCO. Thats why Yoshimitsu was in the Soul Caliber series as well. It was a playstation exclusive for a while but that time has passed.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 6:33PM

HAH for PojoMojo... Tekken is Sonys... yeah right.

HOWEVER, Tekken still remains a Playstation Exclusive. The Soul Blade series has always been a bit of a woman around town. And since Tekken 6 remains only announced on PS3, why do you feel that time is passed?

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 6:50PM

Tekken Tag on XBLA would be EPIC, but alas....never happen. Well maybe a 10% chance but doubt it. Pojo made a booboo haha. Tekken has always been synonymous with Sony PS machines but its not made by Sony. It's Namco baby, ya know like Riiiiiiidge Raceeeeerr and Soul Calibur, Ace Combat and the likes but for some reason Tekken has remained PS loyal.

IMO that sucks, would be sweet on LIVE especially since I have alot of my old buddies on LIVE that I had countless and countless matches against. I have Tekken DR on PS3 but its pretty laggy and none of my friends have one. :(

Damnit, why cant Tekken 6 be multiplat?!!!

LeadBoxx @ May 15th 2008 7:44PM

Oh I didn't realize it was announced for PS3, my bad. At least I knew that SONY didn't make the game. PojoMofo has lost all respect from me (not that he ever had it).

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 8:23PM

Tekken Tag is ass. It's not a true tag style system like DOA, Vs series, or the best of the best, King of Fighters....

It's really just Health Bar Management.

But Fenix, if you paid $5 for MK2, I'd take you on.

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 11:03PM

Dont care if it wasnt a true "tag" game. Overall it was crazy fun and NOT 'ass' lol, as you put it. MKII? Nah too slow, great game but I preffered MKIII with running and kombos. Too bad you dont have a 360 because I have UMK3 on XBLA and PWN!

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 11:43PM

I don't know. Didn't care much for the run dynamic in MK3.... I know, I'm weird.

I never got into Tekken. Not sure why. Maybe because I sucked but I think the main reason is when Tekken was rising to glory, I was more into 2Ds. When Tekken finally reached glory (Tekken 3), I was getting into weapon based fighters more like Soul Blade and Samurai Spirits 64. So by the time Tekken 5 dropped and I paid good coinage on it, I sucked. But here in lies the problem, I didn't suck compared to my friends. And between being real good to compete online and being moderately suck and not alienating the friends I play against over some beers, I chose to keep my skills down.

After all, I was HEAVY into MKII and because of that, my friends hate playing due to too large a skill gap. Actually, as one MK fan to the next, you might be interested in one of my current shits and giggles projects. I'm currently redesigning the entire cast of the first Mortal Kombat. Just basically for fun...

xFenixKnightx @ May 16th 2008 9:51AM

Sweet, let me see when your done.

Sinister Rouge @ May 16th 2008 11:31AM

Tekken on XBLA? I think I hear Virtua Fighter 5 crying in the corner, you've upset it!

Seriously though, I've always thought Tekken was a VF also-ran and VF5 is by far the superior game.

Roto13 @ May 15th 2008 6:20PM

Looking good. I'd buy it.

bobartig @ May 15th 2008 6:34PM

I'm glad to see that they're making this, but I'll just plug in the DC and fire up the original.

Rususeruru @ May 15th 2008 11:25PM

Normally I'd be with you on this one, but I have to stop moving the DC around and I fear that the GD-ROM is not long for this world.

Hooray for XBLA offering me this piece of nostalgia!

XDragon @ May 15th 2008 6:35PM

Ok, so I have to ask the obvious question that i haven't read yet:
Who cares?
Part 4 will be out in July. Its not like Street Fighter where more people actally like part 2 more than 3 (i'm not one of those people) and their characters are (for the most part) different.
Soul Calibur, like Tekken and Virtua Fighter basically bring back the old cast, add a few charaters, pretty the game up and add a few new features so you're always better off having the latest version of the game.

xFenixKnightx @ May 15th 2008 6:54PM

I agree I'll be passing on this even if it looks really nice. Soul Calibur 4 on 360 for me. DO WANT!

t_m @ May 15th 2008 10:54PM

well, SC2 was awesome, but it wasn't a huge upgrade on SC1. (SC3.. I dunno, cos it went PS2 and went backwards in graphics)

This game was so far ahead of it's time, that it still looks and plays awesome now. I'm sure SC4 will be worth picking up, but for a budget price this would be a pretty great alternative.