The best fighting game you will find for the Gamecube! Well, unless you count Super Smash Bros...
Soul Calibur II is the second in the Soul Calibur series and was released across the PS2, Xbox and GC. It had a lot to live up to after the huge sucess of Soul Calibur I and I think that it did that and more. The other interesting thing is that each platform the game was released on each had their own unique character. For Gamecube it was Link, Xbox Spawn and PS2 it was Heihachi.
Graphics 9/10:
Whilst the graphics may be described as some as "plain" I believe they do a very good job in creating a good feeling for this game. It may not compare to SCII on other platforms as the Gamecube does not have as good graphical hardware, but it has been done well. All the characters look great, nicely textured and their costumes are great. Scenery has been done well too and each fighting arena will really give you a different feeling and atmosphere.
Gameplay 9/10:
SCII features a wide variety of gameplay options all within the traditional SC fighting style. Soul Calibur is a true fighting game and if you play other fighting games, you will feel right at home. The battles are just 1 vs 1 at a time and each character will have a health bar. If you get knocked out of the ring or run out of health, you lose. Each character also has their own unique weapons and fighting style and you'll have great fun just experimenting with them all! You have a large range of attack options available to you for each character, but often it will feel like there is no much expertise involved and the best option is just to button mash. You have many different modes open to you, but I will just cover the main few. First you have the Weapons Master. This is the one player story mode and will see you going frm one mission to the nest and compeiting in a battle that may have special rules such as starting off with less health or having to ring out your opponent. As you progress through this you will unlock characters and weapons. There is also a story as you progress through this, but it is very bland, gives you a lot of text to read and just really isn't very interesting.
Another mode is for multiplayer only. In this mode you can take on a human player as opponent and fight it out. You can pick characters, weapons and an arena to fight in. There are plenty of options available and playing multiplayer is definetly the best point of SCII. Sound 8/10:
The sound in SCII has been done well, it just sometimes sounds to similiar and can be a bit repetitive. Each arena has its own background music, but many of them will sound similiar and when you fight they're quite soft and you barely hear it anyway. Character sound effects have been done very well and each character has their own voice and they sound great. The onlyissue is they're grunts and screams can sound a little similiar each time they are hit.
Value 10/10:
As long as you have a second controller and a friend, the value of this game is 10. You could play for endless hours in multiplyer as it talkes a very very long time for it to even begin to become boring. However you'll quickly find the Weapons Master mode beaten and everything unlocked. You also have time attack and arcade modes to keep you busy though.
Overall 9.1/10
Soul Calibur II is a great game and if you own a Gamecube and like fighting games you should definetly pick it up. It features some awesome attacks, characters and weapons and multiplayer is always a high point. However the sound can often be repetetive and the one player mode leaves a lot to be desired.