The majority of the characters on Soul Calibur IV’s roster will also be familiar if you’re a fan of the series, though only around half of the 30-plus combatants are available at the outset, including Yoda on the Xbox 360 and Darth Vader on the PlayStation 3. Others characters are unlocked by defeating them in the single-player Story or arcade modes, and by purchasing them with the gold that you are awarded for winning fights. There’s more than enough variety on the roster to ensure that you can enjoy playing as at least a handful of different characters, and a robust customization system gives you the freedom both to edit their appearances and to create your own fighters from scratch.

No matter who you play as, Soul Calibur IV is accessible enough that even first-time players will have no trouble performing some powerful and great-looking moves. Rather than having to memorize lengthy combo attacks and knowing how to attack your opponent, the challenge here comes from knowing when to attack, when to block, and when to sidestep around the arena. That’s not to say that the combatants in Soul Calibur IV don’t have impressively large repertoires of moves, because they do, it’s just that very few of them are tough to pull off. This is a great game for all new and old fighting game lovers.