Samurai Shodown

"An Uncanny combination of Game Play and Story, create one of the best 2-D Fighting games out there"

With the shock waves of Street Fighter 2 hitting the gaming world, it was inevitable that clones of Capcom's magic formula hit arcades every where. Perhaps one of the best and more prolific at it was SNK with their Neo-Geo hard ware. Games like Fatal Fury, Art of fighting, and ADK's World Hero's where perhaps the most fun of the SF2 clones. Still, they were in the games shadow of Capcom's juggernaught, neither surpassing it in gameplay and story.

That is until Samurai Shodown hit, SNK's crown jewel of 2D figthing in my opinion. Calling the game a clone of SF2 does it injustice, as it takes the formula and brought to new relms with the addition of weapons and rauge gauges. Now there was a fighting game with a completely new feel to it gameplay wise, forcing players to try something new to master and beat the computer. The range of a characters weapons could drasticily affect your strategy, as some characters had a long reaching weapon while others had short range one. Add in a rage guage, which gave you more attack power as you took more punishment and you have a whole new fighting experience.

And there was also the story, perhaps one of the best stories ever made for a fighting game. The main villan was Amukasa, a real life character from Japanese history. And other characters where based on real life or classic fictional characters from Japan (read the FAQ in GameFaqs to understand this clearer...I can't remember who wrote it right now, but it is top notch). The presentation was also new, resembling a classic Samurai drama with well trasnlated and presented taunts and dialouge.

All in all, this is perhaps the best fighting game ever made. Well worth playing for any fan of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99