« IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: What would it take to get you to play Soul Calibur again? »

This topic is inspired by an article put together by Aris over at AvoidingthePuddle.com, where he mentions that he is not at all excited about a new Soul Calibur coming out due to the past few games being well, pretty much crap all around from a competitive standpoint. 

This got me thinking. While I am always looking forward to any new fighting game, I really hadn't played the Soul Calibur series much at all since Soul Calibur on Dreamcast and a few casual sessions of Soul Calibur 2 on Gamecube. Why is that? Virtua Fighter 5, Tekken 5 and 6 -- hell, even NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. I played all of those games at a decent level but during that span of time never gave the newer Soul Calibur games a chance. There was never really much of a competitive scene wherever I played, and throwing in guest characters like Darth Vader and Yoda made the game look like a joke. 

Now of course there are players who still play these games competitively, but I know I am not alone in not giving the Soul Calibur series a second thought after playing it on the Dreamcast. 

So, what would it take for you to get back into the series? Should Namco start from the ground up? Simplify the gameplay and bring down the roster to some of the more known characters such as Mitsurugi, Voldo and Ivy? 

Would you like to see Namco take the series in a new direction? Perhaps create a 2v2 system similar to Tekken Tag? Or do you feel the past few games were good, but just needed a little fine tuning to get it right? Should Namco simply build on what they already have, pay close attention to game balance and send out patches via DLC as needed?

Whatever it may be, hit us up in the comments and let us know what you'd like to see in the next game!