Not by “soft” landing. The last was with NASA’s version of bubble wrap. This one was by parachute and thrusters. Absolutely amazing!!!!
I think you're thinking of the Mars rovers of the last decade. As far as I know, the Viking lander was a soft landing (this is from the Wikipedia page):
Propulsion was provided for deorbit by a monopropellant hydrazine (N2H4) rocket with 12 nozzles arranged in four clusters of three that provided 32 N thrust, giving a delta-V of 180 m/s. These nozzles also acted as the control thrusters for translation and rotation of the lander. Terminal descent and landing was achieved by three (one affixed on each long side of the base, separated by 120 degrees) monopropellant hydrazine engines. The engines had 18 nozzles to disperse the exhaust and minimize effects on the ground and were throttleable from 276 N to 2667 N. The hydrazine was purified to prevent contamination of the Martian surface. The lander carried 85 kg of propellant at launch, contained in two spherical titanium tanks mounted on opposite sides of the lander beneath the RTG windscreens, giving a total launch mass of 657 kg. Control was achieved through the use of an inertial reference unit, four gyros, an aerodecelerator, a radar altimeter, a terminal descent and landing radar, and the control thrusters.You wouldn't need all that descent control gear if you planned to merely bounce. I'm still looking for a definitive reference on the NASA site. But my recollection from 1976 was that it was a controlled thruster landing.
I think it's funny as hell that nobody wants to remember that we're simply picking up a program we dropped and ignored for 30 years...
Amazing indeed!