5 special is great but kinda boring imho in the way that you play all characters more or less the same, but it’s definetely balanced
at the opposite 2 is absolutely not balanced but is an awesome game if you’re OG
I can’t say I like 4, but I understand why some like it. Similarily I like tenka quite a lot though I understand why it’s also hated by some.
So yeah, spudly’s short answer had it right.
5 Special cannot work as a tournament fighter because it’s MVS or emulation only, and no one really has access to those outside of a few tiny events. It is the best game in the series by a decent margin, but SNK never bothered to release it outside of their own systems, which had been on life support for years at that point.
No Samsho game is really tourney viable in the US- though our local tourney is doing SS2 tomorrow.
Your best bet might be to try and wait for Samsho Edge of Destiny to hit the US next year, though it’s unlikely to succeed.
Actually, SS2 is quite balanced except for Ukyo’s stupidity. Everyone has some sort of abusable bullshit to compete, and it’s a tourney-worthy game IMO.
if you like that sf2 feel play ss2. if you want that fast paced marvel like game play, go for ss4.if you want slow balanced waiting for someone to fuck up play ss5sp.if you wanna get the shit kicked out of you for choosing upper grade burst ukyo and spamming infinite supers and broken 100% combos.by all means play ss3.
i go with tenka, because its the samsho that im actually playing at the moment, if not i would take 4
Thank-you for the thoughts so far. It seems that the general consensus on tournament viability is ss5sp. arstal mentioned that it wasn’t available outside of SNKs systems, however I recall seeing PS2/Xbox ports (If we decide to not use the original ports for some reason). SS2 is the runner-up so far too. Lastly, I’d like some more imput on Tenka, I’m hearing a lot of mixed reviews and opinions. Is Tenka viable for tournament play or not?
how the hell are u gonna run a 5 sp tournament? Line up a buncha PC’s? Or do people here own the neo geo version? Why the fuck wasn’t the game included on the PS2 collection. Oh ya, they’re dumb. Oh and 4 is nuts I don’t think it would make that great of a game for a tournament but who knows. I enjoy all of the games… except for that shitty ass tenka.
Haha, what’s so bad about Tenka? I’ve never played it but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t seem to deserve such hate.
Tenka has a lot of stuff that seemed good in the beginning and just ended up hurting the game. Like at first throws seemed way better (instant, tons of range, almost no throw invincibility on wakeup), but if you ever whiff one you eat huge damage, and there’s a LOT of ways to whiff one in a SS game, on top of that their damage is low. And the wakeup system where one option avoids strikes and the other avoids throws, but the good characters just have ways to option select punish both rolls so everyone stays down and it slows down the game pace to a crawl. The tops are also pretty lame in it.
With a revision it could’ve really been the best SS ever, but as i stands it’s a really flawed game that is also boring at high level. It’s the only game where i have dozed off watching Japanese tourney matches.
We could do either. We could also run it with MAME off of a modded home-console.
SS2 ftmfw
It’s the most fun hands-down, it’s easy to pick up and it has all sorts of hidden stuff.
Haha… I doze off watching any SS match. It just cannot hold my interest by viewing it. Playing it does.
I like Tenka. Mainly because it’s the one I have for PS2. And Kazuki and Enja are good and are my favorite characters.
I have others for emulators and I do like SS2.
Score
2: 7 for; 2 against
4: 6 for; 1 against
5sp: 11 for; 0 against, but lack of port could make it unviable
tenka: 5 for; 1 against
There’s a port of SSZS for the original XBOX, I have no idea how accurate it is though.
I mostly agree with the general consensus, SSZS seems to be the most balanced, SS2 is the one I enjoy the most and Tenka is pretty good if you give it chance.
No its a port of SS5 not SS5SP.
IIRC was also a terrible port.
oddly I found high level play of Tenka enjoyable to watch (anybody got that SBO dvd?).
And OMG whiffing something leads to crazy damage. :rolleyes:
Isn’t punishing a whiff for big damage what SS is supposed to be ABOUT?
Which is why throws were made into a 2-button command in Tenka. I could understand the complaints if throws were f+C and you end up constantly whiffing throws in close range when you really just want to walk forward and slash but a specific 2-button command means if someone whiffs a throw it’s THEIR own fault.
Because if they weren’t, they would be broken. The relatively low damage of throws is balanced by the fact that they always do the same amount of damage regardless of the sword gauge. Not to mention pounces, because…
Well…you’re 100% right here.
And why is this a problem in a SS game? 
Well…I have to agree again here.
Most of the reasons and complaints mentioned were due to changes from Special to Tenka.
This is why many prefer Special despite it having fewer characters and moves over Tenka.
Why doesn’t anybody play SS2 over at GGPO? it’s either no one there or a couple of chinese players with really high ping. Maybe if they added 5sp it would bring more people in, I really want to start ss up again.
2df is the best place for Samurai Shodown 2 at the moment, the one-room-at-once limitation of GGPO kills lesser games such as SS2. I hope Ponder fixes that in the next build.
Ooh so that’s what 2df, just googled it, I’ll give it a try.