Walked out of the local Gamestop at noon yesterday with a new copy of Soul Calibur II (and a limited edition art book) in hand. Yesterday evening, I popped the game into the Xbox for the first time and took a look. Right away, I was astounded by the visual quality. The game can run in 720 progressive high-definition mode, and let’s just say that this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything higher than 480p on my HDTV. I was blown away. But…there was a problem.

Apparently, rumor has it that the Xbox hardware just doesn’t have enough horsepower to push a full 720p signal at 16:9 aspect ratio—it’s too many pixels to render with any kind of decent speed. At least, that’s the excuse I’m hearing for why Soul Calibur II will only run in 4:3 mode when in 720p. This is ridiculous to me. Only high-definition TVs—and even then, only the expensive models—can support 720p. Every HDTV also has a 16:9 aspect ratio screen, because the new high definition standard calls for it. Why the fuck would Namco make a game that supports 720p and force it to run in 4:3????

For those who don’t understand the source of my frustration, this is basically what the game looks like on my TV at 720p:

Mmm! Juicy black bars to hasten the burn-in of my CRTs! Oh, joy!

Before you suggest it, no, there’s no way to use a stretch mode to adjust the width of the signal using my television set’s processor—the TV locks the aspect ratio when it receives a 720p signal. Fortunately, if I go into the Xbox control panel and disable 720p support, the game automatically degrades to 480p, which, while not anywhere near as nice as the former, is still a helluva lot better than 480i (standard NTSC interlaced resolution). And in 480p, Soul Calibur II transmits a native 16:9 signal, which fills my screen. Obviously, that’s the solution I’ve decided to take.

Now that I’m done bitching about the screen resolution, how do I like the game so far? It’s fantastic. There’s a dynamic selection of characters, a vast assortment of over 200+ melee weapons you can collect and use against your opponents during matches, an array of some great sound effects and BGM, and an absolute ton of stuff to unlock. Longtime fans who have been around since the Soul Blade days have the most incentive to go unlocking things, because some of the rewards for completing tougher levels include all the original characters from the first game—like Sophitia, Yoshimitsu, and even Seung Mina, my all-time favorite. Plus, the game has the nifty feature of letting you choose between Japanese and English voices. Obviously, I selected Japanese.

Last night I played through the game on a relatively easy difficulty setting and beat the arcade mode with Talim, a character unfamiliar to me. I was rewarded with one of the coolest “end of game” prizes I’ve ever seen. Rather than just a dippy ending cinematic, I unlocked Talim’s entire “character profile” mode. In this mode, you can read the bio and history of the character and their stage, examine the weapons you’ve collected, do a cinematic “3D panoramic view” of the character, and even test all 100 of their voice samples—complete with facial and mouth animation. The first time you beat the arcade mode, you also unlock “Arcade Extra” mode, in which you can choose a custom weapon to fight with before entering the game. Of course, I haven’t collected any yet, since that’s an entirely different mode of the game.

I haven’t had much time to spend with the game yet, but I intend to log some more quality hours this weekend. Hey, it’s Labor Day!