"Transcending History, and the World, a tale of Souls and Swords Eternally Retold - Welcome to the New Stage of History!"

With those words, one of the most expansive and purely incredible fighting games of all time opens. Soul Calibur II features beautiful graphics and incredible gameplay as players fight to obtain the ultimate sword - Soul Edge. Not enough for you? How about 10 game modes and over 200 weapons to unleash a pounding on your opponents? Still not enough? How about 15 fighters each with their own skills and abilities? Still not enough for you? Okay, did we mention that one of those fighters is arguably the GREATEST VIDEO GAME CHARACTER OF ALL TIME?!?

You heard me right, folks. Link - the sword-wielding, Hyrule-saving hero - is playable in all of his glory and exclusive to the GameCube version of the game. Not only can you make use of the legendary Master Sword and Hylian Shield, but with a flip of the C-Stick, you can switch to his well-known secondary weapons - Bombs, the Boomerang, and the Bow & Arrow. Also, by playing through Weapons Master mode, players can unlock new swords and shields for Link to utilize, like the Biggoron's Sword, Razor Sword, and Mirror Shield.

Of course, Link is not the only character in this game. The characters run the gamut of weapon fighting styles, from Mitsurugi the samurai, to Raphael the fencer, to Astaroth the barbarian, to Maxi the Bruce Lee ripoff. There's also a large amount of female fighters in the game, including Taki the ninja, who is...well…very well endowed, let's just say. There is also the console-exclusive character of Necrid, created by comic book mogul Todd McFarlane. However, although Necrid looks cool, he is extremely slow, and has few combos. All this taken together makes him pretty pathetic even in the hands of an experienced user. All of the other characters are great, however, and one of the fun parts of the game is playing around with each one to see which best accustoms your personal style. Characters like Talim, Xianghua, and Cassandra are all quick and nimble, while Astaroth and Nightmare are big and burly, meaning they are slow, but have tremendous power. For those who prefer a better all-around fighter, try Kilik or Yunsung. Also, there are fighters meant for experts who are difficult to use but deadly in the hands of a master, like Ivy and Voldo.

Apart from the large and vast amount of fighters, there are also many different modes of play. There's arcade mode, which is the classic "Fight through the ranks of various opponents until you reach the final boss" mode. Also, SC 2 features a Time Attack mode, where players face opponents and try to beat them all in the shortest amount of time, and a Survival mode, where players battle to win the most matches without dying. Available as well for single and multiplayer is Team Battle mode: the player selects 2-4 fighters as a team, and dukes it out with other teams in an elimination-style battle - last team standing wins. In addition to Team Battle for multiplayer is, of course, the traditional head-to-head, best-of-three-falls combat mode.

However, the most attractive mode of the game is "Weapon Master", which is essentially the game's story mode. The player chooses a character, and fights through various battles with various opponents, sometimes with certain stipulations applied to the match (for example, some have your health steadily decrease; others are fought in stages with obstacles such as lava, quicksand, or ice). As you proceed through the various chapters and missions, you will gain Gold, which will allow you to purchase new items from the various shops. These new items include new weapons for your characters, new costumes, and even special features like art galleries and the ultra-cool weapon demonstrations, where a fighter performs a kata to shows off his or her distinct fighting style. You'll also be able to unlock new things by playing through the missions themselves, including new characters - some of which are exclusive to the console version of the game, and three, in fact, are exclusively playable on the U.S. version (they cannot be played in all modes, however).

Graphically, this game is absolutely spectacular. All of the characters, stages, and weapons look amazing, and there is not a single bit of slowdown to be seen. Link, for example, looks like he was ripped directly from the famous GameCube demo where he dueled with Ganondorf. Many of the moves look great, and some of them will make you cringe, as they look incredibly painful. There is no blood in this game, but personally, I feel this game doesn't need it - the combat is extremely stylized. For example, various colored swishes appear when a character swings his weapon, and more powerful attacks are represented by crackles of electricity when the move is executed. It's refreshing to see games like this where fighting does not necessarily mean blood and gore.

Musically, the game is an absolute treat. The score for this game, done by Time Crisis II music composer Junichi Nakatsuru, is very well done: an orchestral, epic collection of songs that almost makes me want to buy the CD. The sound effects are great - every grunt, swipe, slash, and bone-cracking move is perfectly done, and really adds to the gaming atmosphere. The voice acting is also very well done, and features several stars from the voice acting world - Wendee Lee, the voice of Xianghua, is also the dub voice of Faye Valentine from the popular anime Cowboy Bebop. Although the English voice acting is good, I prefer the Japanese voices - it sounds a lot more natural, plus, you can turn on the helpful subtitles.

The gameplay is your usual 3D fighting game fare, which can get kind of complicated, but even those who would rather just button mash can be effective and find that this is a fun game. The controls are laid out as such - A is a horizontal attack, Y (coded as B) is a vertical attack, B is Guard, and X is kick (coded as K). You are able to fully customize your controller however you see fit, even using different combinations of buttons for special attacks, which is a good thing. Due to the design of the GameCube controller, it is virtually impossible to press B and X or B and Y at the same time, two combinations used a lot in the game. However, this can be easily remedied by setting L and R (which both default to Guard) to these combinations, so that they can be easily pulled off, and players will not have to cramp their hands. Other than that, the moves players can use in the game range from easy to difficult to pull off, and include throws (which are easy to pull off), to more difficult combos and juggles - which players must use effectively in order to obtain the maximum effect from their character. Players can also perform a Soul Charge, done by pressing A+B+K (or a simple flick of the C-Stick), which can energize the character to deliver punishing moves - however, Soul Charging takes time, and players are defenseless when utilizing it, leaving them open to attack. Players can also run, crouch, and jump, opening the path to even more special maneuvers. The best way to win this game is to learn to use all of a character's skills to the maximum effectiveness, which truly makes this a hard game to master. However, the game is very button-masher friendly, which means that if you don't care about buttons and just want to start fighting, then go right ahead.

Overall, this game is one of the best true fighting games on the GameCube, and genre fans should make this a top priority when purchasing GameCube titles. Awesome graphics and sound, and many characters and modes, as well as friendly, if difficult gameplay make this game a great experience. Although it isn't as purely fun as Super Smash Brothers: Melee, this game is really an awesome experience. Highly recommended.