Get 50% Off The First Three Samurai Shodown Games On The Switch eShop

What's the best fighting stick for Switch?

I wish they’d cut some of the other arcade games every once in a while.

I 'll be getting at least one of these.

Fantastic. Been waiting for these to come up again.

So which of these three should I start with? I'd like to try all eventually, but in your opinion, which is the best one to start with?

Don't buy these, please. SNK has already confirmed a Samurai Shodown collection for the switch, so this is just them grasping for the last money that they can get out of these before the collection comes out and makes these releases effectively obsolete.

That's what I think, there's a collection coming out (physical???) which has all these and one or two more in it...which makes this sales rather less enticing...

Now when is it due out again??

@Hordak I’m no expert, but I ordered the Hori Real Arcade Pro V stick on sale recently, having heard good things about it. Still waiting for it to arrive. It’s rather expensive, though.

Booo, where’s 5 Special?

@adam9431 If you only care about story then start with the first one. If you want balance AI then start with the first one, if you want a challenge then start with the second one but if it's your first time then start with the third one and choose beginner difficulty (not the difficulty setting in the pause menu but the option in the actual game after you pick your character). That way the AI will go easy on you until your sixth match and you get reduce damage from attack too I think. Do keep in mind that playing in beginner difficulty will not get you the true ending for your character though so good luck to that.

@adam9431 The 2nd is definitely the best all round game out of the first 3,with SSIII being the worst. You really can't go wrong with SSII, it's a superb fighter.

2, 4 and 5 Special are the best games in the series. The others just aren't as good or have various issues. 3 is by far the worst. While I like SS a lot I won't buy the collection as I think you only need the 3 above. And to be honest they are all very similar on the surface. Or just get the Last Blade 1/2 instead, for my money they are superior to SS.

The forthcoming Sam Show is the one that most people should get as it has better graphics, animations and online play.

Too late. I even regret having the second one. Because we will have the Digital Eclipse collection soon.

@John_Deacon I think there was a delay and it had to be out already, but they moved it to spring (?) 2020.

@cheesedude Every Samurai Shodown games are good except 3 and 6. The only minor problem I had with these arcade NeoGeo SS collection is that they lack the hidden goodies from their various home versions.

So you can't unlock Amakusa for play in Samurai Shodown 1, you can't unlock Kuroko in Samurai Shodown II, you don't get Cham Cham as part of the playable roster in Samurai Shodown IV (which to this day was only exclusive to the PS1 port), you don't get to play as Kuroko or Hikyaku like in the Game Boy version of SS1, you can't unlock Zankuro for play in SS3 and SS4, and you can't unlock Goah for play in Samurai Shodown V like you would the PS2 version (the version that is actually a port and not part of the SS Anthology which was just arcade emulation).

Note that these unlockable characters doesn't play anything like their inferior versions that were later seen in SSV Special and SS6.

@Hordak The cheapest one

@retro_player_22 One would appear to know one's Samurai Shodown stuff

@retro_player_22

True, 3 and 6 are not good games. All the others are worth trying, although unless you're really prepared to dig very deeply into the mechanics and put a lot of time into each game, I feel that most people would be much better of buying only one Sam Sho game. Fighting games are an inch wide and a mile deep in terms of content versus gameplay. All you do is fight over and over again. The lack of a training mode makes it difficult to practice special moves.

I bought I and II way before this deal. I have no interest in III. A collection of these games is coming out anyways.

@Hordak
I own the Hori switch arcade pro v hayabusa and it is the best in terms of quality parts and built.There are alternatives,but I wouldn't bother cause they are in the other side of the spectrum. If you want a cheaper alternative,you can get a six button gamepad like the 8bitdo m30 or the retrobit saturn controller.Or any fightpad for another console with an adapter for Switch.

I'm not into arcade pads or using shoulder buttons for attacks so I think I'll just skip the first two games. I might get Samurai Shodown 3 though... even though it doesn't have Charlotte... and I already have Samurai Shodown Anthology for Wii which includes this game.

@AG_Awesome And Sebastian wishes Ariel would show up for rehearsals once in a while. What's your point?

@DrDaisy Speaking of that, I need to watch the little mermaid tv series on Disney plus still.

(Checks non-existent watch) Well, it's about time someone else mentioned this ACA Samsho sale, LOL ;-p

This sale finally pushed me to pick up SS III (I mean, it costs $4 worth of quarters that I've basically paid for in continues already), which I don't feel is as bad as people make it out to be. I mean there's the ridiculous 'Upper Grade' mode, which I love, which keeps you at max rage all the time in exchange for losing the ability to block, and hitboxes feel a little wonky, but overall it was an important game that the rest of the (NEOGEO) installments would continue to build up and refine itself on. On the technical side of things, SNK nearly doubled the usual amount of shades per colors used on the backgrounds (compared the rest of the games following III), and an extra 1 or 2 shades on the characters, for some very smooth gradients. And on certain stages the mid-ground where the characters stand on scale a bit vertically whenever someone jumps which create a sense of depth. Nakoruru's stage with the shallow water next to a rock wall and Haohmaru's stage with the Sakura trees are exceptionally colorful.

I now have all the ACA NEOGEO SS's except for V, which is the only redundant entry to the series (similar to Fatal Fury 2 in that sense). All that aside, I still plan on picking up the collection because of all the extra museum content Digital Eclipse will pack it with. I saw a preview of some of the original dev notes and sketches at MAGfest earlier this year and I was sold!

@cheesedude If anything, there's always the old school method of training and that's going through arcade mode. SNK's AI isn't a pushover. Heck, bump the difficulty up to 6 for even more fun (you can go higher, but the AI's patterns and tendencies start to funnel you into an anti-AI pattern yourself, which is counter productive). If you have a 2nd controller, you can also have player 2 join in as a neutral dummy. It's definitely not ideal, but at least it's something.

@retro_player_22 thanks for the info! I'll go with the second one

@retro_player_22 thanks! Im5gonna get the second one once i get out of bed

I wish Hamster hadn't stopped doing Neo Geo games. I don't personally care much for Samurai Shodown 6 because it has no blood, but I know it had a few fans... Likely the same people who bought Mortal Kombat for SNES. Besides, I was still waiting for Puzzle de Pon and Breakerz. That's never going to happen though, and even they're actually not finished, they'll probably just do another sports game (if there are any left) just to piss me off.

I think I remember reading that a purchase of the new SS will come with a free download of 1, or is its 2?

@neogyo SS2.....but its the NEO GEO Pocket Color version of the game.

@AG_Awesome Well, this is the 2nd month in a row we've had NEO GEO deals. On XBONE, this has been a monthly thing for quite a few months now for 3 random NEO GEO titles, so who knows, maybe they'll start doing it for the Switch as well.

@Angelic_Lapras_King ahh thanks for the confirmation/clarification ...

@masterLEON I agree that 3 gets more hate than it deserves. I think it's because 2 was such a polished experience that it makes 3 feel sloppy by comparison. But 3 introduced a lot of new mechanics that I enjoy playing around with, despite imperfect implementation.