"slow and clunky, but a fun game with proven cool characters"

This is the Second Samurai Shodown Game on the Hyper Neo Geo 64 (the second 3D game in the Samurai Shodown series). There are a lot of improvements over the first one, but SNK still has some work to do to reach the quality of the 2D games. This is a fun game that stays true to the series, but it would have been better if it had the processing power to back it up. The game has a much darker feel to it than the previous games, with one or two exceptions.

GRAPHICS
This game definitely LOOKS better than the first game. There seems to be a higher polygon count, and the characters move much smoother. The backgrounds Look very nice. Each one is very simple, but very well done. The backgrounds seem to match the personalities of the characters you fight, even though several characters share stages. The character animation is very nice for most characters. The death animations and the stun animations are extremely well done. Each character reels back and stumbles very realistically, depending on how they are killed or stunned. Most of the special moves, and explosions look great. The 2D artwork hasn't looked better than it does in this game in my opinion. It only shows up during the character select, and in some transitions between stages. Each version of the character (bust or slash) has a very different look. The slash version of Haomaru looks familiar, with his white clothes and cocky grin. Bust wears very dark, torn clothing, has a darker skin tone, and an evil frown. Each character has been well separated into two personalities that each have their own look.

SOUND
Well, the sound is set pretty low at my arcade, and the other games are really loud. It's hard to tell if the music is just really low, or if there isn't any music, and just background noise. It sounds like many stages just have background noise such as the wind blowing through the trees, or fireworks in the distant background. There are lots of voices, and they all sound good. Rimururu plays the her old stage music, on a flute type thing for one of her win poses which is a cute idea.

GAME PLAY
The game plays very slow compared to all the other Samurai Shodown games. This is probably due to the overhaul on the graphics, and the limitations of hardware. The characters move very slowly, and feel bogged down at first, but I got used to it after a few days of playing. Even the light slashes come out a bit slow, and you'll have to get used to the timing if you're more familiar with Tekken, or other Samurai games. Some characters play better than others. Hanzo has excellent control, and moves better than most of the other characters, but Nakoruru's moves come out about 60% of the time. In general it feels like some characters have to be in the mood to do what you tell them to do. The good part of the game is that it still has a great engine. There is a dial-a-combo system that works better than it did in SSIV. Doing one does a lot of damage, another juggles your opponent to set up different combos, and the third one charges your POW meter. Parries are back to the way they were in SSII. By blocking an attack at the last second, it will stun your opponent, leaving them open for an attack. There are also different parries for high and low hits during combos.

OTHERSTUFF
I say give this game a chance. It's probably not for everyone, and I'm sure there will be several Samurai Shodown fans out there that will pretend the game was never made ^_^. Other than it being slow, an unresponsive sometimes, I think it's a good game. The character designs are great, the graphics are pretty good for the Hyper Neo Geo 64, and it's fun once you get used to the game play.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 09/03/02