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SOULCALIBUR VI
Namco Bandai’s 3D fighting series followed
Tekken’s style of side-stepping gameplay,
but put swords in the hands of its medieval
characters. With a stylish bombast, the
Soul series welcomes you to the ‘stage of
history’, as you follow the fates of a huge and
memorable roster of cool fighters, both good
and evil, in their quests to destroy or possess
the evil Soul Blade. Last year’s Soulcalibur VI
is the most polished and beautiful looking in
the series, and has all the characters from
the series so far including samurai Mitsurugi,
evil pirate Cervantes, ninja Taki, Siegfried,
Ivy, Sophitia and Voldo – though you can also
create your own character from a limited
creation suite and existing fighting styles.
The combos, special moves, fluidity of the
combat and real visual flair make it one of
the best fighters out there. Fighting game
series absolutely love a crossover, too –and in
Soulcalibur VI, The Witcher’s Geralt of Rivia is a
playable fighter. How cool is that? QMore Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 06903
KILLER INSTINCT
Once Rare had come onboard with Microsoft,
it was a no-brainer to bring the company’s
popular and cult-classic fighting series to
the Xbox One as a launch title, with a stylish
free-to-play reboot in 2013. A good range
of fighters are purchasable including the
Arbiter from Halo. Nice looking backdrops and
fighters with unique move-sets, and the game
has a wilfully old-school charm, with the
gameplay based on relentless combos and
button-mashing, rather than considered skills
or counters. Still, it’s a fast-paced, motion-
blurring smash-’em-up that’s worth revisiting.
Particularly since you can play as Sabrewulf...02
MARVEL VS
CAPCOM INFINITE
Tag-team combat crossover that started
out as a coin-op. Infinite is the most
recent of the series on Xbox One, and is
a fast-paced, lovely looking fighter that
carries on Capcom’s great fighting game
legacy. Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Captain
America and even Rocket Raccoon are
playable from the Marvel stable – slightly
odder is being able to fight the Avengers
as Arthur from Ghosts N’ Goblins and
Frank West from the Dead Rising series.
Still, at least Viewtiful Joe was left behind
in Marvel Vs Capcom 3...04
VIRTUA FIGHTER V
Coming out of the quite simply incredible
AM2 development group headed up
by the legendary Yu Suzuki, who were
responsible for all of SEGA’s coin-op
classics, this series set a benchmark for
fighting games when it was released to
arcades in 1993. It was the game that
shifted perspective to allow a more 3D
movement in fighting games, which was
most influential on Tekken. The last
entry in the series was ported to
Xbox 360 in 2007, and was one of the
first fighting games to allow online
multiplayer via Xbox Live.