REVIEW: SoulCalibur Impact 2012 Event in London Saturday March 17

On a miserable wet Saturday evening we trudged our way along to the Soul Calibur Impact UK tournament, held in what is quite easily the coolest venue we have ever been in! There is nothing wrong with using a gorgeous, gothic styled church to hold a gaming event in…

So we arrived and we experienced a culture shock – yes, our games editor experienced a culture shock. The same guy who happily dresses as a knight at the weekend. Arrayed around the gorgeous interior of the church were a selection of HD TV’s with each one having a different console and different edition of Soul Calibur available to play, including some traditional arcade machines with previews to the new Tekken game. Each console had plugged into it two pro gaming arcade style controllers, joysticks galore – no little gaming pads on site here !

The games were incredibly good fun to play and we experienced some serious nostalgia getting our asses kicked while we tried to play as Maxi while arguing he has the best hair out of all the Soul Calibur characters. Plus nun chuks are just cool.

The actual championship was well done with the entrants playing on consoles on the main stage with their fight being shown around the church on large screens. We were not prepared for people getting VERY into watching two people fight on a console, that’s for sure, but like everyone else in attendance, we really got sucked into it.

Needless to say after a few beers we found ourselves shaking our heads and cheering along as the UK beat France for the place in the SoulCalibur V World Finals. Kudos, NAMCO Bandai.