"Not the best Samurai Shodown game around, but it is still very good."

Samurai Shodown IV – Amakusa’s Revenge is the fourth and last game of the Samurai Shodown ( SS ) series. In fact, there were two games that still came out after it _ SS RPG and SS 64 _ , but as they did not share the same style of the original games, they cannot be considered proper sequels. In SS IV, expect to find the very same gameplay features of the first three games of the series, with subtle changes in some points. So, the last installment in the SS saga is still a 2D weapon based fighting game that is worth looking into.

Graphics: 10/10
Needless to say, the SS games were propelled to success due, at least in part, to the awesome character art design. And this time around, SNK made an excellent job. The graphics are the best that the series has seen. Not much has changed since SS III, but everything has been refined a little bit. The fighters are even larger and more detailed than before. Of course, they are still hand-drawn in a flawless anime style and with a smooth animation. The psychedelic look of the background when both characters are near death is very good, too.

Sound: 7/10
Everything here was directly taken/inspired from the previous games. The voice acting seems that it was altered a bit, but this is not a bad thing. The music is good, but there is not much variety. The best sound is still that of the clashing weapons ( but it plays a lot, and sometimes it is everything you will hear ).

Story: 7/10
Guess what? Amakusa Shirou and the demon Zankuro are back and trying to take over everything again. And, once more, it’s up to you to stop them. There is now a small dialogue between the characters just before every fight. The idea is good, but it was executed poorly. It is just not likely that a samurai would say “You are boring, die” or “I win big time”. They could have worked more here.

Controls: 9/10
The controls are tight and responsive in SS IV. However, some of the more complex moves are still way too hard to pull off. Thankfully, now all the super moves when the power gauge is full are activated with the same, simple command.

Gameplay: 7/10
SS IV battles are one-on-one, similar to Street Fighter, but with weapons. SNK made some changes in the gameplay this time.
First, the good points: there are more fighters at your disposal: 17. All characters from SS III, a few old ones and two newcomers. Every character still has a “slash” and a “bust” personality, and this means that they have two different fighting styles. In SS IV, you can hit the enemy even if he is laying on the ground. Also, the warriors have twice the energy they used to have, so the battles will last longer.
Now, the bad points: What happened to the air defense?! Unlike SS III, there is no air defense at all here, and this is a pointless drawback. This makes the characters extremely vulnerable when jumping, specially to projectiles. Another bad thing that was added: the fatalities. It may sound a nice idea, but it is not. Basically, all the fighters just make a stronger move with the sword that slices the enemy in the half, with blood splitting everywhere. Samurai Shodown never had fatalities. It was never about it. They just seem out of place here.

Replay: 8/10
Once again, mastering all the fighters is close to impossible and improves the replay value. There is a lot of challenge here as well, since this game is a lot harder than the previous and, also, because there is a time limit to finish the game ( 8, 9 or 10 minutes, depending on the character ).

Overall ( not an average ): 8/10
In case you never played any SS game, you’d better go with Samurai Shodown III first. Try Samurai Shodown IV if you liked it. Samurai Shodown IV is not a bad game at all, on the contrary, it is very good. It only does not have the same degree of perfection of its prequel.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/02, Updated 01/09/02