Tekken and SC do well at being very different games. They each added their own particular innovations to the genre and stand above most other 3-d fighters as the cream of the crop.

I didn't like Tekken at first. Coming fresh off of Dead or Alive 3--my first serious attempt at a 3d fighter--I was expecting to just press one button to do at least a 3 hit combo (button mash ftl). This was not the case, as I quickly figured out yet couldn't quite grasp at the time. So, I put it down and didn't play it until years later, when Tekken 5 came out.

Soul Calibur 2 appealed to me because it seemed fun and the Guard Impact system was similar to DOA's reversals, which I was quite familiar with. And it was great. It's a lot more immediately accessible than Tekken is (i.e., more button masher friendly), while still having a lot of depth.

To me, Soul Calibur is much more enjoyable to play and watch. The battles are dynamic and exciting, and if you ever get to see 2 high level players pull off parry after parry, it's a heart-pounding experience. If you watch 2 high-level Tekken players, it often focuses on who can land a launcher first then juggle them until they die. An excellent display of skill, but not as exciting to watch sometimes.

Soul Calibur was designed to be flashy and cinematic and not entirely realistic. Tekken was designed to be more real-to-life with ther 'each button represents a limb' and somewhat accurate fighting styles. They both do what they do very well, despite some balance issues in both series. In terms of game quality, I would rank them both on an equal level. Personally I prefer a good Soul Calibur match, since it's much more exciting to watch.


(SPOILER)Virtua Fighter owns them all, however.