| Samurai Shodown | |
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Cover art of the Neo Geo U.S. version of Samurai Shodown by Shinkiro. |
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| Developer(s) | SNK |
| Publisher(s) | SNK |
| Designer(s) | Galapagos Team |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, 3DO, Game Gear, Game Boy, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Game Gear, Neo Geo, Neo-Geo CD, Sega Mega-CD, Super Nintendo, PlayStation Network, Virtual Console, PlayStation 2, Wii |
| Release date(s) | August 11, 1993
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| Genre(s) | 2D Weapon Based Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Media/distribution | (118 Mbit cartridge) |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Neo Geo |
| Display | Raster, 304 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors |
Samurai Shodown, known as Samurai Spirits (サムライスピリッツ Samurai Supirittsu, Samu Supi in short) in Japan, is a 1993 competitive fighting game produced by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home platform. In contrast to other fighting games at the time which were set in modern times and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown is set in feudal-era Japan (similar to Kaneko's Shogun Warriors) and was one of the first fighting games to focus primarily on weapon-based combat after the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II.
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The game is set in the late 18th century and all the characters wield weapons. The game uses comparatively authentic music from the time period, rife with sounds of traditional Japanese instruments, such as the shakuhachi and shamisen, and a refined version of the camera zoom first found in Art of Fighting. True to its use of bladed weapons, the game also included copious amounts of blood.
The game quickly became renowned for its fast pace, focused more on quick, powerful strikes than the combos. As to emphasize the distinction of this gameplay system, slow motion was added to intensify damage dealt from hard hits. Also during a match, a referee held flags representing each player (player 1 was white; player 2 red). When a player landed a successful hit, the referee would lift the corresponding flag, letting everyone watching know who dealt the blow. To lessen the repetition of fights, a delivery man running in the background threw items such as chicken (that healed) or bombs, which could significantly change the outcome of a play.
The cast of characters, like many other fighting games of its time, spanned from fighters across the globe, allowing a wide range of weaponry open for the players' preference. Playable characters include:
When SNK released the game for the home console version of the Neo Geo system, the AES, the fans bought it up in droves, and it still stands as the most successful run of home Neo cartridges ever produced. The game was ported to multiple other platforms, including the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear, Sega CD, Sega Saturn, 3DO, FM Towns, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. All of the cartridge versions were handled by Takara, while Crystal Dynamics ported the 3DO version, and JVC handled the Sega CD port. All the ports vary in quality, given the individual capabilities of the systems on which the game appeared.
All the 16-bit Sega versions of the game (including the Sega CD version) omitted Earthquake. Both versions lack the camera zoom, and as a result the camera is zoomed-in, which gives better detail to the characters, but the fighting area is smaller. Of note is the Sega CD version, which contained a bug which caused the game to crash when the final boss was reached.[2] Publisher JVC offered to replace glitched discs with copies of Fatal Fury Special (which they also published for the system). No "fixed" version was released.
The Super NES version, by contrast, has the character line-up intact, but has the game zoomed-out, which makes the characters look tiny and harder to time attacks. The stages, on the other hand, are less restricted. This version also supports Dolby Surround.
The Neo Geo AES version of the game was released for the Wii Virtual Console on October 16, 2007 in Japan; May 30, 2008 in Europe; and June 16, 2008 in North America.[3] However, before the Virtual Console version was released in the North America, the game was released as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1.
The game was edited when it was first released for the AES as it featured blood and graphic fatal attacks that kills opponents by slicing them in half. This was mostly due to the negative publicity that sparked involving the use of violence in video games of the time, a most prominent example being Mortal Kombat.[4] As a result, it was decided to censor the game for most platforms, by changing the blood from red to white and disabling all of the fatal attack animations. These censorship issues were also carried over to the win quotes, and references to death or blood were altered. This release incited controversy in the United States, as many fans who bought the game were angry that the game they had paid for was not 100% true to the arcade experience, a notion which ran contrary to the professed point of the AES in the first place.[5]
The Sega 16-bit ports frequently had the violence toned down. While the blood is featured, it is used sparsely and one of the fatalities is cut for each version. In the Super NES version the blood was recolored orange and the half slicing is removed.[6] The 3DO version, however, was ported almost a year later, and managed to reach the console with all blood and fatality graphics intact. As a result, some retailers didn't even carry this edition of the game.
Samurai Shodown is justifiably considered the starting point for the wave of Neo Geo console modifications, which would enable users to set the system's region to Japan, or play in arcade mode, which would in turn allow the game to be played with all of the blood and death animations intact, even on a North American/PAL console.[4] It also marked the beginning of SNK's nebulous and much-discussed policy of censoring their games for release outside of Japan, which still persists (albeit sporadically) to this day.
In the February 1994 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan, Samurai Spirits was awarded Best Game of 1993 in the Seventh Annual Gamest Grand Prize, being the first to win in the category of Best Fighting Game as well (Street Fighter II Dash, the previous Game of the Year, won as Best Action Game). Samurai Spirits placed first place in Best VGM, Best Album and Best Direction, and second place in Best Graphics. In the Best Characters list, Nakoruru placed No. 1, Haohmaru at No. 6, Jubei Yagyu at No. 8, a tie between Ukyo Tachibana, Galford, and Poppy at No. 11, Charlotte at No. 16 (tied with Duck King from Fatal Fury Special), Kuroko at No. 18, Tam Tam and Hanzo Hattori tied for No. 22, Gen-an Shiranui at No. 29, and Wan-Fu tied at No. 45 with five other characters.[7]
Samurai Shodown won multiple awards from Electronic Gaming Monthly in their 1993 video game awards, including Best Neo-Geo Game, Best Fighting Game, and Game of the Year.[8]
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