Excitingly and surreally, the first Soulcalibur of this generation is going to include Darth Vader (for the PS3) and Yoda (for the Xbox 360) of Star Wars fame. We're used to seeing unusual extra characters appearing in the series (such as wild-cards Link and Spawn), but no-one was expecting the Dark Sith Lord or the miniature Jedi master. You don't see us complaining, even if we are curious as to how the two sci-fi characters will integrate into the historical Soulcalibur world. Sadly, we weren't able to play as either of the lightsaber-wielding icons in this work-in-progress build of the game, the only three characters available being the Athenian swordswoman Cassandra, the samurai Mitsurugi and ridiculously-endowed ninja Taki.

Taki's breast physics were unavoidably the first thing we noticed about Soulcalibur IV, and we found ourselves wondering whether Project Soul has a department whose only purpose is to create conspicuous independently-jiggling boobs. Really, if you thought they were bad in Soulcalibur III, this time around they're much, much worse. Let's move very swiftly on and talk about the gameplay. We went through quite a lot of fights (and then some more), but It was apparent from the get-go that Soulcalibur IV's controls felt smooth and fairly intuitive, just like its predecessors. The moveset for the three available characters was unsurprisingly similar to that of previous games, with the addition of a few more swift and easy-to-perform grabs and combos, but we did manage to uncover a few interesting gems, such as Taki's rapid air-rolling attack that produced a flurry of colour across the screen and ended with a graceful plummet to the ground. It looked utterly stunning.

We'd tell you more, but sadly we don't know that much more about Soulcalibur IV. No-one really does except Namco-Bandai, who are keeping their info as tight to their chest as Taki's ninja suit clings to hers. We know that additional characters will include a Spartan armoured warrior by the name of Hilda, as well as the two inclusions previously mentioned. We also know that some of the environments will include breakable objects, and that online play should be featured. With so much still up in the air, it would be impossible to decree Soulcalibur IV a certain success. At the same time, Soulcalibur IV is worthy of a resounding 'so far so good' , and if it can meet our expectations when it releases on June 24th, it could well turn out to not just be the best fighting game of the year, but one of the best games of 2008, regardless of genre. Let's just hope that we don't bite off our fingertips in anticipation of its June release, and that, in the intervening period between now and then, for the love of Zeus someone buys Taki a damn sports bra.

By Sinan Kubba
LWG Core Contributor / News Director