Namco considering motion control in Soul Calibur IV

by Chris Powell { Sep 18th 2007 at 11:00AM }

While the chances of us getting platform-specific characters, like Spawn, aren't very likely in Soul Calibur IV, Namco is hard at work at offering other bonuses. In an interview with 1up, Katsutoshi Sasaki, the game's director, said his team at Project Soul is looking into the possibility of including Sixaxis motion control. He said it's "something that we're considering, but we'll have to come up with some good ideas for it first."

But that's not all. In the same interview, lead programmer Masaaki Hoshino said they're also hoping to give gamers the ability to save their custom characters to the PS3's memory card and take it to a friend's house to do battle.

Although it seems like it would be difficult for the developers to include any sort of motion control that would make sense, toting your custom characters on a memory card would be pretty handy. All we care about, though, are Ivy's friends and finally some Soul Calibur online action!

Tags: bandai, ivy, motion-control, namco, namco-bandai, sixaxis, soul-calibur, soul-calibur-4

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Paul @ Sep 18th 2007 11:06AM

"save their custom characters to the PS3's memory card and take it to a friend's house to do battle."

ps3 dosent have memory cards.

T H @ Sep 18th 2007 11:19AM

LOL... seriously, wtf.. nice "journalism" catching that one, guys

Justin @ Sep 18th 2007 11:20AM

i guess they mean to your memory stick...but what about the 20gb ps3's without a card reader?

...not that many people have 20gb's anyways...

mystical_304 @ Sep 18th 2007 11:24AM

Funny that Namco will have 3 Fighting Games on PS3 with online, while Sega couldn't even give us one and are sketchy about patching it in.

Ontopic I am looking forward to this title. Can't wait to see what new looks Mitsurugi have, and Seigfried.

Alex @ Sep 18th 2007 11:30AM

they probably shouldn't even bother with motion control. it'll be a gimmicky feature.

the fighting enthusiast would probably start the game off with an arcade stick anyway.

Trev @ Sep 18th 2007 11:40AM

@3 I bet it will support USB drives if it supports memory stick/sd/cf. I don't imagine they're that much different to access and all PS3s have usb ports.

And I like the idea of "if it's actually going to make the game better" motion control. GRAW2 did it right when it used it for diving and the like and made it optional. Maybe they could use it for the parry here (that last second block that deflects the opponents weapon and gives you an opening instead of just blocking).

Majik @ Jan 10th 2008 7:17PM

Paul: "ps3 dosent have memory cards."
T H: "LOL... seriously, wtf.. nice "journalism" catching that one, guys"

Newsflash: CompactFlash, SD and Memory Stick PRO are all memory cards... Though I guess it would've been better had he just written "a memory card" instead of "PS3's memory card" to avoid confusion.

Justin: "but what about the 20gb ps3's without a card reader?"

The 20gb PS3's have USB ports, though, so a USB stick should do I think.

Justin @ Sep 18th 2007 11:43AM

almost forgot about usb @ 6

Ithilis @ Sep 18th 2007 11:48AM

Nooo.. motion control ruins everything!

chaod @ Sep 18th 2007 11:51AM

i've thought about it, and using motion controlls in multiplayer tekken would be awesome. not for any of the normal moves, but for block, counter, and (new, just an idea) quick evade moves, it would be a really cool idea. eg. twist the controller to counter... i could see myself getting much better at countering like that.

only fighter i play is tekken tho so this doesnt really matter to me that much

Titty Pink @ Sep 18th 2007 12:10PM

9 post and I'm the first to say, is that a nice set of digital titties or WHAT?

Tony Keck @ Sep 18th 2007 12:14PM

NO MOTION CONTROL, PLEASE!!! THAT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA! I hate how PS3 games alway try to use motion controls, and very rarely do they not suck! Just because you can doesn't mean you should!

GRT @ Sep 18th 2007 12:15PM

Motion controls? WHY would you do such a foolish thing!?

Nate @ Sep 18th 2007 12:32PM

I wouldn't completely bash the motion controls. Just because they ended up sucking in Lair, they work very well IMHO in fl0w and Heavenly Sword (in Heavenly Sword, if you are knocked into the air, if you shake the controller you can recover and attack the enemy).

If done well (and maybe optional), why not? Assuming all motion control sucks is a mistake.

Emophia @ Sep 18th 2007 12:38PM

I want Dante as a new character, he was supposed to be in III wasn't he?

never$$hort @ Sep 18th 2007 1:30PM

Tekken & Soul Calibur = 2 best fighting games... Can't wait.

Popfrogs @ Sep 18th 2007 4:11PM

The best motion control so far has been marble-table games like Super Rub-a-dub and Flow. I see no use for it in Tekken unless you want to shake the controller for extra boob-jiggle. Which might be hot. If you're 12.

railven @ Sep 18th 2007 10:03PM

@Popfrogs

That warrants a remake of Marble Madness! I'd pay for that!

But gyro on the SixAxis in fighting games eh? They could use it to implement new type of graple moves and characters jerk to break out of em.

I dunno. I for one don't see it being to successful unless they are part of mini-games.

KosmoCrisis @ Sep 18th 2007 10:13PM

WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT?

Motion Controls would definitely work with the parry. As soon as you can parry, you pull up quickly with a similar motion. Much more practical than pressing back + block or forward + block!

This would OF COURSE BE OPTIONAL as it should on all games. Making hard core players choose which they prefer is what console gaming is about. Choice.

Consolcwby @ Sep 18th 2007 10:43PM

@Popfrogs: Boob-jiggle, if done right, could be Ivy's best weapon! Think about 20lbs of flesh whapping against you're face every second, left then right, left then right... You'd be tit-pounded senseless!

LeBigMac @ Sep 19th 2007 5:22PM

I'm with everyone that say the motion sensor controls are gimmicky. If they do put it in, it better be optional or else I'll get the 360 version of the game. (But hopefully Namco are smart, and will indeed make it optional)

Popfrogs @ Sep 19th 2007 2:32PM

@20: Hahaha..the only defense would be the motorboat.

stephen70 @ Nov 11th 2007 12:06AM

motion control could be really good. Of course make it optional for those people who can only use thumbsticks.
Some ideas are side stepping by moving controller sideways ,backup and forward lunge catches or attacks by moving controller forward or backwards. jump and duck while moving controller up or down. tilt backward or forward to do flip or tumble moves. Tilt sideways to dive left or right. angle controller left or right for spin or rotation moves.
All of the above 6 motion actions would be triggered-timed with single or 2 button combos to select the move variations.
Could be alot of fun to play if the designers can put in some effort to make it fast and responsive.