Soulcalibur Legends Hands-On: Ivy Crawls the Corridors

We knew that Namco Bandai's upcoming action adventure game Soulcalibur Legends would feature Ivy, a lovely lady known to Soulcalibur fans the world over. But until now, we never got to see her in action. Thankfully, we recently played through several levels of the game, which features plenty of smooth moves from our famed heroine.

Soulcalibur Legends begins with a stunning cutscene that introduces players to the legend of the sword Soul Calibur, as well as its evil counterpart, Soul Edge. Soon after this brief intro, the game's protagonist, Siegfried, encounters Soul Edge on a ghost ship. The sword speaks to him and promises ultimate power. Thus follows a short gameplay sequence that introduces you to the basic mechanics of combat. Using the Nunchuk analog stick to move, we fought some skeletons on our way through a series of corridors. Standard attacks are performed by swinging the Wii Remote, either horizontally for a slash attack, or vertically for an upward or downward swing. You can also lock on to targets by pressing the A button, and you can jump with the B button. Once we dispatched all the skeletons, we encountered the level's boss, a ghoulish pirate who warned Siegfried of Soul Edge's terrible power. The pirate went down easily, thanks to a newly introduced mechanic: knockdown attacks, achieved by thrusting the remote forward.

Not that Siegfried heeds this cautionary tale. Soon the world is plunged into chaos, Soul Edge is shattered, and the world is dominated by spirits known as Evils. We then catch up with Siegfried five years later. Implored by the Holy Roman Masked Emperor, it's up to him to find the remnants of Soul Edge, defeat the Ottoman Emperor Barbaros, and save the Empire. The Masked Emperor also hires court jester Iska to guide you on your journey. The first step on the journey is the Pyrenees, the mountain range that separates Spain from France, where a test--and a traveling companion--await.

In this linear mountain level, we encountered rock golems and bloodthirsty wolves. We quickly learned to block using the Nunchuk's Z button, which came in handy against the golems' knockdown attacks. We also discovered the spirit gauge, which builds up as you defeat foes using standard attacks, or when you find spirit orbs by smashing objects. By holding the Nunchuk's C button, you can use your spirit gauge to power up your standard attacks. Right after we filled the gauge, we encountered what seemed to be another boss: A giant green dragon that landed in front of us and pelted Siegfried with a number of different attacks, including swipes from its claws and an arcing blast of flames. We managed to whittle its hit points to about halfway down, but in the middle of battle, a curvy temptress clad in crimson fell from the heavens to save us from sure defeat. Of course, it was the infamous Ivy. The dragon guardian flew off, and we were rewarded with a level-ending screen that awarded us with an A grade and the title of Quartz Fighter.

With the level complete, there were two stages to choose from. For our next foray, we headed to Cypress to look for the key to the guardian's headquarters. However, we weren't stuck with only Siegfried. You can switch between party members in midbattle by holding two buttons down simultaneously. (There are multiple combinations.) This level was a simple seaside arena that threw at us all the adversaries we'd seen before: demon knights, as well as towering bear-like warriors clad in armor. We battled as Ivy, who took down the monsters with her whip-blade Kaleidoscope without a sweat. The reward? Another A grade, and a Garnet Fighter designation.

Next up was Ivy's hometown, London, where we needed to find scientist Leonardo, whose inventions would help defeat the scaly guardian once and for all. This level, another confined corridor run, introduced several trap elements, such as floor spikes and the ever-annoying wall darts. It also brought the side step mechanic to light. By swinging the Nunchuk to the side, you can sidestep in that direction. This wasn't all that helpful in avoiding the traps, but it did add an extra dimension to the fighting. Sadly, once we'd gotten past the first traps and had taken down a few more skeletons, we encountered our first of several cheap surprises: a boulder that mows you down before the camera swings around fast enough to let you know it's coming. More unwelcome surprises were to come, including darts that we couldn't see coming because the camera didn't turn in time, and later, a roomful of columns that collapsed on top of us without warning.

The next couple of levels introduced us to several new enemies, such as agile lizards and buxom archers. We also encountered light puzzle-solving elements that mostly involved swinging our sword over flames to open doors, or bludgeoning statues to turn them in the right direction. Nevertheless, we finally made our way to the rooftop where the guardian dragon was in hiding. Its attacks were a lot stronger than before, and in addition, we needed to use the crossbows (Leonardo's inventions, of course!) attached to the wall ledges to damage the guardian when it took to the skies. After the easy fighting thus far, the boss fight came as a surprise. The leaping lizard was a tough cookie, and it managed to take out Ivy before we delivered the beatdown as Siegfried.

The game also includes a split-screen co-op mode in which you and a friend can test your mettle, as well as two competitive modes. In competition mode, two players compete to get the best scores or times. In versus mode, you fight one another to the death. We look forward to spending more time with all the modes in Soulcalibur Legends, and will bring you a full review closer to the game's release.