Soul Calibur was released in 1999 on the Sega Dreamcast four years after the Arcade and Playstation release of Soul Edge. The game was revolutionary with its introduction of the Eight Way Run allowing a freedom of movement that previous 3d fighters could not offer. The game was not well received in arcades and was ported over to the Dreamcast, the game has had a huge fan base ever since.

The XBLA version of the game is an emulation of the original Japanese Arcade version right down to the last detail, even the "Insert coin" text has been left in. The game includes all original 19 fighters, each with there own story, weapon, fighting style and speed. All the characters are available to play from the start including the five previously locked ones. It is quite an expansive roster of characters but some of them feel a little hollow. For instance the character "Lizardman" is very nineties and is exactly what it says on the tin, its basis in the Soul Calibur universe is a little tenuous.

The gameplay is very straightforward. Basically like any other 3d fighter you have come across but at the time it was a bit cooler. Every character has a kick, horizontal slash and vertical slash and it is up to the player to create combos.

The visuals have not been updated but this is still a great looking game. The character design is fantastic and still very original. The backgrounds do look fairly dated and very flat but they retain that charm. The effects when charging up an attack are great and surprisingly still stand up today. The animation was and still is amazing, characters flow between moves. This game was the blue print for how all later Soul Calibur games would look and a showcase for what the Dreamcast was capable of.

In terms of modes it pretty standard stuff you've got, Arcade, Vs Battle, Team Battle, Time Attack, Survival, Extra Survival and Practice. Extra Survival is unique to Soul Calibur were its basically sudden death. Enemies are thrown at you in quick succession and its your job to hit the before they hit you. As you would expect the difficulty ramps up as you progress further and further through each of these modes (except practice of course) but it never gets to punishing on the medium difficulty setting once you understand your characters moves.

In terms of XBLA features it pretty bear. The only new addition to the game is leaderboards for Survival, Extra Survival and Time Attack which all work great but online play would have made this game even better than it already is. However it is worth bringing up that 800mp for this game is a fantastic price for what you get.

Soul Calibur maybe just a straight emulation of the original game with leaderboards, but the quality of the game itself is so high that even nearly 10 years after its release on the DreamCast it still stands up as one the greatest fighting games of all time. 9/10

Soul Calibur is available for 800mp on Xbox Live.