Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection

Genre: Compilation / Fighting Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

The Samurai Shodown series dates back to 1993, when the series’ first game released in Arcades and on the NEOGEO AES home console. It was a rare entry in the Fighting Game genre that deviated from contemporary hand-to-hand fighting, with characters who fought with weapons in feudal Japan. The series has come to be one of SNK’s most enduring franchises, arguably second only to the King of Fighters franchise.

Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection, released in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation containing six early 2D games from the franchise, all 2D Fighting Games in the mainline series (which has contained 3D Fighting Games, RPGs, and handheld spin-off games, among other things), released from 1993 through 2004 in arcades and on other various platforms. In addition, this bundle includes a previously unpublished final version of Samurai Shodown V, Samurai Shodown V Perfect, released for the first time in this collection.

Here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Samurai Shodown	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	C
tl;dr The original Samurai Shodown has some good qualities, but clunky controls and hitboxes that are way off both contribute to a game that just can’t stack up to contemporaries like Super Street Fighter II, let alone modern games.
Samurai Shodown II	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	B-
tl;dr Samurai Shodown II is a huge improvement over the previous game, with better controls, an expanded character roster, and new gameplay mechanics. It’s still not quite on par with modern Fighting Games, but this is still a solid entry in the genre.
Samurai Shodown III	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	B-
tl;dr Samurai Shodown III changes up its control scheme and reduces the character roster but makes up for it by adding alternate versions of every character. The result is a mixed bag that some will like more than others, and it still doesn’t quite compare to modern games in the genre.
Samurai Shodown IV	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	B-
tl;dr Samurai Shodown IV is a Fighting Game that tweaks a few things from Samurai Shodown III and expands the roster of characters to 17. It’s still not on par with modern Fighting Games, and it’s not a huge leap over the previous game, but this is nevertheless an enjoyable entry in the genre, even today.
Samurai Shodown V	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	C+
tl;dr Samurai Shodown V is a Fighting Game with faster gameplay than its predecessors, and a much-expanded roster of characters, but it also drops features from earlier games that series fans enjoyed, and its roster has some pretty bad balancing issues. The result is a game that isn’t quite as good as multiple other games in the series, and it’s particularly not worth getting when you can get its much-improved successor, Samurai Shodown V Special, instead.
Samurai Shodown V Special	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	B
tl;dr Samurai Shodown V Special is a Fighting Game that fixes much of what was wrong in Samurai Shodown V, expands the roster, and restores the violence of earlier games. The result is a game that, while still somewhat simple compared to modern Fighting Games, is still quite enjoyable even by today’s standards.
Samurai Shodown V Perfect	Fighting Game	1-2 Competitive (Local / Online), Online Leaderboards	B
tl;dr This final updated version of Samurai Shodown V was apparently intended to be the last released fame on the NEOGEO platform, but was pulled from release due to a rights dispute. As a result, it is an exclusive part of this collection. That said… honestly, I don’t see much difference between this and Samurai Shodown V Special. As far as I can tell, the roster is the same, the moves are largely the same, and the only significant change seems to be a new, and completely disposable, story mode. There are undoubtedly subtle balancing and gameplay tweaks I’m not detecting here, but for the most part this is just a rehash of the previous game.

In short, with the exception of Samurai Shodown V (and to a much lesser extent, Samurai Shodown III), this is a series that has only gotten better as it progressed. However, I think that it has changed enough that multiple entries in the series are still worth a look – namely, II, IV, and V Special/Perfect. Ah, yes, Samurai Shodown V Perfect… if you were considering getting this collection just to get your hands on this “lost” entry in the franchise, don’t bother – there’s so little to distinguish it from V Special that most players won’t notice the difference apart from the throwaway story mode.

The games all support online play, but unfortunately you’re not likely to find any opponents online at this point. There are also display and control options – thankfully allowing you to set one single button for the games’ multi-button control inputs, making it far easier to play these games, an option not found in the ACA NEOGEO releases of these games.

In addition to the games themselves, there’s also a wealth of making-of and behind the scenes content, including a rundown of the history of the series, story breakdowns, character art and bios, making-of and promotional art, full soundtracks for all of the included games, over two hours of interviews with the games’ creators, and about 20 minutes or so of footage of past professional tournament championship matches.

All of this extra content comes at a heavy price, though – if you get the digital version of the game, you’ll need to set aside a whopping 6.95GB of space on your Nintendo Switch’s internal memory or MicroSD card. As someone who often prefers digital games, I must stress that I think that this is one case where I think you’ll want to heavily consider getting the cartridge.

At $40, is Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection worth it? Well, the other point of comparison on Nintendo Switch is the individual games in the ACA NEOGEO series, and at $8 each, that would cost you $64, and that’s not including Samurai Shodown V Perfect, nor any of the bonus content included in this bundle, nor the excellent option to assign multiple button inputs to one button. However… most of that’s for series diehards. For the rest of us, I did just say a bit above that I think the only games here really worth getting are Samurai Shodown II, IV, and V Special/Perfect, each of these being distinctly different enough to be worth playing in their own right.

In the end, I think the care that’s been put into Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection outweighs its flaws and the weaker games included within it. I still think this series is a bit niche in a way that only some players will appreciate it when modern games are often more fluid and offer more complex and nuanced gameplay, but its old-school sensibilities also have their own appeal, and this collection preserves that wonderfully, while including a bunch of extras and some much-appreciated control options as well. If you’re a Fighting Game fan, this is a must-buy, and if you enjoy the genre but aren’t a Fighting Game diehard, this still may appeal to you. Just be sure to get the physical cartridge.

tl;dr – Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection is a Compilation containing Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown III, Samurai Shodown IV, Samurai Shodown V, Samurai Shodown V Special, and exclusive to this bundle, Samurai Shodown V Perfect. These games are a bit dated compared to modern Fighting Games, but they have their charms, and multiple games in the series are different enough that they’re still worth playing separately, plus this bundle comes with plenty of extra content, as well as some extremely nice control options. Just be sure that if you’re getting this, you get the physical version, as the videos included here bloat the file size quite a lot.

Grade: B

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