TIME Top 10 Video Games 2003: Soul Calibur II

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Martial-arts games (like the Street Fighter or Tekken series) used to be the digital equivalent of a cheeseburger—good for a little messy, mindless pleasure but always leaving behind a coat of grease and guilt.

Beating your opponent to a bloody pulp by hitting all the buttons on your controller faster than he or she did was hardly something you would call tasteful. Then came Soul Calibur (released in 1999 for the now defunct Dreamcast), the caviar and champagne of fighting games. Its sword-wielding characters preferred fencing to fisticuffs. Combat was balletic and mercifully blood-free. You won by mastering martial-arts moves, not by mashing buttons.

Now, after four long years, owners of the other consoles get to share the Calibur experience. And it was worth the wait. Though Soul Calibur II (all consoles, $49.99) doesn't tinker with the first game's look and feel, it adds a cast of characters that varies depending on your machine. Got a GameCube? You'll love playing as Link, the hero of Legend of Zelda. Xbox owners, who skew older, get Todd McFarlane's Spawn. Nobody gets cheeseburger.


	NEXT: Republic: The Revolution

BY CHRIS TAYLOR

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