Retro Gaming Australia

Namco Bandai has announced on Twitter that Soulcalibur II HD Online will be headed to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on November 20. The game promises a tarted up version of one of the most popular fighting games of the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era, with online support and the first opportunity to fight guest characters Heihachi and Spawn against each other.

The price is set at $US20, €19 and about £15. No local price has been set, but it’s safe to assume that it’ll probably be $AU30.

With the high price and poor timing (the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launching either side of the game locally and in most Western territories) of the release, one has to wonder how much faith Namco has in the release. Perhaps a WiiU eShop release with Link would have drummed up some more interest.

Soulcalibur II was the most successful fighting game of the sixth generation era, by in large due to the amazing upgrade its predecessor received when it was released on the Dreamcast. It was the first game in the series to see “guest fighters” – Link for the GameCube version, Heihachi Mishima for the PlayStation 2 version and Spawn for the Xbox version. Funnily enough, the GameCube version was the best selling one.

Probably the best looking launch title ever. Certainly raised my expectations for what to expect from the Dreamcast.

Soul Calibur is the second game in Namco’s Soul series. Originally released into the arcades in 1998, Namco decided to rebuild it from the ground up for the Dreamcast, creating a game with visuals that surpassed everything that was available at that time. This ad is for the French release of the game.

Search for Soul Calibur on eBay