Oh man, I remember this game fondly. I bought the game and the fighting stick that was released for it. Such fun times.

I think the reason many flocked to this was the aesthetics and the ease in play. This was released at the height of the Neo Geo arcade fighters that required stupidly complicated inputs to make moves.

Other games around this time included Primal Rage, another fighting game that featured ridiculous input to do special moves.

Plus, Namco were riding high on the success of their Tekken games. Fans were enjoying what Namco was putting out, and for good reason.

When I picked up a Dreamcast (about 2 months before it was announced as discontinued) I also picked up a copy of Soul Calibur and never regretted that purchase.

Such fun times and great memories of a simpler time.