The Soul Calibur Series Has Turned 20, And All We're Getting Is A Pachinko Machine

The original on Dreamcast was one of the last times I was seriously blown away by graphics. What a game it was.

We waited for 20 years and all we got was this lousy Pachinko machine..

All in seriousness, I've never been as invested in the later entries as I was with Soul Calibur II (which is still the series high point to me) but I hope there is a new and worthy title in the series in the near future.

Really @OorWullie ?

I struggle to understand that should you own a WiiU and some of it's gems. SM3DW was a particular high point.

That's kind of disappointing. At least we have classic Soul Calibur games to return to.

I enjoyed soul blade on PlayStation. For the time it had the best graphics

Seriously, Pachinko ?!

@Damo I'm glad someone remembers. Intro video and music

I remember getting a Dreamcast and Soul Calibur.... I had never seen anything like it, amazing.

@Pazuzu666 I do own a Wii U but if I'm being honest none of the games graphics have blown me away. I've been impressed by a few, MK8,DKTF, parts of XCX and certain levels in SM3DW but certainly nothing mind blowing.

Never get the fuss over companies not doing enough for a game's anniversary. Do you people expect your parents to pop out new kids in your honour on your 10th, 20th, 30th birthdays?

I see it more as just something fans can use to talk about their memories and mention how old they feel.

Developer: For the 20th anniversary, let's release a spin-off with all of the guest characters from past entries like Link, Heihachi, Darth Vader, KOS-MOS, Ezio and Kratos.
Bandai-Namco: Sounds like it'll take a lot of effort ... let's just release a Pachinko machine, I hear the next Metal Gear game is taking a similar approach and those games are amazing.

I still play and totally love Soul Calibur II on gamecube.
One of my favorite games ever and it is a real blow to Nintendo fans that we were the only ones to be denied the HD remaster of that game.

SoulCalibur II was so much fun. To date, the only Cube game I've seen that can run in widescreen. Still looks great on a Wii using component cables today. I have SC 1 through 5 on all platforms and that one is still the one I enjoyed the most.

I just looked through my gamecube collection and my soulcalibur II is not there. I wonder who I lent it to ten years ago. guess I will be buying a new copy. dam

...Anybody got a table flipping gif? Anyone?

As a diehard FG fan, this burns my soul...and not in the good way.

@YouSeemFRAZZLED All I need is a VC release of SCII on the Switch. If a new game comes out, and has Link on the Switch version, that'll be a nice bonus.

Smells like something KONAMI would do.... Pachinko machines are the bane of the world, no better than gambling slot machines.

I actually prefer pachinko over Soul Calibur, but that's just me... there's been very few fighting games that I've ever been particularly interested in.

@DragonEleven To each their own my friend. You are entitled to that. Enjoy.

Question, are these Pachinko machines like ticket based winnings or do you actually win money on them, I'm curious?

I've never even played with a pachinko machine and I'm already hating them.

Funny thing is, the company I work for manufactures them for Williams, Konami and Team Play.... Right now we are building Fish Bowl Frenzy and a new game coming out called Launch Code. The ones we are building are ticket ones, as in you win tickets... They look cool and all, but why do they need to use our precious video game franchises to sell them?? It's like spitting on the franchises we all love.

It might be bias, but I feel like Soul Calibur 2 and 3 were the last "great" ones. There's something about 4 and 5 that just didnt sit right with me.

Now onto that Pachinko game... There's a lot more to it than I though. Like, I figured it was a metal ball with a themed backdrop, but it's an arcade game in and of itself! But at the end of the day, it's still just another type of slot machine.

Still, companies seem to be slowly turning around, though. Nintendo's appearing to be back on track with the Switch. Capcom's gonna give focus to overlooked franchises again, and even Sega said they're not gonna rush their Sonic games anymore. So I can hold out hope that other companies will soon return to what made them successful in the first place. It might take a bit more time, but we'll see another "true" Soul Calibur soon enough.

@YouSeemFRAZZLED It's not Konami, but it is Bandai-Namco, which has also invested heavily into the Pachinko machine business. We keep calling the company "Namco" for old times' sake, but they merged with Bandai years ago.

@spawn1210 Gabling for money is illegal in Japan, so any balls you win are typically exchanged for prizes or tokens... but there is the loop-hole in that you could then take those prizes/tokens elsewhere and exchange them for cash, with some pachinko parlours taking advantage of this by running a token exchange separately from the main pachinko parlour itself.

@OorWullie I had the same reaction to SC on the Dreamcast, not much has impressed me since. Though Krystals fur in Starfox Adventures on Gamecube may be the pinnacle for SD graphics.

If you want to see Wii U graphics at their best that honour has to go to Bayonetta 2. It's just so incredibly bright and colorful at times, I'm amazed we have camera control to look around b/c everything looks so good. I haven't played a PS4 game yet but I'm not expecting any game to look much better than B2.

Agreed with all the sentiments that the first Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast is one of the few games that was truly impressive with it's graphics for the time. It wasn't just pretty, though- it was a great game! Truly, it is one of the Dreamcast's crown jewels.

The first time I was so extremely impressed was with the Super Mario 64 gameplay videos shown on the Nintendo Power N64 preview VHS tape. Few games really impressed me for their time after that... The fluidity and variety of Super Mario 64, the sharpness and smoothness of Soul Calibur, the unprecedented cinematics in Warcraft III, the environments of Final Fantasy XI, the benefit from mods in various games, and most recently, the upcoming Star Citizen's galaxy.

I've never seen "Pachislot" written in such an exciting way before.

@rjejr I've got Bayonetta 2 and I should have included that,it is indeed a beautiful game.I was showing it to my 11 year old nephew when I was back in Scotland a few weeks ago.the big Godzilla like demon climbing the tower near the beginning.He said "If that was on the PS4 nobody would complain" haha.

And this is why I hate Konam-

Wait.

What?

It's not "We hate costumers and developers alike, Inc." this time?

Well I guess I'm going to have to start hating Namco if they keep this up!

Wow 20 years in the making. ...... a pachinko machine (while I still wait for soulcalibur 2 hd to play as link!)

@Tasuki I would love to play it again,it's been 14/15 years since I played it.I'm sure I still have my Dramcast up the attic at my parents,I've no idea if it still works though or if I even have any of my games.Good to hear it still looks great.I was right into the arcades through the 90's so having a game like this at home was a dream come true.I'd kid myself I was playing with arcade quality graphics on my Saturn but deep down I knew they were still quite a bit away.The Dreamcast definitely did bring them to the home.It was around this time that the arcades started to die a death too,at least where I lived.

Soul Calibur VI on Switch, with Link returning as a character.

Hey, I can dream.

Ah, just what I wanted to see... Or not.

I'd just like to see a SC game kinda like the Tekken Tag series where they have all the characters from the series so far join up in one giant event. Getting to use all those weapon styles in the Character editor would be pretty sweet.

They could had made a new sequel to Soul Calibur Legends and I still wouldn't mind but a Pachinko machine?

I don't even know what a Pachinko machine is (sure, I could look it up), but I'm disappointed because I've been waiting for a new SC game for years. The first time I played it was on Dreamcast, then later I bought the Gamecube version and continued playing it on the Wii. Sadly, since I sold that system, I haven't been able to play SC again. I still have the original GC game. But it almost seems like Namco want me to pirate it and play it on an emulator...
Anyway, I would love for them to release a new Soul Calibur game for PC (since the Wii U is not sexy enough anymore) though...

Weird you guys are complaining about this. Soul caliber has not been on a Nintendo system for 14 years. I know it is weird they aren't doing anything but the 5th one was kind of bad and they still have not put tekken 7 out yet. Something probably will happen next year like a 6 or the announcement of it. I know it looks like switch will get it if it happens but we don't really know. WIi U had games coming before a lot got cancelled by third party. The switch seems different but Sony and Microsoft have and are going to have more powerful 4K game machines on the market. It will only be a time before they not making switch games for 4K games. So who knows how long before we may be in the same place as we are now in the next two or three years.

Soul Calibur on the DC - good times - I picked up a demo disc for it inside a Japanese Dreamcast magazine which sold me and my friends on the game...which I picked up in Tokyo a month or so later.

I remember buying a Dreamcast, Soul Caliber, and an S-video cable on 9.9.99 and I just couldn't believe a game could look this good on my Zenith 27" tube TV. My Dreamcast is still hooked up and going strong to this day.

Soul Calibur II on Switch VC... Make it happen, Nintendo!

Thank you for all that salt. I'm sure it'll go well with the gaping hole in my chest that Soul Calibur used to fill...then again, Bamco was the one who made that hole back in 2012 with Soul Calibur V...

@OorWullie "If that was on the PS4 nobody would complain""

Smart kid.

Too bad Nitnod wasn't smart and tried to make an effort to sell that game to gamers. Nintendo had the trifecta of EXCLUSIVES that holiday, Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors - Sony fans love those mosuo games - and SSBU all came out in Aug/Sept 2014, halfway thru the Wii U's short life. I think if Nintneod went hard that holiday promoting those 3 exclusives to gamers it could have sold some more consoles. Like those Sony commercials w/ the king guy, greatness awaits. But instead Nintendo spent all it's time that holiday marketing amiibo. Gamers weren't buying a Wii U for amiibo, but it had by far the best exclusives that holiday, all PS4 and X1 had were last gen ports and multiplats. Silly Nintnedo.