Question Of The Week [June 25th 2025]

Q: What Is Your Favorite Fighting Game?

A: While I’m not really great, or even “good” at fighting games, since I’m more of a button masher when it comes to them, I still end up enjoying fighting games quite a lot. Mostly on a surface level and very basic term. I don’t like memorising tons of moves for a specific character, I don’t dive deep into balance sheets or the “meta” of it all, and to be honest, I actually hate that it’s become the focal point. I base my character pick on who looks the coolest to me, and how they move and what movesets they do. Does it feel fluid and respond well? Do I feel like I can hold my own for a few rounds?

So when it comes to fighting games, no game has helped me feel competent in a regular game and felt actually balanced for the player like Soul Calibur II does. Specifically the Xbox version. For those unaware, Soul Calibur (the original) was a Namco Arcade game and ported to the Dreamcast as a launch game and quickly became one of the best games for the system. The sequel not only did things better, but each platform received a special bonus character.

Playstation 2 got Heihachi from Tekken, GameCube got Link from The Legend Of Zelda, and the Xbox got Spawn. I was always jealous because Link was the one character I wanted to play as more than anything else and having an Adult Link looked amazing. But I wasn’t a big Gamecube fan and bought most multiplatform games on Xbox. So I was saddled with Spawn. I only recently got into Spawn (currently reading the entire series, on issue 70 right now) but he seemed cool and the black/green color scheme felt like it fit. This unusual pair was actually just due to Spawn’s creator, Todd McFarlaine already working with Namco on a Spawn game, and they worked in a way to get Spawn as a Xbox exclusive character.

I always loved the more weapon based combat of Soul Calibur, and the visual flair and design was just insane. I love everything about the game, the movements, the character design (besides Voldo… ugh, he just gives me the creeps) and even the narrator, making the game feel epic in a way most didn’t. I ended up sinking so many hours into Soul Calibur II, but never got into the other games in the series like I did with the second game.