It's the 20th anniversary of the Soul Calibur series
And so we of course have a new Pachislot game.
It's the 20th anniversary of once wonderful fighting game series Soul Calibur. And so to mark the occasion publisher Bandai Namco has released a new Soul Calibur Pachislot game in Japan.
The nine minute video, below, is a tough watch for fans of the weapons-based fighting franchise, which hasn't seen the release of a proper numbered new entry since Soul Calibur 5 in 2012.
The Soul series began life in Japanese arcades with the release of Soul Edge in December 1995, but found global fame when it was renamed Soul Blade and released on the original PlayStation in December 1996.
Soul Blade was followed up by the first Soul Calibur game, which I put hundreds of hours into on the Dreamcast in 2000. There was something about the feel of the parry system that I couldn't get enough of. Guard Impact, basically, was the most satisfying thing in fighting games around that time.
I - along with many other fans - have been clamouring for a proper new Soul Calibur for a while now, especially as recent entries in the free-to-play and mobile markets haven't done much of anything to excite. So this new Pachislot game doesn't help. It's not the kind of announcement fans had hoped for from Bandai Namco to coincide with the 20th anniversary, that's for sure.
Clutching at straws, we have the video, below, that the mega publisher recently released on its Japanese YouTube channel to mark 20 years of Soul Calibur.
The video ends with the message: "The legend will never die." Fingers crossed, eh?