It's nice after having to spend so much time faffin' around with site related bits and bobs, and not doing much in the way of reviewing, to wean yourself back into the swing of things with a beat-'em-up - particularly one of the series I've become quite familiar with. I've spent many a drunken night beating my mates up in a virtual sense over the physical, for a change, and when it comes to Soul Calibur you don't have to finish at just the versus mode, there are some other cool little features too.

Although I'd played both 1 and 2, if I'm honest I really started getting involved when the 3rd instalment was released. This mainly came down to the fact that not only was it the most playable in my book, but that it had that cool little strategy side game. That, added to all the collectables you could get through the game meant sinking a lot of time into it to get them all.

I'll put aside the obvious breast enlargement and Star Wars tie-ins for now and jump straight into Soul Calibur 4's main feature – the combat. This is where the SC series stands out among the crowd as being an easy to pick up title offering a well thought out and balanced gameplay style. Not putting down any other titles in that sweeping statement, it's just that Mr Calibur has worked out how to make a beat-'em-up work in a 3D environment, with weapons, destructible armour, tag-team like gameplay and epic finishing moves – even if they are bloody hard to pull off!

So, more on that lot. As before you have multiple characters to choose from with some familiar revamped next-gen faces, and some new to the crew. The biggest of which has to be either Darth Vader if you've bought the PS3 version or Yoda if you've bought the 360 version. These guys as you might expect also have limited force powers they can use in fights. While I wasn't falling over myself to try and get good with either of them, it's something new – right?

An interesting feature has to be the destructible armour - a way it seems to counter those that like to obsessively block. If you keep blocking attacks, your armour will break and if this happens in all 3 sections you leave yourself vulnerable to a finishing move that will end the battle regardless of how much health you have. However, as before, you can still perform impact guards or side step, so with that in mind it's usually really hard to pull these moves off without your opponent dying in the interim. As pretty as it is when you do I'm sure...

The Tag-Team like gameplay added in this was almost to be expected, seeing as everyone else has done it. However, they've not just limited you to 2 characters in some circumstances throughout the single player, which is at least a new feature in it's own right. However, the other side of that added feature is that is that it's unavailable in versus mode for some reason. Why they chose to leave that little beauty out of multiplayer battling is anyone's guess.

The storyline, as with many a beat-'em-up title just isn't worth mentioning and is predominantly bizarre and irrelevant, including a fantastic 2-line statement at the end of every characters single player campaign. Not that this really means anything as you're not here to be wowed by in-depth dialogue right? Still, it's amusing to see the credits roll after 5 single player battles all the same.

The game really offers some serious re-playability with customising existing characters; updating their weapons and armour, or creating your own from scratch. This works slightly differently to before as you now have a vast array of skills you can assign a character. These skills cost certain attribute points that you have to accommodate in the armour you where. For example, if you use a skill that requires 40 boost, you have to wear enough armour with boost on to make up that 40. Pretty neat. You can then take these characters through the single player missions or try out your luck in the Tower of Souls.

Tower of Souls can be completed with any character and is along the lines of a survival mode but with 2 paths. If you ascend you have to complete a few floors at a time and then the game will save allowing you to continue from that point, whereas once you've ascended 20 floors you can come out of the mode and descend instead which acts as the original survival mode. Of course, as per usual you'll earn some cash and items on the way that you can further customise and power-up your characters with.

If you're new to the series, Soul Calibur 4 is, like it's predecessors, extremely easy to get started with. Yet, with saying that, it's equally tough to master. You'll find that perhaps to begin with, button mashing your way through levels will work, but against a worthy opponent you'll be mince in under a minute. Talking of worthy opponents, I'm sure you'll be able to find one online now that both versions will take you there to compete with friends and strangers a like. Well, no stranger than most of their custom made outfits.

At the heart of it all lies some beautifully crafted graphics and a score worthy of your ears. They've made great use of next-gen tech with the pretty environments and destructible landscapes.

So, any down points? Well, it's more of the same isn't it? While I admire the additions or at least variations on their previous features and their persistence with keeping the controls the same over other titles that have screwed over the gameplay for doing so, it's effectively the same with a few more characters and online play. So, if like me you loved the last, then you'll love the latest, but maybe pine for a bit more.

Still, with that all aside, it's well worth getting your hands on a copy to have a good blat with a mate and a few kegs - particularly on the PS3, for now you'll actually have a decent beat-'em-up worth getting good at! [and I suspect that Jay prefers being a black-clad Darth Vader than a tiny grumbling green orc thing – Matt]