IIRC the N64 games are tittled Samurai Spirits! in Japan. With the exclamation.
That would be the Neo Geo Pocket/Color that added the ! mark to the titles. Those were not added to the HNG64 games at all.
I can’t speak for 5 special, but the reasons I enjoyed SS2 were:
Relatively good balance (Basically one outlier on the “a bit too good” side, and one outlier on the “not quite good enough” side) with a fairly large (for it’s time) and diverse cast
Excellent ambiance
Fairly measured pacing - the game flows somewhat differently from the Street Fighters and Fatal Furys of the era, thanks to the presence of backdashes, hops, rolls and runs.
It also DOESN’T have the outrageously high damage that SS3 has, though damage under the right circumstances CAN reach really brutal “OMG that hurt so much!” levels if you screw up…
IMO SNK fucked it up trying to go 3D and make a bloody soul cal(at least that was my interpretation when I saw it).
If they would make SS like KOF with handrawn sprites. It would be soooooooooooo bonerrific.
Haha I didn’t even know the NGPC had SamSho games! Disregard my post then.
2 is popular because it was really common on Neogeo cabs back in the day, so just about everyone played it that was around at all in the early-mid 90s. When you say Samurai Shodown, almost everybody thinks of SS2.
5SP is harder, my assumption is that its because 4 was uncommon and quite old (so neither having nostalgia nor freshness), and 5 vanilla was pretty damn terrible, so that’s kind of where you end up.
***Not saying that 2 and 5SP aren’t both good games, but they’re all good games except for 5 vanilla, so its a question of ‘why are those 2 picked’?.
I don’t know about SS2, since I’ve read that it is plagued by inconsistent damage and hitboxes. As for SS5Sp, it vastly improved Vanilla 5. The entire game just takes the essence of SamSho and refines it. All the characters in SS5Sp can be used to kick ass.
only ever played samsho2, I liked that the game was slower and really made you play defense. Also, no 70 hit combos where you lose control of your character for 15-20 secs of the match.
They could re-boot the series, and if done right, could be mildly successful.
SS2 HDremix. Not just a prettier port of the game, but updated.
Just give me SS7 with the new characters from 6 and Sen and have the sprites done like KoF13 and I’ll be in on dat shit. You guys listening SNK? :sad:
The community would welcome a SS6 UM with better music, more traditional backgrounds (fuck the Whitehouse), with fatalities and some rebalancing.
fatalities are scrub shit for scrubs, how do they even add to core gameplay? blood and gore don’t even belong in fighting games anyway, what are you, 12 years old and listen to slipknot?
Actually all of the SS players I’ve talked to (including high level dudes) don’t like the lack of fatalities and blood in SS6 but still like the gameplay as I mentioned. It’s especially off-putting since Blood and fatalities have been a part of the series since the very first game but I guess scrubs like you would never know that because it’s not on Eventhubs.
The fatalities in SS are one of the weirder stories in fighting games.
Am I remembering right that they had a scandal with the SS4 fatalities after the Nevada-Chan stabbing?
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You’re thinking of SSV SP. That stabbing happened and suddenly the J media had become concerned about gore in games and SNKP censored the shit out of the MVS version resulting in bugs. Fans complained and they put out a less censored version. The uncut version is still arcade only and has never been ported. Some have suggested because of the game’s violence but it’s more likely that Yuuki enterprises (who made the game under contract) would see compensation for a home port or some sort of legal wrangling has kept the game from being ported.
I remember playing SS1 in 1992 in my local arcade during the arcades boom, together with World Heroes 2. those were my second SNK games, after Street Smart. I was impressed by that game and always chose the scissorman. after the arcade closed, I played a few years later SSIV thanks to NeoRage emulator. But a lot had changed. then never bothered again with that game and the later installments. Moreso when I saw that SNK opted for 3D versions. still it remains one of my favorite franchises. This and Last Blade share some things in common.
Scissor…? Oh! Gen An.
@louis, oh yeah, the timelines match up then
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you’re a jack ass, just saying.
The Samurai Shodown series could never stick to a formula, WAY to many experimental systems were tried during the series.
Almost no Samurai Showdowns played a like. What happens is you split your fan base and the game just fails HARD.
That being said, I’d SOO run a samurai shodown 2 or V Special side tourney at evo lol