Samurai Shodown II

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Samurai Shodown II
Neo Geo AES cover art for Samurai Shodown II, featuring art by Shinkiro.
Developer(s)	SNK
Publisher(s)	SNK
Designer(s)	Galapagos Team
Release date(s)	October 28, 1994
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, Windows
Input	8-way Joystick, 4 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Neo-Geo (202 Mbit cartridge)
Arcade display	Raster, 304 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

Samurai Shodown II, known as True Samurai Spirits: Haohmaru Hell Change (真サムライスピリッツ覇王丸地獄変, Shin Samurai Supirittsu Haōmaru Jigokuhen^?) in Japan, is the second game in SNK's popular Samurai Shodown series of versus fighting games.

1 Overview
2 Critical and Fan Reception
3 Dialogue
4 Story
5 External links

[edit] Overview

Haohmaru vs. Nicotine.

Following up on the extremely-enthusiastic fan reception of the first SS game, SNK rebuilt the sequel from the ground up, including almost all of its predecessor's cast, adding several new characters, and refining the overall gameplay with more responsive control, more moves (particularly the use of the POW meter as a finishing-move meter), and a substantial number of Easter eggs.

The cast of playable characters was expanded to include the following new additions:

Genjuro Kibagami, who was to become Haohmaru's greatest rival.
Cham Cham, a young, catlike girl who was the younger sister of Tam tam (who was excluded from the game).
Neinhalt Sieger, a knight from Germany, who fights with a giant, gun-containing gauntlet.
Nicotine Caffeine, an old, diminutive monk, and master of Haohmaru and Genjuro both.

The overall gameplay was expanded to include several movement options, such as being able to roll forward and backward, ducking to avoid high attacks, or doing small hops to avoid low strikes. There are also cameo appearances from other SNK characters, a hidden boss who would occasionally come out to challenge players, and several other treats for fans to uncover.

[edit] Critical and Fan Reception

Samurai Shodown II was even better-received than the original (though it did not sell as well in its home version), and is commonly regarded as one of SNK's finest games ever produced. At the height of its popularity, strategies, tricks and tactics were discussed and debated, and it is arguably one of the most heavily dissected fighting games ever made, with sizable documents being written to support or refute claims of one character's dominance over another's. It also made GameSpot's list of "The Greatest Games of All Time."

In spite of (or perhaps because of) its considerable popularity, the game went for several years without being released on any other system. When it did happen, it was a port of the Neo*Geo CD version for Windows-based PCs. This version did actually get a release in North America, and can still be found in some game stores. The only other port was for the Sony PlayStation, in the form of the Samurai Spirits Kenkaku Shinan Pack (サムライスピリッツ剣客指南パック), which combined the first two games into one package, and was only released in Japan.

[edit] Dialogue

SS2 is renowned for having some of the most hilarious bits of Engrish in the history of video games, even considering SNK's history of questionable translation. Some examples are listed below (with spelling mistakes intentionally included):

Genjuro: "I'll be never beaten by anyone who lives in confort, like you."
Genjuro: "KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!"
Nicotine: "What a nice person! You kindly give the palm to such a crock!"
Sieger: "Don't be hateful each other. Love is the best strength."
Sieger: "Give you my knock for justice!"
Cham Cham: "Oooh! It was scarry!"
Cham Cham: "Shit! You really make me mad!"
All characters: "All creatures will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai."
The intro: "Long, long ago, there were a man who try to make his skill ultimate. Because of his bloody life, it's no accident that he became involved in the troubles."

[edit] Story

The official story, as given by SNK, is as follows:

"Shiro Tokisada Amakusa, cause of the calamities occurring worldwide and driven to resurrect the Dark Deity Ambrosia, was slain by a single samurai whose existence was never recorded by history.
This person deeply involved with the resurrected Amakusa, Haohmaru, was suddenly attacked one night. But the one who was up easily defeated was not Haohmaru, but the sinister assailant...
Haohmaru's attacker was clearly manipulated by someone or something -- an evil force.
The would-be assassin gasps a final promise to Haohmaru. 'I'll have your soul one day.... Ambrosia...lives.' The evil ones are after him! Haohmaru, sensing an evil force rivaling Amakusa, pays a visit on his old fencing master. While Haohmaru relates his story, his master's visage grows unusually grim.
'Stay away. You have undeniably grown stronger. But you must not confront them. Do you understand?'
His master obviously knows more, but grows silent, and besides Haohmaru isn't listening anyway. That night, they share a few drinks to celebrate their reunion after a long separation, and at dawn Haohmaru slips out unannounced to embark on his journey.
An audacious smile plays on his lips."