Soulcalibur Legends First Look

We recently had the chance to get a look at Namco Bandai's upcoming Soulcalibur Legends. The recently announced adventure game for the Wii is set in the Soul Calibur universe and follows familiar face Siegfried as he adventures in the 16th century. Though we weren't able to play the game ourselves, we got a demo of the action from Namco reps, who were showing off a snippet of the game that included a look at both the single- and multiplayer modes.

The game's story takes place between the events of the original Soul Blade and Soul Calibur. The tale follows Siegfried, who finds himself in the middle of an epic struggle to save an empire from destruction. His journey will have him cross paths with various familiar faces from the Soul Calibur franchise, all seeking to unify the mighty Soul Edge sword. The downside is that the story will show how the warrior came to be possessed by the blade.

The demo we checked out featured Siegfried and Mitsurugi exploring an Egyptian-themed temple level. As we mentioned, you'll cross paths with some familiar faces from the series, some of whom will join you on your quest as playable characters. The demo showed how you'll be able to switch between characters on the fly. The action alternated between fighting, platforming, and a bit of puzzle solving. The level appeared to be laid out in linear fashion, with an obvious path set for the heroes to go down. Along the way, trouble, in the form of enemies and hazards such as projectile launchers, seemed to be around every corner. The journey required a bit of platform-jumping to reach certain areas, but this certainly wasn't the main focus.

The key to the experience is its gameplay, which, unfortunately, we weren't able to try firsthand. From our demo it appeared that the mix of Wii Remote and Nunchuk for movement and combat should be pretty easy to pick up. The different attacks are tied to different motions, while switching characters is achieved with the push of a button.

Though we didn't see it, Namco reps noted that you'll level up your characters and earn new weapons in the game that will evolve as you play. The game will also offer multiplayer modes for you and a friend. The mode will include a competitive game type that challenges you to rack up the highest body count. A versus mode will let you face off against a friend.

The work-in-progress version of the game we saw looked promising overall. The visuals in the game were clean and sharp, owing a tip of the hat to the previous entries in the series. Siegfried and Mitsurugi looked good and sported their familiar uniforms. Obviously the dynamic duo weren't quite as shiny as the character models shown off for Soulcalibur IV, but they were still impressive. The boss of the level, a floating coffin possessed by presumably angry spirits, was also something of a looker. The environment had a nice Egyptian desert theme. The audio, though a bit hard to make out during our demo, hit the right beats. Combat had all the expected sounds of clashing swords with some voice peppered throughout.

Based on what we saw, Soulcalibur Legends has the potential to be a strong entry in the Wii catalog. The gameplay seems cool, though we're curious to see how responsive it is in the heat of battle. Look for more on Soulcalibur Legends from this year's E3 and in the months leading up to its release later this year.