Developer: Monolith Corp. Publisher: Takara Release: 1994 Genre: Fighting
Of all of all SNK’s innumerable fighting game series Samurai Shodown might be my favorite. As one of the first weapons based fighting games the visceral combat was unlike anything else I had seen before and the insane production values did not hurt either. The Neo Geo was a cut above the SNES and Genesis and this little game made that gap all the more obvious. As such the 16-bit ports would each take a different approach to converting the game. The SNES edition keeps all the content but in many ways suffers for it.
Samurai Shodown takes place in a fictional version of the 18th century. Shiro Tokisada Amakusa, leader of the Shimabara Rebellion was slain by the Tokugawa Shogunate. But he sells his soul to the demon Ambrosia for power and returns to the world a century after his death for revenge. Twelve warriors from all walks of life are inevitably drawn in to the chaos for reasons of their own and fight to save Japan.
To some degree most of the Neo Geo ports on the 16-bit platforms had to make compromises but were still able to capture the essence of the original. Samurai Shodown represents the point where major concessions had to be made to fit them on those consoles. The SNES version lacks the scaling of the arcade and uses the fully zoomed out view to preserve its detail. As such the sprites are small by fighting game standards. That is not the problem. Many animations and moves are missing resulting in a choppy and unbalanced game. To its credit the backgrounds look fantastic as they make excellent use of the system’s color palette.
The music and voice samples suffer the worst. The soundtrack on the Neo Geo was excellent but the questionable samples they use to replicate it do not hit the mark. The music is tinny and lacks punch. The songs are still recognizable but only just barely. All of the sound effects and voice clips are present in this version which is admirable. But doing so requires using a low sample rate and they sound awful. I also noticed a delay with sound bites at times. The system is capable of better.
The weapons combat is part of the draw of Samurai Shodown but its cast also does a lot of heavy lifting. Because of the period the game takes place and its mystical setting it allows the game to have a varied bunch, more so than traditional martial arts fighting games. You have the requisite clone characters in Hanzo and Galford but despite surface similarities they are distinct. Haohmaru is the closest to a Ryu type while Kyoshiro is a bad ass Kabuki warrior. Earthquake despite his size is a ninja and surprisingly quick with insane reach. Charlotte is my personal favorite; a bad ass French warrior? Yes please. Galford and Nakoruru break new ground in the genre with animal companions that fight beside them with their own moves plus combo attacks. Many of the characters are based on historical figures which adds to their charm aside from the game’s setting.
Samurai Shodown has a different flow than other fighting games. This is not a combo heavy game and in fact you might only string together two or three hits at best. The game focuses on strategic hits that punish mistakes as your attacks inflict massive damage. Indeed, a heavy slash can remove 25-30% of your life bar. The Power meter and its attack boost makes the damage even more severe. Matches often end quickly in brutal fashion, at least in the arcade. Unfortunately Samurai Shodown released right when Nintendo relaxed their censorship policies so the blood and finishers are gone. As such the pace is slower but no less visceral. It is different from the norm with this genre but that is what gives it such a unique flavor. And it feels appropriate considering everyone is wielding massive swords and spears and what not.
Compared to many other fighting games the AI in Samurai Shodown is vicious. Every character plays so wildly differently that your approach to each CPU opponent needs to be unique. They will exploit your mistakes with ruthless efficiency meaning you have to pick and choose your attacks carefully. Spamming fireballs is ineffective as their damage is low in this game. Button mashing will not work as the computer learns your pattern too. In addition the missing moves will throw off the timing of those familiar with the arcade game. Together with the severe damage from heavy attacks and you have a game that is challenging even on the default setting.
In Closing
Samurai Shodown was a phenomenon in the arcade. On the SNES not so much. The port is competent at best and perfectly playable. But for those familiar with the source material you will see the nips and tucks made to fit the game on the system. While not outright bad there are better fighting games I would pick before going for this one. It is a shame too as I remember anticipating this one back in the day and while I enjoyed it I was still disappointed. That holds true today.
