Earthquake (Samurai Shodown)

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Earthquake
Game series	Samurai Shodown series SNK Vs. series
First game	Samurai Shodown
Voice actor(s)	Masaki Usui
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	State of Coahuila and Texas (Mexico in that age)
Blood type	A
Fighting style	Self-Taught Ninja Arts
Weapon	FUJIYAMA
Preferred soulmate/family	All riches that he has collected up to now

Earthquake (アースクエイク, Āsukueiku^?) is a video game character from SNK Playmore's Samurai Shodown series of fighting games.

[edit] History

Earthquake had originally trained under the same master as the ex-sailor Galford D. Weller, Ayame, but got sick of it. When Amakusa Shiro Tokisada started creating havoc, he decided to steal all the world's treasure. A year later, Mizuki Rashojin came into his mind and told him that if he killed those she told him to, she would reward him with gold each time. After the defeat of Mizuki, Earthquake and his henchmen left for Makai, never again to be seen.

[edit] Gameplay

Despite his sheer size and immense girth and weight, Earthquake can be a shockingly nimble and tricky character. While his basic movements are very slow, many of his special moves are very fast and have high priority. This oxymoron of movement speed, mixed with ninja trickiness such as smoke bomb teleports, his high reach and priority, and his good attack power and very good stamina can make Earthquake extremely formidable and dangerous in the right hands. It is very difficult for many opponents to get the gist of his unorthodox style. Due to his size however, he had rather large lag time on many moves which can easily be a huge disadvantage if the player doesn't time things right. Also, his playstyle can be difficult to get the hang of. He is often played as a setup and deceptive turtler character, where he can be very difficult to beat. Earthquake is unfortunately credited for possessing one of the more useless POW/Exceed moves. When executed, he will simply wave his hand toward the opponent (which can be blocked) a few times very slowly. During this period, which lasts for several seconds, Earthquake cannot block. In addition to this, there is no surefire way to land this move in combat, as it's startup animation is too slow to catch an opponent on the fly... supposedly the move can work as a decent air counter, but not being 100% accurate makes the move not worth the risk of wasting the entire super meter on it.

[edit] Trivia

Earthquake's design was most likely inspired by Heart, one of Kenshiro's opponents in Fist of the North Star. EQ's SS2 stage, which is set in a desert wasteland and features a trainwreck and his gang of thugs, could be another nod towards the mood of this series.
Earthquake's main weapon is a Kusarigama named Fujiyama, being one of the few characters in video games who uses this weapon, along with Axl Low, from Guilty Gear series. In SVC: Chaos, the Kurisama's design was heavily changed compared to SS series.
Along with Gen-an Shiranui, Earthquake appears in Genjuro Kibagami's Samurai Shodown IV ending, possibly proving that he had not truly disappeared after the second game, and is still around up to his old tricks. Since those 2 had seed together in many times, Earthquake and Gen-an are compared to Chang and Choi.
Earthquake is also a playable character in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom. His story is about he was warped in time, like Genjuro and Shiki. His "rival" from Capcom is Hugo Andore.
Earthquake is one of the biggest characters in the series. Due to the size of his sprite, Earthquake did not appear in the Sega Genesis version of Samurai Shodown. Also for reasons unknown, he's also absent from the Sega CD version as well, even though the Sega CD was plenty powerful enough to include him.
Even though Texas was part of Mexican territory at that time, Earthquake is of European descent.
In similar aspect, there is no way that Earthquake could've wrecked a train (his background in SS2) yet, given the setting in the 1700's, technology had not advanced that far yet.
Described as the "Cowboy Ninja" in SS.