Page 1 - Introduction / Character Bios
Page 2 - Samurai Shodown
Page 3 - Samurai Shodown II & III
Page 4 - Samurai Shodown IV & V
Page 5 - Samurai Shodown V Special & Tenkaichi
Page 6 - Samurai Shodown 64 I & II (Arcade)
Page 7 - Samurai Shodown Warriors Rage (PSOne)
Page 8 - Samurai Shodown! (NGP) & Samurai Spirits RPG
Page 9 - Anime & Assorted Info
Samurai Shodown V Special / Samurai Spirits Zero Special - Neo Geo (2004)
Arcade Flyer |
Samurai Shodown V Special |
Samurai Shodown V Special |
The most prominent addition is the return of the boss characters from all previous games, who are now all playable. Zankuro has been downscaled, Amakusa makes a return from SSIV, and Mizuki from SSII has an upgraded sprite. Even Gaoh is playable. Sadly, there are still omissions in the roster: Cham Cham and Sieger are still missing, not to mention Nicotine and Kuroko. Sankuro and Yumeji are gone as well. Otherwise, the gameplay is pretty much the same as Samurai Shodown V.
The violence level has also drastically increased. Unlike SSV, in which characters are simply knocked unconscious after losing matches, SSV delivers the blood, gore, and pain in spades. The old fatalities return, along with a ton of new character specific death sequences. Some of these are just vicious. Galford will command Poppy to shred his opponent to pieces. Hanzo will grab his foe and snap their bones, with x-ray close-ups of the attacks, similar to his super move in Warriors Rage. Nakoruru will pile driver her opponent into the ground and stab his stomach, causing an eruption of blood to spew, before she whispers "sayonara" to their lifeless corpse. Rasetsumaru will pull a Kano and simply pull his foe's heart out and crush it. Suija will levitat his foe into the sky and crush them, bathing in their blood. Yunfei literally rips his opponent's soul out and demolishes it. Mina will launch dozens of arrows into the body of her foe, the last one causing an explosion that destroys their whole upper body. These are mostly here to look flashy, but you need to execute on them on the final bosses in order to get the good ending. And that's not all - using Concentration One to finish off your foe results in large amounts of a blood, making SSV Special, by far, the most violent in the series. That being said, it still doesn't drastically improve over Samurai Shodown V, so if that game annoyed you, this one will too.
Although there were plans to port Samurai Shodown V Special to the Playstation 2, its release was eventually cancelled. It's also missing from the upcoming Samurai Spirits collection. There are various rumors circulating regarding this. One suggests that since Samurai Shodown V Special was the last title released for the Neo Geo, that SNK wanted to leave it exclusive to that platform.
Samurai Shodown V Special
Samurai Shodown V Special
Samurai Shodown V Special
Samurai Shodown V Special
Samurai Shodown V Special
Fatalities
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden / Samurai Shodown VI - Arcade / Playstation 2 / Wii (2006)
Tenka's most notable aspect is that you can play as nearly every character from every 2D Samurai Shodown game. This means that the long neglected SSII characters -- Cham Cham, Sieger and Caffeine -- have finally returned. (It's a shame they didn't transfer Asura and Shiki's sprites over from Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, since they were only in the earlier 3D Samurai Shodown titles.) In addition to the already massive roster, there's also four completely new characters: Iroha, the massively endowed maid-warrior; Andrew, an American patriot wielding a musket; Ocha-Maro, an android...thing that uses string attacks; and Sugoroko, an overweight warrior who uses a bell/cannon he carries around with him. This makes the roster over 40 characters, all boss characters included, so there's plenty of diversity. The judge is even back too, after a prolonged absence.
There are several gameplay styles available, similar to the "grooves" used in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Here they're called "Spirits," and are a mix of the different features used from the earlier games in the series. There are six in total: Rei, Shin, Dou, Ten, Zen and Ken. The different spirits affect everything from how your rage gauge fills, how and if you can use special attacks, and more. For instance, Rei resemble SSV's system and Ten uses features from SSIV. Ken is a completely new style specific to this game and introduces a new defensive manuever called the "Mikiri Slide." While the systems operate differently in the games, SNK managed to make them fairly balanced to one another here, so choosing the one you're most comfortable with isn't a problem. The gameplay also is a little bit faster than SSV, and combos are easier to pull off.
Many SNK games on the Atomiswave are kind of strange. Although the backgrounds are high-res, they used the same old sprites they've been using since the Neo Geo days. As a result, you have huge pixelated characters over crisp, sleek backdrops. Some of the old sprites have been cleaned up a bit, although it's disappointing that they used Earthquake's older sprite instead of his newer one in SNK vs. Capcom Chaos. In general, the graphical style is much brighter and cleaner than earlier titles, but there's absolutely no blood at all either. Still, the new high-res and quasi 3D backgrounds are lively and lush, from the Japanese pavilion stage to the African savanna backdrop with the mountain range. It's a throwback to the earlier games, whose battles took place all across the globe instead of just instead of just Japan. The backgrounds bustle with activity and make the action feel more hectic, as if you're putting on a show everyone is invited to. The attacks also look really good -- there's some nice particle effects going on, and activating your rage gauge just looks plain awesome.
The music is also a departure from the rest of the series. It's more orchestrated and symphonic than the previous titles', and is meant to capture the "vastness" of the new game and its differing locales. There are vocal and festival style songs, although none of them really seem to capture the mood of Samurai Shodown. There are both Original and Arrange soundtracks on the Playstation 2 version, although they only vary slightly. Strangely enough, there are options for both Japanese and English voiceovers. Unlike the Xbox version of SSV, the voiceovers aren't actually in English; it's just an American guy speaking Japanese. There are some amusing unlockables in the PS2 version, including a mode to create your own Spirit, the ability to play as any of the animals (who have their own Spirit mode as well), and adding Kim Ung Che, Gaira's Korean counterpart, as a playable character.
SS Tenka saw a (very limited) worldwide release under title Samurai Shodown VI. The load times on Atomiswave games are pretty annoying, and the PS2 ports are often even worse. The original version of SS Tenka isn't nearly as bad as Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, but they're still a bit intrusive. Thankfully, the versions featured on the Rokuban Shoubu pack are significantly shorter.
MP3s Download here
Military People (Arrange)
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
In 2004, Yuki Enterprises released Samurai Shodown V Special, an upgrade that addresses many of the issues with the previous game. It rebalances the characters, removes the storyline, replaces several backgrounds and adds in the extra violence found in Samurai Shodown IV, as well as tweaking other minor aspects.
Playstation 2 Cover
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Around 2003, SNK finally decided their MVS arcade system wasn't cutting it anywmore, and made a partnership with Sammy to produce titles for their Atomiswave system (think of it as a slightly less powerful Naomi). Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (nicknamed Samurai Shodown 6 or simply Tenka to us English swabbies) was released to Japanese arcades in 2006, and the final product, while not astounding, was still quite good. Think of it as you would an ultimate collection of the series in one neat package, and with a dab of new paint.
Yuzuru no Mai
Independence Commemoration Festival (Arrange)
Voice Test - Japanese & English
