Samurai Shodown

Game Boy 0 subscribers

101K plays 1993 #Action#Fighting

Samurai Shodown is a 1993 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the first installment in the Samurai Shodown series. In contrast to most fighting games at the time, which were set in the modern age and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown takes place in feudal-era Japan (similar to Kaneko's Shogun Warriors that was released the year prior). It was SNK's first arcade fighting game to focus primarily on weapon-based combat.

Samurai Shodown was a commercial success, becoming Japan's sixth highest-grossing arcade game of 1993 and one of America's top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1994. It won several Game of the Year awards from Gamest, Electronic Gaming Monthly and the European Computer Trade Show. Samurai Showdown then appeared on other platforms, including the Takara-published Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear versions in 1994. It has since been re-released for various modern platforms as part of the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (2008), Samurai Shodown Anthology (2008) and Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection (2020) compilations, and on the Wii Virtual Console. Hamster Corporation re-released the game as part of their ACA Neo Geo series for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Android and iOS.

From Wikipedia's article Samurai Shodown (1993 video game), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Keyboard controls

Game BoyPlayer 1
D-pad↑↓←→
BZ
AX
SelectShift
StartEnter

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Keyboard controls

Game BoyPlayer 1
D-pad↑↓←→
BZ
AX
SelectShift
StartEnter

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Pixel Verdict

Samurai ShodownGame Boy

2.5 Could be better

Critics 64 · 2 reviews

What the reviews talk about

Key wordsfaithfulawkwardvariedsmoothshortsolid

What the critics said

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly scored it 30 out of 40 and called it "the best conversion of the game that made the Neo Geo the system of choice for fighting games."

    — Electronic Gaming Monthly

  • Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "fans of the arcade game won't be disappointed with this solid translation, complete with blood and all the varied endings of the original."

    — Next Generation, 1995· about another version

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly scored the 3DO version 38 out of 50, calling it "A very faithful home version of the arcade fighter".

    — Electronic Gaming Monthly, 1995· about another version

  • A reviewer for Next Generation remarked that "The 3DO conversion is nearly identical to the arcade version, much more faithful than the previous SNES, Genesis, and Sega CD versions. The load time between rounds is noticeable, but acceptable."

    — Next Generation· about another version

From the Reception section of Wikipedia's Samurai Shodown (1993 video game) article, under CC BY-SA 4.0. The words are the critics'; their full reviews are on the publishers' pages.

Scores

  • Computer and Video Games 1993 90% (Neo Geo) (other versions)
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly 37/50 (SNES) ; 38/50 (3DO) ; 30/40 (Sega CD) (other versions)
  • Famitsu 1994 25/40 (3DO) ; 6/10, 5/10, 5/10, 5/10 (Game Boy) ; 8/10 (Super Famicom)
  • GamePro 17.5/20 (Genesis) ; 14/20 (SNES) ; 15/20 (Game Boy) ; 15/20 (3DO) ; 13.5/20 (Sega CD)
  • Next Generation 3/5 (Genesis) ; 3/5 (3DO) (other versions)
  • Player One 1995 94% (Mega Drive) (other versions)
  • AllGame 4/5 (SNES) ; 3.5/5 (Neo Geo) (other versions)

From the review table of Wikipedia's article. The face takes, first that applies: the Metascore for this platform, GameRankings' archived average, our average of the critics (one number per publication, a panel averaged), one review alone, the players' rating. Critics and players are never mixed.

Players' rating: 77/100 · 298 votes

Full reviews

Face key

  1. 1.00+
  2. 1.540+
  3. 2.050+
  4. 2.560+
  5. 3.068+
  6. 3.575+
  7. 4.080+
  8. 4.585+
  9. 5.090+

5.0 Outstanding! · 4.0 Great job! · 3.0 Good job · 2.0 Could be better · 1.0 Wake me up when it's over · A thumbs-up adds half a point. Our own drawings, in the spirit of the faces GamePro magazine used in the '90s.

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