I never saw why people liked Soul Calibur so much. I mean sure it's a great game, but I wouldn't give it the best fighting game award. Nay, that goes to the Street Fighter Movie game.

All jokes aside, Virtua Fighter 4 would have to be the best in my opinion. The system works so that it's impossible to button mash and then win against real opponents. The problem with games like Soul Calibur and Tekken is that they're centered on power moves and if you button mash, you can pull off maybe 5 hit combos. Virtua Fighter 4 is pure fighting and really requires skill over memorization of combos and power attacks.