The Retrospective 07.12.07: SNK Season: Samurai Spirits/Shodown (Part 3 of 4)
Posted by Sean McCabe on 07.12.2007
Well, these are the consequences of me playing games all night and leaving the column till the day before it goes in.
Welcome one and all to another week of the Retrospective. I apologise this week for the extreme brevity and cut down nature of the column this week. There's no screenshots because I had difficulty finding ideal ones in the short space of time I had, and no recommendations from me on things to check out. Also we're in the middle of E3, but there's too much to talk about, so next week, I will offer a much more stacked column.
The Introspective
Well, last night I went down to a friend's house, and well, there was much playing of Day of Reckoning 2, Soul Calibur 2 and Samurai Shodown 2. It was the first multiplayer fest I've had in a while and I did enjoy myself. But it went on almost all night…. A picture may develop of why this column is so short and cut down.
I will throw in though a couple of trailers. Soul Calibur Legends, and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Enjoy.
VG Babe of the Week: Xianghua
People who can't pronounce her name tend to refer to her as Soul Calibur's Crouching Tiger chick.
The Breakdown
Samurai Spirits 2/Samurai Shodown 64-2
Developer: SNK
Format: Hyper Neo Geo 64
Release: 1998
Notes: This game's Japanese title often leads to it wrongly being called Warrior's Rage, which was used for a different game in the series. It is a direct sequel to Samurai Shodown 64
Samurai Shodown 64-2 adopted a different approach to than it's prequel did. Whilst it's prequel was almost all made up of new characters and the gameplay was also much different from the 2D titles, this game restores some of the aspects of gameplay from the older titles and also some of the characters. So whilst some of the more populr 64 characters remained, including Shiki, the less memorable ones were removed to make rooms for the likes of Hoahmaru and Galford to return.
The game was flawed with having weak graphics for the time. By the end of 1998 the Hyper Neo Geo was rendered obsolete buy Sega's model 3 arcade board. And thus this game was the last game released for the Hyper Neo Geo. It is worth noting however that the second Samurai Shodown pocket game would be a cut down version of this game.
In Retrospect: Even fewer people have played this than it's prequel. I can't comment much on it's quality other than it received middling reviews.
Samurai Spirits/Shodown Pocket fighting series 1 + 2
Developer: SNK
Format: Neo Geo Pocket
Release: 1998,1999
Notes: These two games, one released for the Neo Geo Pocket and one for the colour variant, both take previous games as their base. The first game takes Samurai Shodown III as it's base, and the second takes 64-2 as its base, but with the addition of a couple of characters from IV
Much like the majority of Pocket fighting games from SNK, these two games were a solid effort. They once again employed chibi sprites and took simplified gameplay cues from the first four 2D games in the series. The graphics were good for the hardware involved and there was plenty of "cutesy" variation on character animations. Not a whole lot more to say.
In Retrospect: A couple good portable fighters, well worth owning if you still have a Neo Geo Pocket around.
Developer: SNK
Format: PSX
Release: 1999
Notes: Another 3D game for the series released specifically on the Playstation. Also considered the worst game of the series.
Yep, quite the long ass Japanese title for this game. It is in a sense considered a sequel to the Hyper Neo Geo games, although didn't play much like them. Again, it went for a totally new set of characters for it's roster, some of whom look interesting and the game did benefit from generally good character art and presentation. But it suffered badly from sub par graphics at a time when hype was being built up for the release of the Playstation 2.
Of course, as a result it was looked down upon and mostly forgotten. It was also one of SNK's last games, and flops, that forced them to close their doors in 2000, and would be the last anyone saw of Samurai Shodown for almost four years.
In Retrospect: Well, never played it, but all signs point to the game being a low point for the series.
Once again, apologies for the quite shoddy column this week, but next week I promise to do much better. Keep things in perspective… and good god I want Soul Calibur Legends.
