June 25^th, 2003 (12:00am) - It has been an unusually long wait for the North American release of Soul Calibur II. For months, lucky importers and Japanese gamers alike have been playing one of the most anticipated fighters of all time on each platform, with each console’s exclusive fighter… The Legend of Zelda’s Link for the GameCube, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn for the Xbox, and Heihachi of Tekken fame on the PlayStation 2. However, when the game is released here on August 26, it will include three new characters that are not available in the Japanese version(s) of the game. These three characters are Rock, Hwang, and Lizardman, three fighters from the original Soul Calibur a game which was released for the Sega Dreamcast four years ago.