The sound of a creaky rocking chair fills the room you’re reading this in.  Suddenly, this song by Suzi Kim kicks in and you’re transported to a time when fighting was commonplace.  Tales of souls and swords were eternally retold, and you would watch the intro sequence over and over again to watch Sophitia get naked.

I’m talkin’ about the “Soul” series of fighting games.  Nowadays people know them as the “Soul Calibur” series of fighting games, but us old folks call ’em the “Soul” games.  For me, the first one’s my favorite.  Soul Blade.  (Or Soul Edge if you’re reading this from Japan or Europe.)  Tekken with weapons.  And boy howdy was it ever.  The game was so fun to play, easy to pick up, and the different play styles of each character meant that there was a character for anyone and everyone to use.  My personal favorite?

Seung Mina(Later Romanized to Seong Mi-Na).

The story?  Some swords exist that promise untold power to whoever wields them.  And everyone in the game is trying to find the swords for their own reasons.  Simple.

That’s why I loved this game so much.  Everything about the game was simple.  The game didn’t get too wrapped up in itself, and it provided hours upon hours of crazy gameplay.  My cousin Charlie and my brother spent a good part of our childhood playingthis game.  In fact, they both banned me from using Seung Mina, since I would just keep knocking them out of the ring.

When Soul Calibur came around, the Soul franchise successfully made the next-gen jump.  And was it awesome.

Things are still pretty simple.  Though they introduced a grip of new characters (my personal favorite was Xianghua).

Then things started getting weird….

(Which one doesn’t belong?  I’ll give you a hint.  GREEN.)

Still weird..

OKAY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS I DON’T EVEN

Which leads us to this intro.  SCV.  I don’t know what the flyin’ fuck is goin’ on anymore.

Somewhere along the way, Namco lost their Soul.  The games were fun, don’t get me wrong, but after Soul Calibur II, the games lacked a certain “something”.  I cared less and less about each sequential installment, until I got to part 5.  I haven’t even bought it yet.  I’m going to wait until it gets cheap, and from the looks of reviews and word of mouth opinions, I won’t have to wait long.

At least, I can use my Assassin’s Creed II skills here.  DOUBLE BLADE ASSASSINATION!

Maybe now that I’m older, I can truly appreciate just how good things were “back in the day”.  Or I need to take off these nostalgia goggles.

-Francis