{"id":13101,"date":"2020-06-13T14:48:01","date_gmt":"2020-06-13T21:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/samurai-shodown-review\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T01:42:00","slug":"samurai-shodown-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/samurai-shodown-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Samurai Shodown Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Samurai Shodown
SNK \/ Athlon Games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah\u2026fighting games from the 90s. I\u2019ve tried just about all of them, even some of the Japanese ones that weren\u2019t available in the states since I had a Neo Geo console with an adapter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Street Fighter series was known as the first fighting game that put competitive hand-to-hand combat on the map in a big way. It also featured characters that relied heavily on both projectiles and flashy combinations. The Art of Fighting series was very similar to Street Fighter\u2014mechanics-wise\u2014but had its own whacky characters (except Ryo who was an obvious copy\/paste of Street Fighter\u2019s Ryu). Virtua Fighter was known as the \u201cgrandfather of 3D fighters.\u201d And then there was the King of Fighters franchise which was SNK\u2019s answer to Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat (the latter known for its fatalities).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I first encountered a Samurai Shodown<\/em> (known as Samurai Spirits<\/em> \u4f8d\u9b42 in Japan) cabinet in an arcade back in the day, I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes. Finally, someone (in this case, SNK) made a weapon-based fighting game that wasn\u2019t crappy. In fact, Sam Sho (the cute way of spelling Samurai Shodown) had a super slick traditional Japanese aesthetic that echoed the bloody feudal periods, where samurai and master swordsmen traversed in search for worthy opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, after Samurai Shodown 5 Special,<\/em> the series sort of disappeared. That was back in 2004. To everybody\u2019s surprise, SNK teamed up with publisher Athlon Games and announced back in 2019 that they were developing a brand new Samurai Shodown game, titled…wait for it\u2026Samurai Shodown! (now that\u2019s original!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Samurai Shodown<\/em> title features a ton of offline modes for those who just want to beat up on the game\u2019s AI. First off is the traditional Story Mode which tells a little background about whatever character you\u2019ve chosen and what their mission is. Next up is the Gauntlet Mode, where you have to take out the entire roster of characters in one try. Fail, and you\u2019re done for. Then you\u2019ve got your usual Survival, Time Trial, and Versus modes to explore. And luckily, they\u2019ve packed a Tutorial Mode with the game as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the biggest draw here with the new Samurai Shodown<\/em> has to be the Dojo Mode. This asynchronous mode is composed of both offline and online parts. You and other human players\u2019 inputs are studied by the game\u2019s AI and applied to a CPU Ghost. It can then be challenged during a single match or within the wild 100-person \u201cIronman Challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move away from pixilated graphics was a good move, even though the old ones will forever hold a special place in my heart (sniff, sniff). The visuals in this new rendition are super-slick and gorgeous to behold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stages are the first thing I noticed. Some are updated background from the original titles (like the beach with the waves crashing on the rocks), but rendered with the Unreal engine. My favorite has to be the bamboo forest\u2014although I\u2019m a little let down that you can\u2019t slash the bamboo stalks into pieces and make them fall, as in the older games. The traditional Min\u2019y\u014d tunes (traditional Japanese folk music) add to the immersion and you really get into the feudal Japan vibe that the game is conveying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The entire cast of Samurai Shodown<\/em> looks spectacular in their new Unreal graphics digs. The new main protagonist is a badass named Yashamaru Kurama. He wields a nagamaki (a katana with an extra-long handle) and is part tengu, which is a type of Japanese avian spirit. The other characters fit in pretty well, with the exception of a couple of oddballs (Darli Dagger wth?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samurai Shodown<\/em> is very distinct from other fighting games in that it more slower-paced. Part of the reason is that the characters you play as are wielding weapons that can potentially end a match in one hit. Therefore, there are lots of \u201cfootsies\u201d going on, as well as pokes. A good player will draw out a mistake in his opponent and make him overcommit to something and then strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of the characters comes with a bevy of special moves as well as a slick dodge maneuver that can throw your opponent off. There are also counter moves that can disarm your foe, slash-through moves where the screen turns red and blood sprays up from your opponent like a geyser, and flashy projectile attacks for certain characters. A match between two methodical players can come to resemble any of the great Japanese samurai anime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In all, Samurai Shodown<\/em> doesn\u2019t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn\u2019t have to. Instead, it has taken the series to new heights by greatly enhancing the gameplay mechanics, visuals, and overall production values. It\u2019s simply one of my favorite fighting games and I\u2019m very excited to see where they take this venerable franchise next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCORE: 90%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samurai Shodown<\/em> has some pretty good looking graphics that make its strategy gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"case<\/a>
FATHERS DAY SPECIAL II<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samurai ShodownSNK \/ Athlon Games Ah\u2026fighting games from the 90s. I\u2019ve tried just about all of them, even some of the Japanese ones that weren\u2019t available in the states since I had a Neo Geo console with an adapter. The Street Fighter series was known as the first fighting game that put competitive hand-to-hand combat… Read More »Samurai Shodown Review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":12311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2732,2735,2741,2742],"tags":[2520,741,2295,2488,1225,67,2486],"class_list":["post-13101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","category-gaming-pcs","category-gaming-reviews-news","category-product-reviews","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-fighting-games","tag-game-review","tag-gaming-laptop","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17346,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13101\/revisions\/17346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}