7. Soul Calibur
Back in the days of the PSOne, Namco released a game called Soul Blade, it was a decent litlle beat'em-up but didn't really come close to Tekken, which was the absolute dominant fighting game franchise at the time. So when Soul Calibur first rocked up, I wasn't that bothered. But I was wrong to dismiss it, Soul Calibur quickly establised itself as a fighting game to be reckoned with and not just because it was exquisitely pretty, Namco produced a truly awesome game with some utterly bonkers characters. After the ugly, blocky graphics of the otherwise excellent Tekken and Virtua Fighter games on the PlayStation and Saturn respectively, Soul Calibur was the first time that a 3D beat'em-up really wowed in the graphics department. 2D fighters were always gorgeous but 3D never quite nailed until the Dreamcast offered Namco some extra power and the result was superb. The game was recently re-released on XLBA/SEN so those who were silly enough not to get a Dreamcast still have a chance to see what all the fuss was about. Still makes me sad that nobody bought the Dreamcast.