Following in the foot steps of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters, SoulCalibur has made its way onto iOS. Unlike Street Fighter and King of Fighters, this SoulCalibur release is mostly a port of the 1999 original. 13 years later, does it still hold up? Does the experience get compromised by having to control it with a touch screen device? Most importantly, is SoulCalibur for iPhone and iPad worth the $15 regular price when its closest competition is roughly half of that?
The answer comes down to what’s in the package. Here, you get a version of the original SoulCalibur as a universal app that’s formatted to work on your iPhone and iPad. The graphics, while based on its 1999 counterpart, look awesome on an Apple screen. The game also has responsive controls that behaved as you would expect them to. The roster of 9 to start and a total of 19 when you unlock everyone is fine by me. If you’re looking for an on-the-go SoulCalibur experience where you can hit people with sharp objects in a 3D space, this is the game to get.
However, the feature set leaves a lot to be desired, especially at a regular price of $15. The game has an arcade mode, practice, time attack, two survival modes and a museum. The omission of online or local multiplayer is a huge letdown for a fighting game, especially when all of the major iOS fighting games have it and are roughly half the price. While not as glaring of an omission, I think that the lack of a tutorial mode hurts the overall package, especially if you want to learn how to play this game. Namco has stated that they will add more modes later, but they haven’t said when or if these additions would be free.
For now though, the package is what it is, which makes it light on features and heavy on price. I have a hard time recommending this to even the most die-hard SoulCalibur fans right now because the price tag is too high. At the time of writing, the game is/was on sale at $11.99, which I’d say is still too much for what you get. Once it comes down in price or Namco puts enough into the package to justify the price tag, then by all means pick it up then.
In Third Person 
No tutorial mode absolutely hurts the package in my mind, especially from a game that has a rough control scheme. I think, though, if you have a PSP then you should just stick with Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny for on-the-go fighting. But many people, myself included actually, don’t have that game, so this will suffice.
Very nice review!
Thanks for the comment!
At $12-15, with no tutorial, no multiplayer and no online components, it’s really not worth it when you can get other fighting games just as good for at least half price. I’ve never played SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny. I’m sure it would at least have the leg-up on controls.