Soul Calibur Legends for the Nintendo Wii

Games like what I expected from Soul Calibur Legends are part of the reason why I got a Nintendo Wii in the first place. I'm not really into all those large collections of sports mini-games, but am more looking for a totally new gaming experience. While I did still enjoy playing this one, I think it could have used a lot of tweaking before being released. In short, it's as simple as it is chaotic, and that's not so much fun.

I've been playing Soul Calibur IV on my PS3 and love it, so naturally I was drawn to this game for the Wii. The less-than-$20 price tag also helped. I knew it wasn't a fighting game like the previous Soul Calibur games, but I was still intrigued by the gameplay. This is essentially a third person action game, like the majority of games you would find on the PlayStation 2 console. At first glance, it looks like it would play like a Dynasty Warriors title.

You play using both the Wii remote and nunchuck, with the thumbstick on the nunchuck used for moving around and the Wii remote used to swing your weapon. The intention of the designers is for you to run around swinging the Wii remote like you would a sword. What really happens is that you run around swinging the Wii remote wildly and hoping you hit what you are aiming for. When the fighting is one-on-one, like in a boss battle, it works pretty well. When you fight groups of enemies, which comprises most of the game, the whole system gets sloppy.

The biggest problem with the controls is the targeting system. When you are taking on a group of enemies, you automatically target a random one and your character turns to face that person. Never mind the giant crossbows shooting flaming arrows at your head - the game decides my target ought to be the peon skeleton warrior next to me. Since the target locks on, I have to do some cycling just to be able to hit the crossbow before it nails me two or three times. It would make sense to go after the strongest enemies first, otherwise they'll wail on you while you are tangled up with the weaklings.

During combat, the camera is constantly spinning around to follow your character as you run circles around whatever room or area in which you are fighting. This means you sometimes can't see your opponent until they are right up on you. If you get stuck in a corner with somebody, you simply can't see what you're doing at all. This happened to me during a boss fight and I just kept mashing buttons until I got out of the way.

I thought the graphics were pretty good in this game, at least for a Wii title. I'd say they are a little better than what you might find in a PS2 game, but with the same character design and settings as those familiar with the Soul Calibur fighting game series. It was nice to play a Wii game that wasn't full of bright greens and blues like another title featuring Mario. The sound is cool how you get ‘swoosh' effects when swinging the sword, though some of the music is a bit cheesy. This game doesn't look or sound like most other Wii titles, and the violence may be enough to keep it away from smaller children.

Despite it all, I still got a kick out of playing Soul Calibur Legends. I eventually got used to the controls enough that I was able to play the game without many problems, but that's also because it isn't very difficult. I think the developers were trying to mimic the gameplay of the Dynasty Warrior games with this one, but they didn't do such a swell job of it.