Soul Calibur Legends

A revered series takes a nosedive in this embarrassing, tedious excuse for an action game.

"It's clear that the game's putting most of its design attention on pure action as all of the emphasis was on swinging the Wii Remote around like a sword. Slashes and thrusts were recognized by the game, as were special moves that used sensors in both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk. Maneuvering around was clearly placed on the analog stick, with quick sidesteps activated by a shove left or right on the nunchuk. Levels jam packed with enemies to hack and slash at, and we counted easily more than a half dozen on-screen enemies at any given time."

Nintendo fans may find it hard to go from Soulcalibur II complete with a playable version of Link to a re-imagined sequel that is neither a fighter nor a visual stunner. Namco has been adamant that Legends was designed from the ground up for Wii, but if that's the case, the developer really wasn't very inventive about the best ways to use Nintendo's console - it merely replaced buttons with waggle. The end result is not a bad one, but it's not particularly good either. It's Soulcalibur if it were a repetitive hack-and-slash endeavor without many of the fighters that fans adore. Die-hards may be compelled to play for the unlockables, but if you've never played Soulcalibur before, don't start now.