The Museum Of Modern Thinking

I recently bought (ok, on the first day it came out) Soul Calibur IV on my Xbox 360. I used to play a lot of Soul Calibur II at work with a good friend and colleague, and enjoying handing her arse to her on a regular basis (hi, Victoria :P). After a l-o-n-g drought of decent fighting games on the Xbox 360 (i.e. no Tekken), I was looking forward to it.

I’m pleased to say I’m not disappointed in it. Ok, so it’s missing a couple of gameplay modes, some fighters are overpowered, some are cheap, some are cheap and overpowered (I’m looking at you, Apprentice from The Force Unleashed), but it’s still a rollicking good time. I’m currently enjoying making my son cry by battering his wizened little Yoda into smush with my Kilik character - it’s fun

What I’m enjoying a lot, and what I didn’t expect to, is the character creation mode. You can create either male or female characters, based on existing fighting styles, and then go nuts accessorising them with hats, monocles(!), neck wear, underwear(!!), head gear, spiky shoulder pads, metal greaves, ninja tabi, etc. It’s a lot of fun, and practical too: some items carry points to be added to your character’s traits, e.g. Power, Impact and Gauge. Attributes include useful things like Nullify Ring Out so you can’t be ringed out (oo-er), or Soul Vamp which takes your opponent’s health and giives it to you on a successful hit. These attributes are used in the Tower Of Souls mode in which you battle up a tower to get more items to improve your character so they can battle higher up the tower, ad infinitum (or at least until floor 60). The extra attributes can also be used in two-player versus matches, which makes for a lot of fun.

Anyhoo, it was mentioned by Victoria that she and her boyfriend Daz both created likenesses of themselves in the game, so I thought I’d do the same:

It’s meant to be me:

My son’s Gandalf (in his earlier years), and his The Bad Guy:

My custom Ivy and Hellacious (hey, shut up, it’s art! :P)

Ok, ok, so the last three are a bit questionable, but there you go Here’s what someone with far more talent than me can achieve (i.e. M. freakin’ Bison!):