Soulcalibur 2 HD Online • Eurogamer.net

The missing Link.

When SoulCalibur 2 made its console debut back in 2003, I already had the hardware trinity of the day in my possession: Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. When a multi-format game came along, I tended to buy it on PS2, so I had a higher chance of swapping it with a friend. But when SoulCalibur 2 appeared, the decision to buy it on the GameCube was a complete no-brainer.

This was due to a certain Hylian hero. Rather than limiting players to the established Calibur cast, Namco distinguished each version of the game with a unique character: the PlayStation 2 version gained Heihachi Mishima from Tekken, the Xbox version received Spawn from the Todd McFarlane comics and the GameCube version got the hero of time himself, Link. And we're not talking the cartoon Link that had appeared in The Wind Waker a few months before, we're talking an adult Link with the Master Sword and Hylian shield, looking like he'd jumped straight out of the Space World 2000 demo.

Unfortunately, if unsurprisingly, SoulCalibur 2 HD Online doesn't bring all three characters together. It's something that Calibur fans have been wishing for ever since the exclusive characters first came to light - but even though Link's bow and bombs are off the menu, we still get to see the balding head of the Mishima Zaibatsu go toe-to-toe with a comic-book creation that once beat God and the Devil singlehandedly. That sounds like a mismatched fight, but this isn't the first time that Heihachi has found himself trading blows with a living demon.

Spawn confirmed for Soulcalibur 2 HD Online

What about Link?

Spawn will be playable in Soulcalibur 2 HD Online, Namco Bandai has announced.

Broody anti-superhero Spawn was the guest character in the Xbox version of the fighting game. He joins grumpy granddad Heihachi, who was the guest character in the PlayStation 2 version, on the playable roster of characters for SC2HDO, which just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?. For the first time both characters will be playable on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

But what of Link, the guest character in the GameCube version of the original? There's no work on whether Nintendo's famous elf boy will turn up. Perhaps he's busy with Smash Bros.