Screengrab: YouTube
I love a good fighting game, but it’s been years since I’ve invested time into one. Dead or Alive has left me cold, I feel like I’ve Smashed all the Bros I’m ever going to smash, and street fights are highly illegal.But Bandai Namco, the developer behind the Soulcalibur series, has just convinced me to pick up another fighting game. The company just announced that Geralt of Rivia, the Butcher of Blaviken, and star of The Witcher 3 will appear as a playable character in the upcoming Soulcalibur VI. It turns out, my soul still burns. Even though I’ve never been a fan of the series, I’m going to have to buy Soulcalibur VI now.This isn’t the first time the long-running sword-based fighting game series has pulled in characters from other franchises. Soulcalibur 4 had Yoda, Darth Vader, and Starkiller from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. In 2002, Soulcalibur 2 used Link from The Legend of Zelda, Heichai from Tekken, and Spawn from the eponymous comic book franchise. The last time I played a Soulcalibur was when I could play as Spawn in Soulcalibur 2. Now that I think about it, I only bought that game because of the character gimmick. Hey, wait a minute.Gimmick aside, as an expert swordsman, Geralt is a perfect fit for the franchise. As for how Geralt ended up in the Soulcalibur universe, apparently, portals are opening up and dumping random characters from other franchises in the Soulcalibur universe. In the game’s trailer, we hear Geralt complaining about portals before we even see him. It’s one of his classic lines, delivered by Geralt’s longtime voice actor Doug Cockle, while he sits in his home at Kaer Morhen, while The Witcher 3’s theme music plays.For the first time in a long time, I can’t wait to play a fighting game.