The art is absolutely badass.
Samurai Shodown's one of the most famous and unknown fighting games around. It's unknown because not many people know about it, surprisingly, and the fact that the latter titles in the series were bland dug its grave even deeper, but it's also famous because those of us that love fighting games recognize it as the first 2-D fighting game in which characters almost exclusively employ weapons.
Anthology is quite the package, featuring almost the entirety of the series' 2-D run with Samurai Shodown I, II, III, IV, V and VI. Not only are you getting fantastic arcade perfect renditions of all six games, you also get a few bells and whistles like art galleries and the amazing color-edit mode, with which you can edit a character's color palette! The cherry on top is getting to see how the series evolved, changed and, eventually, started to decline.
It's amazing how great the series looks by the sixth installment.
Samurai Shodown 1 is very dated by today's standards, featuring stiff movement and somewhat ugly sprites. There's two slash buttons and two kick buttons, and pressing both buttons of either type produces a strong version, for a total of 6 different basic moves. There're also special moves that you can perform by inputting different directions on the directional pad. Samurai Shodwown is, unlike other fighters, centered around landing hits and looking for openings as opposed to trying to link together long combos. As it stands, the game isn't particularly bad, but every other game leaves it in the dust.
Samurai Shodown 2 is a huge improvement, sprites are pretty and the game feels much more smooth. It also introduces super moves that you can perform when you are in Rage Mode. It's aged much better than the previous game and remains quite playable to this day.
The sixth game has a handful of new characters... and they are quite good designs.
The game looked better before, but as of Samurai Shodown III it's gorgeous. Every sprite has been beautifully redrawn, and this is the style that subsequent games will follow. III introduces SLASH and BUST versions of every character, basically, each character gets two different movesets, some characters being more pronounced than others. Controls have been changed, now there're three different types of slashes(Weak, Medium and Strong) as well as a single kick button. Samurai Shodown III feels great t play, and in my opinion, is one of the better games in this anthology.
Samurai Shodown IV is more of the same, but III was so good that this is a good thing. The character roster has seen some changes, quite a few characters are gone... but a handful of new ones are introduces, including Kazuki Kazama, my favorite character in the franchise. These last two games would be the peak of the franchise, because...
Over 40 playable characters, trust me, there's fun to be had even if you prefer the older games.
Samurai Shodown V comes next, and... it's not pretty. Well, it looks pretty, but the end result isn't. Firstly, this is the original release of V, which is lacking blood effects and fatalities, something that would be addressed in V Special, which sadly is missing from this anthology. Controls have changed again, we've lost the dedicated Strong slash button, which sucks since now you have to resort to using both slash buttons again, and instead got a 'special' button that works as a jumping dodge. What a lame addition. Slash/Bust versions of each characters are gone. On the plus side, I enjoyed the new characters like Enja and Suija, as well as Nobuhiro Watsuki's original designs. V is not a bad game, but it's not a step in the right direction.
Finally there's Samurai Shodown VI and your mileage may vary on this one. This is a dream game that pits all characters in a festival, so no blood effects or fatalities. Every single character that was ever playable in the series returns, and if he hasn't been seen since the second game he also gets a brand new sprite. All returning sprites have been brightened up a bit, making for a far more cheerful game. Controls are back to the III-IV, which is a huge plus. Sadly, the game feels a tad slow, and while I love having all these many characters I can't shake off the feeling of wanting to be playing III or IV instead. VI was a good game to end the series on, but not the best it's been.
CPU-Enja is quite the bastard, he can shave off a half of your health bar in a single combo.
If you've ever enjoyed a Samurai Shodown game, or if you've a passing interest in the series, this disc comes highly recommended. You get the entire(mostly) history of the numbered series in one tight, neat package. That said, be warned that the first four games are VERY difficult, even on the easiest difficulty setting. These ports are arcade-perfect, so they mimic that quarter-muncher, unfair difficulty. Still, every game has a dedicated practice mode and a Versus 2P mode, so you can get your kicks there.
8.0 out of 10
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