Arcade Stick For Soul Calibur II Announced

Thanks to IGN Cube for their article on the Universal Soul Calibur II Arcade Stick, which is being released by Nuby and Namco on August 31st, just after the launch of the ravenously-awaited Namco fighting game sequel for PS2/Xbox/GameCube. IGN explains: "The interesting detail about the arcade stick is that it works with all three consoles - no extra assembly required. All gamers need do is plug the appropriate end into the console of their choice and they'll be up and running." So you can use the same joystick to play Link, Heihachi, and Spawn, if you're insane enough to buy Soul Calibur II for all three platforms, as well as repurposing the stick for any other famous fighting games that take your fancy.

Namco

[gazbo]

It's good to see Namco are managing to continue to do so well, as they are one of the few truly innovative games companies out there. For example, they created an extremely exciting rivalry-based game called "Pinpoint Shot" which got virtually no exposure in the mainstream games press, but is available in a number of arcades if you search for it.

One of the things that was innovative in the game was known as a "focus-point" where the game could use sophisticated AI to tell if a player was off-form, and stop them. This pause was used to give the player who was below the chance to fully concentrste on the target, resulting in an altogether fairer game.

It's a shame the game was mostly ignored, as its innovations could have benefitted many arcade games.

Don't need them anymore!

[Mantrid]

A few years ago (okay so a lot of years ago now) when Battle Arena Toshinden, Tekken, or Soul Blade were out I would've loved to have one of these..but after years of console fighting games, I think I actually do better with a gamepad now! Sad, but true!