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Soul Calibur and Star Wars fans gather 'round -- while haters grab a six pack of Haterade and their always-ready flamethrowers -- because Namco Bandai has finally released new info on the rumored secret characters set to appear in their highly-anticipated fighter, Soul Calibur IV, and 1UP has 'em first. In case you don't believe your eyes as they scan over these screenshots, you are indeed seeing the legendary purveyor of the Dark Side, Darth Vader, and his Force-wielding nemesis, Yoda.

Yes, we know what you're thinking. You're thinking "What the ###### are Darth Vader and Yoda doing in my Soul Calibur sequel?" But how are these two any less logical (or illogical) than Link or Spawn (we'll let Heihachi slide since he's in Tekken)? You're probably also wondering "Where the ###### is Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul and Boba Fett?" Well, Boba Fett doesn't really use melee weapons, unless you count that stick on his back that he never uses. But Luke and Darth maul make a lot of sense. While we can't answer all of these questions just now, we suspect that Namco Bandai still has plenty of stuff up their sleeve. Given their recent Ace Combat 6 shenanigans, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that additional Star Wars characters are paid-for downloadable content. It's unlikely that the company would go through all these negotiations with LucasArts to obtain the rights to only two characters, so expect more announcements as we get closer to SCIV's release date.

You might be praying to an assortment of gods above that Han Solo isn't given the carbonite boot in favor of Greedo or some loser from the Cantina scene, or that Anakin Skywalker and Jar-Jar Binks aren't added to the increasingly weird mix. Only time will tell if these characters do or don't make it into the game, but Darth Vader and Yoda have the obvious advantage of being fictional constructs, whereas some of the other possibilities would undoubtedly involve added likeness and licensing costs.

You're also probably wondering about how balanced a fight against Yoda, and his diminutive stature might be. Well, we never said Soul Calibur was perfectly balanced, and he's not that dissimilar to Gon, the tiny, manga dinosaur from Tekken 3 (PS1). All we can say is 'low sweep.' So, peruse these shots and start conjuring up your dream SC vs. SW match in the back of your minds (Taki versus Princess Leia? Light sabers versus Soul Edge? Yes, please!) Who would win? You'll soon be able to find out.