Samurai Shodown (Neo Geo AES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of SNK's versus-fighting game for the Neo Geo AES, Samurai Shodown.

Played through as Yagyuu Juubei on the normal difficulty level.

Samurai Showdown was a fairly early release for the Neo Geo hardware, but it was one of the first one-on-one fighting games truly highlighted SNK's ability to craft a top-tier fighting game that could pose serious competition to Capcom's efforts.

However, instead of playing follow the leader, the Samurai Shodown team changed things up quite a bit, and thus was able to differentiate the game from all of the Street Fighter clones (including SNK's own Fatal Fury) on the market.

Instead of participating in hand-to-hand combat, each character carries a weapon - some weapons are short and fast, others are huge and slow, but they all can do enormous damage when used correctly. Slow, powerful strikes can chop down a life bar within a couple of hits, but since these attacks leave you vulnerable if you miss, you have to be extremely cautious when considering your moves. If someone runs at you with a katana overhead, you'd best do whatever you can to not take that blade to the head or the torso unless you want to see the fight end with your fighter being cut in half as blood jets several feet into the air.

The other major shift from the SF2-style Samurai Shodown makes is in its setting. It doesn't take place in the 1990s, and there are no parking lots, bar interiors, or shopping plazas to fight in. The game is set in the late 19th century, and this is reflected in every aspect of the game - you get samurai, ninja, and knights all fighting in places like temples, palaces, and bamboo groves. It makes a huge difference to the tone of the game, and it looks great - the quality of the art is far better than most fighters you'll find from the time period, and Art of Fighting's scaling zoom-in feature is reused to far better effect here. The sound is also very well done - a lot of the tracks use traditional Japanese instruments to excellent effect.

And who can forget the announcer's famous, "Jinjou ni ipponme, shoubu!"

The characters are all fairly well balanced, and the slow, deliberate gameplay means that skill will trump button mashing everytime.

Samurai Shodown is rightfully hailed as one of the Neo Geo's classic titles, and it marked the beginning of one of SNK's most prominent and beloved franchises. It's accessible even to newcomers, the game play is intense, and it has got style to spare - everything you could want in a early 90s competitive fighting game.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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