Before fans get their mitts on the highly anticipated next entry in the Soul Calibur franchise they will soon be able to travel back to when the series, not counting its forefather Soul Edge, first kicked off, albeit in a much smaller format. According to a report from Andria Sang, the first Soul Calibur, the one that made its way to both the arcade and the Dreamcast, will be appearing on the iOS app store later this week.
Much like Street Fighter and King of Fighters before it, Soul Calibur isn't skimping on the bells and whistles, and will come complete with the 19 original fighters it shipped with. Also packaged in with the download are modes like arcade battle, time attack, survival, extra survival, practice and museum — a few of which will support the iOS game center app for handy achievement tracking and friend comparison.
There’s currently no word on price for Namco Bandai’s hit fighting game, but we figure it can’t be more than a few dollars. Even more exciting than that, though, the Soul Calibur app will be universal, meaning it will run on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It’s also worth mentioning that Andria Sang is a Japanese-based publication so this could very easily be a Japanese only download, but we sure hope not.
It may not have the next-gen graphics that a Mortal Kombat or current gen Street Fighter, but a lot of what keeps the Soul Calibur series so interesting is contained within that first entry. Perhaps the most important contribution made by SC was its use of the omnidirectional movement whereby players could do more than just shift across a vertical axis, they could actually run across it.
Based on some early screenshots of this iOS version it appears Soul Calibur will supporting the virtual joystick and button layout, not exactly the most ideal for fighting game fans. But if it means getting to experience Soul Calibur without having to break out the old Dreamcast, there has to be more than a few fans willing to check this version out.
Are you interested in checking out Soul Calibur for iOS? How does it rank in the pantheon of fighting game series?
Soul Calibur is reportedly heading to the App Store on January 19, 2012.
Source: Andria Sang