Overview
With SNKP still going doing mostly dream matches on their once respected batch of games, it was only evident, that the weapon-base fighting game innovator would get that same treatment. Samurai Shodown saw their sixth edition to the series named, say it with me now, “Tenkaichiken Kukaden.” Catchy title, no? It comes to you with those who exist in the game’s universe, past and present, to do battle with a few new faces and a new outlook of fighting tactics. This review is base on the imported version for the Playstation 2. So, did it cut through the competition or does it strike you as dull?
Graphics 6/10
You will be happy to know that the main menu is text in English and in minor use in other times. From here on out, you are on your own. You can get around and figure what the option are most likely are to change time limit or rounds, but scrolling down the move list in battle, the dialogues in cut scenes, and choosing systems by symbols before battles are going to give you headaches. If you do not know the Japanese language very well, prepare to browse around hoping to find your way to whatever you wanted to pick or see. Quite an eyesore, I say.
Once again, SNK does their current trend to give their games a clean high resolution look in their fighting backgrounds. My honest truth is that the stages are appallingly lackluster and very flat in creativity. The areas may look better then what Samurai Shodown V and V Special had, but nowhere near as good as Shodown I was and its remodeling in II. The battle grounds just felt really more then out of place and beyond. Battling in front of the White House, a performance puppet stage, and tribal Africa lands sounds good on paper, but should had been crumble up after seeing the final look of the game.
Those who have not been seen for years have return, but most of their animations are greatly turned into better or crap. I enjoy seeing Mizuki spinning around with her sharp tip fingernails swirling. Earthquake stills moves around like you remember him in Samurai Shodown II, but his standing sprite look very incomplete and out of place with all his other movements. Others, like Suija, still feel as bizarre to play as and just make no improvement to fix their entirely bland presentation. Basically, for every good thing I notice, there is a negative that make it go back to being average.
Gameplay/Controls 6/10
For the fighting system, since they include all comers from the entire series, SNKP took a page from their war against Capcom and gave us a rage system selection. Each symbol represents a part of the Samurai Shodown franchise and what system and gimmicks was use in that particular game. You could have Genjuro in Samurai Shodown II mode battling Basara, who is fighting in Shodown IV mode. So yeah, dial-a-combo, breaking weapons, and charging up your meter can co-exist. I will admit it makes for some interesting match-ups. Supers are still less rewarding now that everybody can do it like how it was set up in Samurai Shodown IV and after. You could clearly see that most of the staff ran out of ideas during production by what kind of super they get. Nicotine turns into a young sword wielding one slash monk? Why is Cham Cham zooming by with a giant boomerang? After watching these be done, you wonder if the game was rush or the people behind the work were just lazy.
As for the full battle experience…it could had been enhanced. I founded myself enjoyment with the earlier games then this one. Yes, I would rather play Samurai Shodown IV’s “rush to beat the clock” then play this, but not enough to give V Special another go. The damage scaling is just huddle into taking too much or too little off your energy bar, giving a quite unfair and uneven sense of this game being barely remotely fun. The single player story mode is quite rubbish, as your always guaranteed to battle the newer crop of fighters largely part of the time, with a hint of some old school folks in two or three battles. While it wonderful to get to take fight with the classics boss villains of the before games, a more sinister version of Gaoh as the designated final focus was what I did not have in mind.
The controls are fine and very easy to tune up in arranging it to your liking, I honestly feel like there are too many actions to remember and recall on the controls. Sure, most fighting games use all the buttons, but this is just filled to capacity in a bad way. It is quite silly in having to now press a button to pick things up. The characters in general have gotten something added, something remove, or both. While some may seem not be too much of a distraction, the omissions from several warriors’ key move list cry fowl. Just about everybody knows that special attack of when Ukyo dashes forward with shadows flowing him and slicing. Why replace it with him doing a split second fast slash swipe in a spot on the screen? Pushing that aside, the game does move and play fine, except in those hard to perform ultra hurtful specials. I am looking at you, Gedo's super throw command.
Sound/Music 5/10
Hearing the vocal part of the game, you can tell nothing good was going to come out of it. Many of the cast gotten complete makeovers in their tones and they all stink. Iroha sounds like a slow minded dumb blond and Basara's new before puberty voice will even make Amakusa wonder what gender that thing is. The effects in the fights sound like mindless beats of a drum and slashing comes off to fast to sound like a slash should.
The music is probably the biggest offense that is contained in this release. The selection screen is about as dreadful as the player select music in Marvel vs Capcom 2. The beats throughout the game just gave off this disgusting vibration and is a total departure. You could tell they were trying to experiment of putting past and present sounds together to create something different, but it ends in failure and comes off your speakers as irksome.
The very funky violin playing hoedown on the pirate stage, the poorly executing tradition Japanese music given modern beats on the art stage, the lyrically filled boring hearings of Iroha’s stage, and the presidential army style music just does not seem right when you put guys like Haohmaru, Andrew, or Gen-an in battle to these tunes. Bottom line, the series was known to stick to a successful recipe in their soundtrack melody. This one just took a wrong turn and fell into a bottomless ditch.
Replay Value 7/10
With everybody who had appeared in the 2D world of Samurai Shodown, it is going to increase the replay value by a lot. Using every fighting to beat the game is going take a good chunk of your time. The Playstation 2 version also comes with bonuses of more hidden fighters and new exclusive spirit gauges to choose from. So the huge amount of players, the game style of your choosing, the always cool coloring edit, the secret attractions, and having a friend battle must be a long lasting experience.
However, if you have no friends who have no interest and by yourself, you do finish everything within this game, it there anything to fall back on to play more and more? Let’s just say, that once all of it is done, it just a 2D fighting game with a little more replay value then recent ones.
Overall 5/10
You remember when cool R rated movies get sequels that are PG-13 and suck somewhat? Yeah, think of this as that. The loading times do not feel as long when you count the seconds, but it does feel like forever when you do not count them. As much as having all the warriors pack into this all-star extravaganza is great, the removal of many of it signature trademarks really sours this sweet deal. There is no blood and there is no death finishes. The things that made the series stand out and were of common tradition for many fans and players are gone. The music and the battles locations are mediocre and truly forgettable. The cast is overcrowded and the graphical changes to some of the warriors’ ways of fighting and arsenal are atrocious.
Finally, I must state that this game is not for everyone. You either going to love it, hate it, or think it is just okay. If you love it and never had anything bad to say anything about one of the games at all, then I suggest you buy it then. If you plan on getting it anyway, look for it good for a sale price.
- by Boombada
