SoulCalibur on the iCade with Blutrol (updated with video)

This isn’t a review of SoulCalibur on the iPad. There are enough of them all over the internet (Touch Arcade Review). This is more a guide on how to play it using the iCade and the jailbreak app Blutrol(available from Cydia).

From the first moment SoulCalibur was announced as coming to iOS I was thinking it was the perfect game for the iCade and hoped it would come with support for it. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and as of right now it doesn’t have iCade support. It’s rumoured to be getting it in the future but until then if you have a Jailbroken iPad 2 then you’re in luck as you can play any game that uses on-screen controls on your iCade.

_{Blutrol on Cydia (click images for full size versions)}

The first thing you’ll need is a  Jailbroken iPad (and SoulCalibur of course, link at the bottom of this article).

Once that’s done you’ll need to open up Cydia and search for the “Blutrol” app. It’s not free but is the best $6.99 (or €5.40 if you live in Ireland like me) you’ll spend this month.

Install that and re-spring your iPad.

So now that you’ve got Blutrol installed you need to setup the game. Load up SoulCalibur and go into your controller options. Once you’re there take a screenshot so we can use it to map the iCade controls using Blutrol.

You might notice I’ve got an extra button that you don’t have. This is the optional combo button and the main reason its not on by default is that it takes up more screen real estate, but that wont be a problem in a minute. To add it click on the combo option in the top left hand side of the controller settings screen and select the combo you’d like to use. I just went with “AB” but you can choose whatever you like and change it as often as you like. Make sure to take a fresh screenshot so we can also map the combo button in Blutrol.

Now that we have a screenshot of our control scheme we can completely remove it from the game screen as we wont need it if playing on the iCade. On the top right hand side of the screen is the opacity slider, turn that all the way down so the controls are no longer visible.

That’s all we need to do in the game itself. Now its time to move on to Blutrol and get the controls mapped.

Open up Blutrol and you’ll see a blank screen, click the “+” sign and then select “Game” and scroll down to SoulCalibur and select it.

Now since the game is played in landscape mode we’re going to select “Landscape” underneath the screenshots option and load up our controls image. Then select “Landscape” underneath the controls option and drag and drop the joystick and buttons onto the on-screen controls and click done.

That’s it, exit Blutrol and make sure bluetooth is turned on and the iPad is connected to the iCade and then load up SoulCalibur and enjoy.

You can add iCade support to any game that’s got on-screen controls following the above guide.

Update:

A quick video showing how the game plays on the iCade. It was hard to pull off any fancy moves as I had to sit at a weird angle to get the video(thats my excuse and I’m sticking to it).

And please don’t adjust your screens, they are my arms and I’m not wearing a woolly jumper ;0)

App Store Link: SOULCALIBUR, €9.99/$11.99/£7.99 (Universal App)