The original Soul Calibur dug its razor sharp talons into my skin, violently turned me upside down and proceeded to shake the lunch money from my pockets. It was a sharp slap to the face, Namco's way of jarring my 32-bit reality and plunging me head first into the next generation, and since that time (and taking into account the adrenaline charged delight that is Soul Calibur II), I can't even put a number on the amount of battles that I've had, yet I can unwaveringly say without hesitation that the number resides in the thousands. I respect the hell out of this series and anticipate each and every chapter, yet something strange happened to me when Soul Calibur III and I crossed paths. Instead of intimidating me with its untamed ferocity we merely brushed shoulders and kept on walking. Something strange has happened to this series. It's been put in its place; kept in check, if you will. It's still a quality product and a superb fighting game, but its soul is no longer burning. In fact, I'm not even sure if Namco remembered to start the fire.

My journey began with the cookie cutter intro, which is easily the worst this franchise has ever seen. It just lacks an emotional punch to get my blood pumping. There are plenty of scenes of mass death and characters clashing behind gorgeous locations, but it's missing that certain something extra, the high impact tidal wave that crashes against my very being and rocks my senses. In short, it's lame. Tekken 5 has this fabulous and well directed opening sequence, but Soul Calibur III's looks and tastes like plain vanilla.

It also doesn't help that the music in this game is about as dry as old wood in the California sun. Where the last two games feature epic and memorable soundtracks, Soul Calibur III's is quite subdued. It serves its purpose, but aside from some familiar tunes it's not striking at all. When Soul Calibur II came out I rushed to pick up the limited edition strategy guide because I wanted the included score, but that's not going to happen with this game.

Fortunately, Namco got the really important things right starting with the gameplay. Basically, Soul Calibur III feels a lot like Soul Calibur II, not that that's a bad thing (on the contrary). You have freedom of movement around fairly large fighting arenas, access to several different types of weapons and fighting styles, and there are extensive move lists to master. And because this series has always had a flair for the dramatic, expect to see lots of super high impact maneuvers where people as well as monsters are flattened, power bombed, twisted, stabbed, and crushed like a stale Oreo cookie. There's no shortage of violence or ring outs, and Namco's made the combat even more appealing by including some light breakable structures as well as the ability to break up the ground with the bodies of your victims. Also, the DualShock 2 does its job well, or rather, about as well a job as a console's first party controller can do.

Another area where this game excels (which ultimately makes it worth owning) is the sheer amount of stuff that Namco's packed into it. The character list is massive, featuring over 25 fighters including new faces Tira, Zasalamel, and Setsuka (who are all fine additions to the roster), and old friends such as Lizard Man, Mitsurugi, Kilik, Taki, Nightmare, Maxi, Voldo, Cervantes, Raphael, Astaroth, Ivy, and numerous others. Each has his or her own move list, signature weapons, and costumes to choose from, yet some of their new looks aren't very attractive, so utilize caution. You'll also want to go into the Options menu and select the Japanese voice feature because the English is terrible.

Much to my surprise (and delight), the character list isn't limited to these combatants. Namco's included an impressive character creation system in Soul Calibur III, and while it's not as deep as what is commonly found in most wrestling games it does allow you to craft an innumerable amount of combatants. You basically choose a gender, then a template (Barbarian, Monk, Thief, or Dancer), and from there you can almost do whatever you want. The game has numerous pieces of clothing, weapons (some of which are quite interesting), armor, head gear, and jewelry to select from, and lots of this stuff needs to be unlocked, so there's incentive to keep playing. But what's especially cool is the ability to use these created characters in the versus modes. This also allows Namco to spice up the story modes a bit, as you'll often run the publisher's bonus characters in Tales of Souls, the game's story mode. Guys such as the Revenant (some dude with a skeleton for a head) can then be brought into two player matches.