Fighting Games Friday: The New Samurai Shodown Showdown

The mere existence of the new Samurai Shodown is the ultimate proof that SNK has truly returned.

For nearly the last decade, SNK relied exclusively on The King of Fighters for their only brand aimed at their core gaming audience. The company kept other brands like Fatal Fury, Metal Slug, and, yes, Samurai Shodown around for rereleases, but only made new installments for the mobile and pachinko markets. This was the case before SNK Playmore stopped making games for the core audience after The King of Fighters XIII, and for a short time after they returned with The King of Fighters XIV and became “SNK” again. But the new Samurai Shodown shows how they weren’t kidding when they outright said they returned to making the kind of games they used to, especially upon seeing it in action.

Samurai Shodown was revealed just before Tokyo Game Show last year, and a second preview was provided on the Evo 2019 game lineup stream. Both trailers showed how this will be the most graphically impressive 3D game from SNK thus far. Instead of reusing the engine they relied on for KOF XIV, this title will be powered by Unreal Engine 4, previously used for other fighting games released in the last few years like Street Fighter V and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The mention of SFV is relevant, because the game’s art style, with its bulky anime-style characters, seems inspired by the last two 3D Street Fighter games. Now, we’re getting an improved look at it thanks to previews SNK provided to the press and the game making a playable public appearance at PAX East.

The game looks even more like Capcom’s recent SF games through the new trailer and gameplay videos uploaded this week, given its speed and aspects of the gameplay flow. (This video is one of the best, since it features two experienced SamSho players.) But SNK made sure to transition the game from 2D to 3D while making sure to retain features from several franchise predecessors. It’s not a fast-paced game, but it retains high-damaging normal and super attacks to ensure that matches aren’t too slow. It’s also not a combo-heavy game, similar to previous SamSho games that aren’t named “Samurai Shodown IV.”

In other words: It’s a far more faithful 3D SamSho game than the Samurai Shodown 64 titles, Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage and Samurai Shodown Sen.

As teased in the first trailer, this game will also retain Fatalities, which led to concern that SNK might have trouble adapting the cheesy-but-charming 2D attacks into a more realistic and potentially ill-fittingly grisly 3D style. Fortunately, the style isn’t realistic enough for them to be too off-putting, and the techniques themselves aren’t anywhere near as brutal as those from the recent Mortal Kombat games. This element also shows how SNK is going through painstaking effort to recreate the 2D experience in 3D here.

The new SamSho’s graphics represent a significant leap over KOF XIV’s, but that’s coming at a cost. It will launch with only 16 characters, 13 of which are returning from previous games. Mainstay franchise characters will be in, specifically Haohmaru, Ukyo, Genjuro, Nakoruru, Yagyu Jubei, Charlotte (who’s returned in a more scantily clad outfit for some hilarious reason), Yoshitora Tokugawa, Earthquake, Galford, Hanzo Hattori, Tam Tam, and Kyoshiro Senryo.

Also returning will be Shiki, who was previously only in the SamSho 64 games. She’s appearing here after her popularity took off in crossover titles SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. The other three characters will be brand new, which will be shown in the coming weeks. Since this is a fighting game releasing in 2019, so of course DLC characters are also planned.

The low roster count has already drawn complaints about whether a game launching with 16 characters should cost full price when it releases. But low roster counts can be better alternatives thanks to how they can be easier to balance. Whether this will be tolerable to the more vocal critics will depend on how many characters the game will receive as DLC, and how much the Season Pass will cost.

Samurai Shodown will release in June for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in most territories worldwide. It will subsequently come to Switch in the fall, and the Steam version will come after that. Delayed Switch ports are nothing new, but it’s unusual for a PC port to be delayed for so long these days. I’m not hopeful about them explaining why.

Athlon Games, who’s previously handled free-to-play games, will publish the game in America. They’re notably a publishing subsidiary of Chinese corporation Leyou Technologies, who also owns a majority stake in SNK, so this makes sense. SNK will share more about the title on a regular basis between now and its June release, including at the “Samurai Shodown: Resurrecting a Legend” panel that will feature several prominent SNK staffers happening tomorrow at PAX East.

Update: SNK announced the Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection at the panel, which will include six numbered games, from Samurai Shodown to Samurai Shodown V Special. It will include online play, and feature emulation from Digital Eclipse, who handled the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection.

It ostensibly looks weird that Samurai Shodown VI is missing, but this is the case for two reasons. It wasn’t a NeoGeo game, but ran on Sammy’s Atomiswave arcade board thanks to how rampant NeoGeo piracy became. It also isn’t well-liked by the fanbase, though it has a certain mugen-like charm to it.

This collection will release sometime this fall for PS4, XB1, Switch, and Steam.

Also, one of the new characters for the new Samurai Shodown was confirmed to be Darli Dagger, a pirate who wields a giant saw. More details about her will be reveled in the coming weeks.