The Virtual Console might be dead, but via its Arcade Archives and ACA Neo Geo series, HAMSTER is doing a lot to scratch that retro gaming itch, with a constant stream of re-releases. Like a number of Neo Geo titles (including others from the same series) Samurai Shodown III is a one-on-one fighting game. As always you pick a character then battle it out against a series of opponents en route to a final boss showdown; weapons and the eighteenth century Japan setting giving the series a different feel to most other options.
The second game built on an already impressive opening instalment and this third entry adds and alters things a bit further. The button setup has changed with three of the four face buttons being used for the three strengths of weapon attack; the fourth being used for kick (now single-strength). Air-blocking has been added and it is possible step behind an attack when close to then launch a counter-attack. Each character now comes in two flavours: Slash or Bust, which provide alternate colour palettes (darker for Bust), and special moves. Having decided on your technique, you then must pick from one of three modes that determine the behavior of your Rage Gauge and blocking ability.
This is not just the previous game with extras, however, as the fighter lineup is quite different. Samurai Shodown II featured all but one of the first game’s playable characters and threw in four more, but here three of those have been dropped as well as a number of others. There are four new characters (including the omitted Nicotine Caffeine’s nephew, Gaira) and Samurai Shodown I’s end boss Amakusa is now available to play as, but overall there has been a reduction in playable characters: 12 compared to II’s 15. New end boss Zankuro Minazuki is also playable, but only in the two-player mode and only if you input a code – helpfully listed in the electronic manual.
Notable omissions include hulking brute Earthquake and fan-favourites such as Jubei and Charlotte, but there’s still a good range of fighting styles on offer with a range of swords, spears and other sharp objects. Newcomer Rimururu can freeze opponents and Shizumaru fights with an umbrella that can also be used to float through the air. Some are more effective fighters than others and there’s a slightly different feel to the previous games as some moves are very powerful which can lead to quick rounds, but there are still some similar fighting thrills to be had.
With the two fighting techniques (and super gauge/blocking options) it lacks the straightforwardness of simply picking your character and fighting, but they are good choices to have. Making this game less essential is the (already on Switch) followup Samurai Shodown IV. It drops air-blocking, but the fourth game in the series improves on this one, being a better balanced entry with the main 12 characters carried over, others returning and some new ones to boot.
The presentation in IV is slicker too, although this one is still impressive. The usual aesthetic is in place (albeit with a darker colour palette) with decent animation accompanied by the whistling, atmospheric music and slashes, smashes, yells and other noises of the battle adding to the experience. Some of the stages look a little plain compared to others in the series, but generally it all works well.
The game can be quite difficult (especially in later fights), but the options menu is on hand to knock the difficulty down – or up if you’d like more of a challenge. Another challenge is available via the one-credit Hi Score mode that comes with the usual online leaderboard for you to try and move up. The five-minute Caravan and regular arcade modes also have online leaderboards but as a fighting game most of the replayability comes from fighting and (should you tire of CPU opposition) a second player can join in at any time and challenge you.
Conclusion
Samurai Shodown III feels like a step back compared to the second game with characters dropped and some fights ending quickly; strange compared to the slower (but exciting) pace of before. There is still a good range of fighters available, however and the multiple modes for your fighter gives you a few options to consider. The fighting still entertains, but as good as the game is, the already available fourth game more or less does the same, but better. There's definitely fun to be had from the game, but like a number of Neo Geo titles Samurai Shodown III has been bettered by others from its own series.
Comments 20
It's broken, rushed and far from the best in the series... but it is the one i played the most with friends and it will always be special because of it.
@Drac_Mazoku And where do all the Samurai Shodowns rate against the two Last Blades? I'm genuinely interested!
Samurai Shodown 3 ($7.99): 6/10
Don't Die, Mr Robot! DX ($8.99): 8/10
I'm done.
I still liked this one for some reason. The faster pace can lend itself to some memorable moments, I think.
@BigKing they gave a 6 to Atelier on Switch as well. Which should've gotten at least an 8
I miss good samsho games (3 isnt my fave but it is miles better than Sen...ugh sen....)
Also did the opening line of the review have to beat the dead horse that is VC? Sigh.
Oddly enough, I like this more than part IV. The damage output seems highest here than the rest of the series, thanks to the easily angered Bust discipline, which leads to the quicker battles. And since there's only one life bar as opposed to two, even more so.
I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that this is the game that came closest to maxing out the NEOGEO's number or display colors. Though, one would be hard pressed to see that here with the rather dull scenery. But eagle eyed enthusiasts will notice the unusually smooth gradients transitioning from foreground to background in some of the stages, as well as an extra color or two of shading on the characters themselves.
Even though IV exists, I'll still pick this up. Much like in the case of how Samurai Shodown II already exists, I still find value in Samsho I because of the extra bits of presentation (like the world map and the bonus stages).
This is arguably the worst entry in the entire main Samurai Shodown series. Not only is it a side story (gaiden) game but the gameplay was ridiculously unbalanced, a match could end with 2 strikes if not careful, too many overpower characters, no fatalities or overkill moves, all endings end on some kind of a cliffhanger and you need to play SS4 to see how they connect, popular characters who appeared in SS1&2 were not in this game, and if you got the disc versions of the PS1, Saturn and NeoGeo CD, your disc will take forever to load.
I do agree with the common criticisms of this game. The game did come off as rushed to me. The high damage rate which can lead to short matches is a poor fit for a coin-op game(less of an issue now). Oddly, too much blocking and a short time limit is also a bad fit. However, I love the redrawn sprites and think they look better here than any in any other game of the series. I also like a lot of the new concepts here, though I think everything works better in part four. Of course, if Samurai Shodown 3 is someone's favorite, then I'm glad it's available.
This one is actual quite good. I liked how a lot of new ideas were put in like the redrawn sprites and new characters. Some good atmosphere in some stages This one could have been really great, if it the balance wasn't so broken and if the backgrounds were more finished.
Never understood why they call it "Shodown" not "Showdown"
This and V I just stay away from.
Samurai Shodown is my favorite fighting game series of all time, but I agree SS III is the weakest of the first 4. It's still an awesome game though and definitely worth owning.
@retro_player_22 "the gameplay was ridiculously unbalanced, a match could end with 2 strikes if not careful, too many overpower characters"
I always felt that was the point of a weapons-based fighter, variable damage that increases depending on the state of the opponent, that the Samurai Shodown series pioneered. If your opponent is neutral, average damage. If your opponent whiffed a heavy slash or special move and it wide open, extra damage. Same situation but the opponent is in full rage, the highest amount of damage possible. It made sense for a game representing these lethal weaponized battles.
And apparently that's what series creator was aiming for (from The Making of Samurai Shodown Polygon interview with Yasushi Adachi:
"JM: OK so Fatal Fury was the Street Fighter equivalent at SNK, and Fatal Fury was hand-to-hand combat, but Samurai Shodown was weapons-based. [Why did you choose that approach?]
YA: We wanted to illustrate the terror of fighting weapon-to-weapon, the impact of fighting with a sword in the game. That’s why the damage of being cut by Haohmaru’s sword is significant in the game. The player loses over half of their life gauge when successfully cut by a sword. There was a lot of internal criticism about deducting so much life gauge with one attack. SNK management said this design had to be changed, but I thought it was very interesting to have players fight under the risk and fear of fighting with weapons and feel the destructive force of the sword, so I ignored them and kept it in the game.
JM: It actually makes sense to lose that much life. If someone hits me tomorrow with the business end of a samurai sword, I can tell you with confidence that my personal lifebar is going to go down by at least half.
YA: Right, but it probably wouldn’t pass in today’s industry. As you know, today’s game developers create the game, but then there’s a QA division that tweaks that game based on market research and focus groups. The dev teams today have to take the market research into consideration when finalizing the game. We can’t make a game today that is so inconsistent and unbalanced in the distribution of damage. Basically, it was a controversial design decision that probably wouldn’t happen today."
@mikegamer Well, according to the Making of Samurai Shodown interview...
"JM: So why’s “Shodown” spelled funny?
YA: This was suggested to us by SNK’s U.S. distributor. They said that “Spirits” [from the Japanese title Samurai Spirits] doesn’t really tell the consumer what the game is about, so they suggested replacing it with the word “Showdown.” And the movie Shogun was popular at the time so they suggested the spelling of “Shodown” as a reference to Shogun."
That makes no sense to me, LOL.
@masterLEON That was the main gameplay point for a realistic samurai style game like Bushido Blade but for a fast pace arcade action fighting game like Samurai Shodown III, having short matches and unbalance gameplay killed any interest fan had about the game. Sure it may works if Samurai Shodown started like that but that's not what Samurai Shodown was suppose to be, it was suppose to be a weapon-based Street Fighter.
@retro_player_22 Um, Samurai Shodown IS a weapon-based Street Fighter, made by ex-Capcom employees who left Capcom to join SNK (so the legend goes). Yasushi Adachi, the creator of the series, wanted Samurai Shodown to have a more severe loss of life. Let me re-quote for you:
YA: We wanted to illustrate the terror of fighting weapon-to-weapon, the impact of fighting with a sword in the game. That’s why the damage of being cut by Haohmaru’s sword is significant in the game. The player loses over half of their life gauge when successfully cut by a sword. There was a lot of internal criticism about deducting so much life gauge with one attack. SNK management said this design had to be changed, but I thought it was very interesting to have players fight under the risk and fear of fighting with weapons and feel the destructive force of the sword, so I ignored them and kept it in the game.
https://www.polygon.com/2017/4/10/15223966/the-making-of-samurai-shodown
Have you played the series in the arcade? Even the first 2 games had quick matches, maybe not as fast as 3, but it's possible to beat an opponent in 3-4 slashes with almost any character in SamSho 1 & 2, but it really depends on the other player. And really, the only character who can kill in 2 hits is Haohmaru, but certain conditions need to happen. Generally, both characters need to be at max rage, the other player needs to have missed with a special move or heavy slash, and Haohmaru needs to perform a heavy slash, which does a knockdown and dizzies the opponent. Then, follow up with another heavy slash. For every other character, it'll require and extra 1 or 2 hits before the knockdown and dizzy so the last hit can surpass the low-health damage scaling. However, if the (human) opponent is good enough, they will do their best not let those things happen.
And to address something you mentioned earlier, there were 'fatalities' going all the way back to the arcade version of Samurai Shodown 1. They weren't done by a special input, though. They were activated by a heavy slash that finishes the opponent in the final round of a match. A slice appears on the opponent, a stream of blood spouts out, then the top "half" starts to slide off. The body then starts to flicker away, video game-style, before it hits the ground. If the last hit occurs in the air, both halves of the body fly apart and flicker away. These fatalities were usually accompanied by bonus items that fly out of the body (either money or food items), hit the floor, and award 500 points each.
@masterLEON Yeah that's a lame reason lol
I'll have to call BS on that score, a step back? SS2 was the annoying one after the first which was a fantastic start, may have had more characters but also some more balancing issues too. SS3 took the game in a nice good new direction, harder game, more tactical, and a nice variation of moves along with the option of slash and bust mode. The fact they mixed up the roster well and trimmed it a little to a wiser more refined amount was a good call for variation and balanced play.
I put plenty of time into the first 3 games, slightly compared on 4. SS2 I had extra time off arcade doing the old Windows9X port of it too. It's my least favorite while #3 I felt was a good height to the games I have touched (never did #5.)
Your own paragraphs #2 and #5 summarize why this game does not in any means deserve the 6 rating. I feel that whining complaint leading off the last review paragraph sums up the score. Waaaa it's too hard, damn skippy it is. It makes the previous two games seem a notably easier. If it's that bad, turn it down a notch. I only played this game on the arcade and still have to date as I own it again (arcade, not switch.) I know a re-review can't be done, but it would be best to find a complainer about difficulty being too much (it's not) doing something easier to get a fair evaluation.
@masterLEON Fatalities was not gone from all home versions of Samurai Shodown 1 though, the Genesis and Sega CD versions had the slashing in half finisher and the 3DO version got the blood spray finisher. Maybe instead of just researching for false info actually go out and play those actual games. Only the SNES version lack fatalities.
@retro_player_22 Wow, dude. Relax! Sorry I couldn't play every single console version back in the day in order to know that info. I've already played the arcade originals, and I've owned 1 & 2 for my NEOGEO home cart console. I rented the SNES version of 1 out of curiosity, though, so that's where that came from. I don't own a Genesis or 3DO. The 3DO version, while it was cool from what I've seen, wasn't arcade perfect in terms of performance, which I already had 99% of at home (1 had white blood which can't be changed, and 2 had red blood but you have to do a menu trick to change the color). I removed the offending piece of info from my previous comment, just for you.
The point is that you said there were no fatalities, assuming you meant prior to SS 4. I pointed out there were, the basic ones that have been there since the series started. It's all cosmetic and doesn't affect the core gameplay, anyway. And it was part of management (corporate) decisions to make the series more 'mainstream' by adding command-input fatalities to SS 4. To me, it didn't feel right for certain characters to even be able to do it, like Nakoruru and Rimururu. That's so out of character for them.
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