I appreciate the thought. You know, honestly, I'm happy with my small audience. It's mostly devoid of the garbage that occurs on TH-cam daily. It also spares me the toxic crowd that attacks every statement and opinion as the worst thing ever. I look at some of the larger channels from time to time and don't know how they tolerate it.
@@SegaLordX Good honesty. Personally I feel like people today are incredibly toxic, all they can do is bitch and moan about anything and everything. Social media has melted peoples brains (overall negativity has increased gradually since 2007). I'm getting so tired of the negativity I've just been seeking out smaller channels that don't chase trend, don't try to get me to buy Raycons and Soylent and can say more than "This game is sooo bad." People these days consider a 7/10 game to be "Dogshit." They are spoiled crybabies.
@@greenkoopa Yeah, I don't mind all sponsorships, you got to make that money. Just some channels will hock anything and their videos only really become a thing to serve ad reads instead of a passion.
Hey, Sega Lord X! Your reviews are the BEST ones coming from a Sega fan, man! I really do appreciate that u don't flourish the games, and just give your HONEST opinion about them. If it's good, it's good, period... but if it's not, u just go and just say it bluntly. Keep up the good work, dude! Cheers.
The funny thing is Amakusa Shiro was a real person (a Christian revolutionary). Yagyu Jubei and Hattori Hanzo were also real life people. Their appearances are a result of Samurai Spirits/Shodown being a loose adaptation of the historical fantasy novel Makai Tensho.
I had this for 3DO and all my friends were jealous... Until when they found out that the 3DO only had like 5 good games and I wasted a whole summer mowing lawns to buy a trash console.
I read gaming magazines back in the day like nobody's business back then. I could smell these stinker consoles from a mile away. Just reading article after article, not liking what they were doing.
Trash console, no, but much too expensive for the time, and certainly not worth wasting a summer mowing lawns. If I was thirteen and paid $700 for a 3DO, I'd hold a grudge too.
I remember reserving and pre-paying for a copy of this game back in the day. I recall it getting pushed back several months before it's release. I was at the time amazed how faithful it was to the NG original, but once I got my hands on the 3DO version, this port just sat on my shelf.
@@Trick-Framed The thing is both consoles didn't get a port of the game over here. Sega Saturn never got a port of SS1 & SS2 while the PS1 got both games but for Japan only and both are arcade accurate with load times. The only other port that most could go for was the NeoGeo CD version which is better than the 3DO but had terribly long load times. It wasn't until the Wii, PS2, and Xbox that we finally get arcade accurate versions of these games.
It would look same as the cartridge, but would have Q-sound and maybe a grainy video from the animated feature. And added load times. Regular 2d games wouldn’t have made much of a difference on the system because it had the same color palette. They type of games that would have benefited from the architecture are forward scrolling games. Core did a great version of Jaguar XJ220, and I think Sega could have done some cool super scaler conversions. I think a good conversion of Wolfenstein 3D was a missed opportunity. Would have been more detailed than the SNES version, and kept the German stuff in. Zero tolerance could have not been so heavily letterboxed on the CD add on. One on one fighters never scaled to anything too special on the add on though.
@@sloppynyuszi The main issue for the SNES/Genesis ports was the cost of the cartridges. The first SF2 ports on both systems were 2 megabyte cartridges, less than a third the size of the arcade ROMs. Given the 768K of RAM on the Sega CD, we could allocate say 200K for each fighter, 200K for the stage, then squeeze everything else into the remaining 168K. Given 12 fighters and 12 stages, and adding on the end sequences and menu elements that don't need to be loaded during a fight, and we could expect a port to be 5-6 megabytes. With the necessary conversion to 6 bit color, we might not need to shrink any graphics or drop frames. Also, the music on the Genesis ports was really bad, something that should not be an issue since we could play music from the CD.
I remember this game having cameos of characters from other SNK games. Mai Shiranui being one of them. Also, I find funny one of Jubei's quotes. He says, "No, I am not related to that character from Fatal Fury." lol
@@nickparsons337 He's actually related to her. He's one of her ancestors. I'm not 100% sure on that info, though. (edited) So I went to the SNK Wiki. Apperantly, it says that he is not related to Mai, even though both characters share the same last name. Also, it says that the female character that appears in his ending is not Mai. Just so happens to be a ninja that kinda looks like her. Hmm...
I had the SEGA Genesis version and enjoyed it so much, I think it was an amazing port, had a lot of fun playing it. This game had such a unique atmosphere.
Lucky rich bastard to have had a neo in its prime. I played the hell outta the snes version and my mom got so mad that I didn’t listen to her that she ran my console and the game under a tap of water Ms I slowly got both working again by waiting over a month.
Good review! I enjoyed Samurai Showdown as a kid at the local arcade. I didn't know the Sega CD got a home port. I'm sure back in the mid '90s this was a dream come true! It doesn't look half bad at all! Although, now that it is really easy to play Neo Geo and arcade games on nearly any modern device, it does make little sense to play a watered down version over the original version. I still have to give credit to the developers since it looks like they did an admirable job with the port (despite cutting back on details).
Yes, I was surprised he didn't mention how much better the color was on the Sega CD version compared to the Genesis. Neither is as good as the arcade, but the Genesis version looks pretty bad with some of those color choices.
SLX, thank you so very much for doing what you do. You've done a large part in shining a light on sOme of the most overlooked games and overhated pieces of hardware. I swear, for every time I hear someone discuss a flaw of the Sega CD, I keep hearing about different reasons to love it!
"Unlike the Super Nintendo and Genesis, the Sega CD had the arcade intro." The SNES version did have the arcade intro. Fact is the SNES version was the more complete version overall. While the SNES version took the zoomed out look (to have Earthquake) I still preferred it to the Genesis version due to it's completeness. It played just like the Neo Geo version. Really the best version of the game on the 16bit consoles hands down.
I am a die hard Samurai Shodown 1 fan. I would go to the arcade to play it even several years after it was initially released. I had the game on both the Genesis and Super Nintendo. Once Neo Geo was emulated in around 1999, that was all she wrote. I never went back to these versions again.
Another amazing review of a classic game that few may know much about these days. Thanks for the pro analysis and the honest run down of its pros and cons. Excellent job once again SLX! Thanks for the retro content.
I can remember drooling over a preview of this version in Gamepro's coverage of CES 94. They used a screenshot from the Neo Geo version with Earthquake in it and said he Sega CD version looked great. But they didn't make it clear that the screenshot wasn't from the Sega CD port. It didn't end up mattering anyway as I ended up getting a 3DO for Christmas in 1994 and I got Samurai Shodown for it not long after. To my 13 year old eyes and ears, the 3DO port was arcade perfect and I couldn't have been happier. Many years later I finally played the Sega CD version and I was underwhelmed. It was definitely better than the Genesis port, especially in color, but it paled in comparison to the 3DO version. Then when I finally played the 3DO version again, I couldn't believe how inconsistent the frame rate was and I thought maybe my 3DO was not working correctly. Now I just play it on my AES when I get the hankering for some Sam Sho.
I enjoyed the SNES version quite a bit back in the 1990s. When I finally tried the Neo Geo version through the Wii Virtual Console, I couldn't get past Earthquake. The Neo Geo version was a LOT harder than the SNES one.
Home versions of arcade games were usually made easier, the developers would only get your money once, and not continuously through quarters, so they made the games more accessible.
I’m crushed to learn the Sega CD had this game! I had no idea as a kid; I would have asked my parents to buy this immediately if I had. My 44 year old self feels sorry for 13 year old me.
What bugs me about Sega CD Samurai Shodown (aside from the rough voices) is that the final battle against Amakusa and the ending feels... unfinished. Unpolished. Like the development team handed it off to someone else and said, "Here, you do this part." I'd like someone to hack the Genesis version, adding all the missing content, but really. It's 2024. Like you said, if people want to play Samurai Shodown, they can get the Neo-Geo version without much trouble. It's no longer 1994, where making a home version of an arcade game is a Herculean feat. The once mighty Neo-Geo is a technological trifle now, and even the Switch has no trouble at all handling it.
The first video game magazine I ever got had a review on the original Samurai Shodown arcade with extremely botched pictures. It was a long time before I actually saw what the game looked like. I remember playing quite a bit of the SNES version of this game and seeing de Genesis version around as well. I don't think I ever saw this CD version out in the wild. It's interesting to see how things were adapted/cut back back in the day.
Amazing in 1993 how we got the first true Street Fighter 2 competitors in Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special in a sea of pretenders and bad games. SNK’s developers refined their gameplay mechanics until they got it right.
Back in the '90s when the Neo Geo game were new, I settled for used copies of the SNES and Genesis ports of most games. Later, in the early 2000s, I finally bought an AES when they were relatively cheap, and built up a decent library there, and got an MVS cabinet later to expand further. That made getting the 3DO and Sega CD versions that I used to really want no longer relevant to me. However, I find it pretty wild that those versions cost more than an authentic AES cart complete in box these days! I imagine it's either a nostalgia or completionist collector thing, but it's pretty interesting to see objectively worse and more wildly available versions cost so much more.
I don't think the Sega/Mega CD was powerful enough to do zooming in and out in fighting games like we all wish it would do. The jump to Neo Geo was big.
@@mrnicktoyou we will never see it since hackers will rather improve and port games on the genesis and 32x instead. The sega cd is too difficult to program.
While it probably would've been easier said than done, I did wish we did get an exclusive character like Shinobi's Joe Musashi. Heck, I wish Sega versions of KOF had an exclusive team like the original Streets of Rage cast as a Team or even Golden Axe given how SamSho got a team in KOF 15 and was supposed to have one for '95.
Great review as always. I bought Samurai Showdown w/high expectations. I just couldn’t stand the slow access timing, lack of the zooming, and noticeable cuts, especially the absence of the boss. After, a few days I returned the game.
Now that you’ve covered Samurai Shodown, you must feature The Last Blade series, as it’s just so incredibly well executed in graphics, gameplay, and with presentation that leads the fields of 2D fighters!
Nice to see that no one is getting tied in knots and getting ''triggered'' over silly things on this video because in the last video there were quite a few of you who were getting heated and taking offence at SLX over statements and opinions that he made regarding SNES and Genesis. I guess it just goes to show that despite the console war was 30 plus years ago, gamers still hold strong in their beliefs and won't accept another's opinion on the matter. I'm a Mega Drive man but I can admit that for some games SNES has the better versions and better music on them. I don't have much experience with Samurai Shodown and the Mega Drive/Genesis port sadly so I can't really comment on it. SNK games were something I never came across back in the day, but to try and answer why Capcom never released a Street Fighter II port on the Mega-CD/SEGA-CD well, quite frankly Capcom didn't care much for Sega in those days. They were in bed with Nintendo during the 8-bit era and most of the 16-bit era and they didn't like the Mega Drive/Genesis much as most of their games were out-sourced to outside studios to develop rather than Capcom in-house. Plus the Mega-CD/Sega-CD wasn't selling in large numbers so maybe that's why no Street Fighter on the Mega-CD?
At least they make up for that with the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast support. Saturn had the better Capcom arcade ports over the PS1 whereas Dreamcast had Street Fighter III all to themselves cancelling the plan PS1 ports of those games altogether.
For those interested in this game (and many more Samurai Shodown titles): There is the "Samurai Shodown Neogeo Collection" for the PS4 which doesn't cost an arm and a leg and features whole 7 Samurai Shodown titles: I, II, III, IV and three versions of V: V, V Special and the until then never before released V Perfect. I'd say that's one hell of a deal if you're a fan of it or want to get into it. And they're direct Neogeo / Arcade Ports as well.
@@SegaLordX I don't think it's pronounced as "A-MAK-sa". The Japanese wouldn't pronounce it as "AmaKOOsa", either, the "Kusa" would be more subtle. Of course I could be wrong.
It was interesting to see two takes on the game from the cart version and the one made by a different company and how they both approached the source material. There is a lot of stuff the cart version did better but over all I do like the Sega CD version.
I never even knew this came out back in the day. I had Samsho for the Genesis, but I really would have loved to have it for the Sega CD if I knew it was out there.
Being big on Street Fighter 2 (normal original edition) at the time, one day after school in elementary school, my friends and I on our way home would stop by a little corner store, like a Circle K or something only this was family owned with a unique name. they had a few arcade games at the time, and had picked up Samurai Showdown. I loved Ninjas and stuff at the time, so upon seeing the game? I fell in love with it. @_@ still Love it today.
In my opinion this version did well for the time. It was a great two player beatem up as my brother or friends and I played for hours. The loading time was our time to talk smack and it usually was a close match each time as the controls were spot on. I was happy this version was released at all as it was delayed multiple times as the Sega CD was coming to an end. It would have been great to bring it over to the Saturn with all the bells and whistles. Being that Funcom/JVC did this version while Takara did the Genesis version is what took so much development time to create rather than a quick port. It was interesting that the Sega CD was even thought of to bring a title like this over. Too bad the SCD wasn’t as popular to bring other dynamic titles like Street Fighter 2 or MK2 (even though it got MK1) my guess the SCD market was not too strong to invest those titles to come over.
Yea the missing scaling and Earthquake really hurt it. Unlimited continues would've helped too. Maybe a hacked version could improve alot of the issues. Alot of these older games was under time constraints sadly.
I thought the SNES version was superior to the Sega CD it may not have had the Zoom Feature but everything else was faithful to the arcade. The intro was also present in the Super Nintendo not in its entirety as far as the Japanese voice but it had the intro from the arcade…it also had better sound…. definitely outclassed the genesis I wouldn’t even hold them in the same category in my opinion. I’ve played both 3DO, SNES, Megadrive and arcade versions.
I didn't experience this franchise back in the day, but the reboot that came out a few years ago is more fun to me than any other. I'm no good at stringing together frame perfect combos, so I appreciate a fighter than leans more toward strategy.
Wow i've somehow never even wondered what Street Fighter 2 (and its varients) could've been like on Sega CD, until it was mentioned in this video. That could've been excellent!
SNES version has the arcade intro, without the speech of course, but it is still mostly intact. Sam Sho 2's only non Neo console port of course, was in Japan to the PS1. It's on the same disc with Sam Sho 1, and though both have a lot of load times with them, I don't mind owning the PS1 version of both games, hell I paid a hair over $50 to have 2 games on one disc that I enjoyed.
@@SegaLordXWeird how Sam Sho 2 was ported to so little hardware, yet 1, 3, and 4 were ported at least 3 times for SS 3, three for SS4 (there's a PC port IIRC, SS 2 also has a Windows port too, so it got 2 ports), 1 was ported to a lot of systems and a PC (FM Towns Marty), SSV had a couple ports as well, PS2 and X-Box, SSV Special sat on the sidelines until the modern consoles (SSV Perfect sat in a programmer's house for decades before coming to console, it's censored), and SS VI still to this day came out on the PS2, and that PS2 port was brought to PS4. For the first four games, SNK seemed allergic to porting SS2 to anything.
@@Bloodreign1 Yeah SNK love to keep SSII for themselves, if you don't own an expensive NeoGeo AES console at the time, the only other home port of the game you could get is the NeoGeo CD version which is still good but hard to find and you had to deal with them long load times. When the NeoGeo Pocket Color launch in 1999, there was a game called Samurai Shodown! 2. At first I thought it was just a handheld port of Samurai Shodown II paying no attention to the "!" part of the title. Little did I know that game is a handheld port of Samurai Shodown 64 II and not Samurai Shodown II. The "!" in the title was a nod to 64. It was still a fun game but just not SSII. SSIII actually had more ports than that, there's also a Game Boy port too with a smaller roster. As for SSIV, the PS1 version is the most definitive as it got one console exclusive playable character, Cham Cham, who was not in the original NeoGeo SSIV roster. Cham Cham; however, was more of a bonus character and not a storyline character as she could only be play in Versus Mode in similar way to how Cammy was in Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. She can't be play in Arcade Mode or had any bio, storyline, and ending in the game. Unlike Cammy, you don't even had to unlock her either, just go to Versus and she's available from the get go.
Sounds like They didn't port the digitized voices over the thr Sega CD's PCM audio hardware. Still low bitrate low resolution audio. Also no utilization of the hardware scaling chip. Still a half hearted port.
Sega CD was the only home version I didn't play, but 3D0 version was excellent, SNES was good in it had all characters/backgrounds, but with the scaled out panoramic view, Genesis had a solid version, just with worse sound and no Earthquake or his background. Wonder if maybe the Sega CD should have tried "fake" scaling like what the PC engine CD did with Art of Fighting.
@@redbaron9420 yeah, would have luved to have seen it, the Neo Geo games they did were pretty good versions in their day. Only arcade fighter they really failed at I know of was Martial Champions, not a Neo Geo fighter, but an arcade fighter that they did not do a good job on.
I don’t understand the 6 button layout. How does it have more function to assign than the original 4-button Neo Geo game? Why does the 3-button pad need any sort of button combos when the Start button is clustered with A, B, & C to match the original 4-button control scheme?
You had button combos in the original to get the hard attacks. The 6 button controller gives you a button for everything. And if you used Start on the 3 button controller as an action button you couldn't pause the game.
@@SegaLordX Thanks! That certainly explains it. IIRC, resetting the PC Engine Arcade Card Neo Geo ports requires you to hold Run + Select for longer than other games since they are used as action buttons… or that might’ve been Street Fighter II’. Either way, you can’t pause. I don’t see that as an issue for an arcade fighter since you obviously couldn’t pause the arcade. It’s an easy sacrifice to make for having the right number of buttons, but in this case it sounds like it’s the Neo Geo original that didn’t have enough buttons for what it was trying to do. ;)
While I do had to say this is a good port (not as much as the Sega Genesis or Super NES versions), a lot of the cutbacks and decisions it made just made me not worth recommending it. For one the judge and courier man are gone, they took out the pinata body slice fatality, Earthquake and his stage are still missing, the zooming and scaling failed to be implemented, a lot of the features exclusive from the Super NES and Sega Genesis versions are gone including the fun Showdown Team Battle Mode and the Countdown Survival Mode, and one of the most guilty thing they did with this port was pretending to make people think Amakusa is playable in the game when he's really not. For those who just look at the screenshot of the game instead of actually playing it, Amakusa in the Sega CD version like the Sega Genesis version is seen at the character selection screen but no matter which mode you play at single or two player mode, Arcade or Versus, you can't just pick him at all. His character slot seems to be locked for some reason. This is unlike the Sega Genesis version where although you can't pick Amakusa at the character selection screen in Arcade Mode, you could still pick him in Versus Mode. Perhaps a code to unlock him exist somewhere but to this day nobody knows anything. The only thing I won't fault this game are the load times since those are expected but c'mon to lose this many features is just unacceptable.
Pretty good port. It didnt had Earthquake or the zoom effects, but the sprites were pretty much arcade perfect, and without all the slowdown and broke framerate of Fatal Fury Special.
Since emulation, I was able to try out this version. And I burnt a copy for my Sega CD. Plays pretty good as you said and it does fair well against the other fighters on the CD. Even though this, Fatal Fury Special, and MK are on the Sega CD, my favourite fighting game on the console is still Challenge from the Dark Side. Awesome Game!
To be honest, Neogeo selling their games for 200 bucks was cheap, i mean, their cartridges were basically arcade boards, and arcades were amusement machines, not just toys like videogames, were machines designed for you to make a business on them, each game should have cost like an arcade cabinet, but yes of course were expensive in regard as the regular videogames
hey ive always sucked at fighting games and especially don't have any personal history with SNK fighters, but that 3-button layout makes a lot more sense than street fighter's approach of using the start button to shuffle between kicks and punches. It requires you to use the A/B/C buttons with your fingers instead of your thumb, but it probably wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for people who were already accustomed to using an arcade panel
It's odd cause later Samurai Shodown games only used a 3-button setup ditching the 6-button setup altogether. In the later games it only had Hard Slash, Weak Slash, and Strong Kick (with variables). Only the first two games used the 6-button layout which are Weak Slash, Mid Slash, Strong Slash, Weak Kick, Mid Kick, and Strong Kick. SNK later find out that nobody used the other three buttons (Mid Slash, Weak Kick, and Mid Kick) so they just kept the three main ones (Weak Slash, Strong Slash, and Strong Kick). Had they used the 3-button setup from the get-go, then Sega wouldn't had to worry about changing setup or requiring the 6-button pad.
The art is really clean. Unlike the conversion of something like street fighter, the characters feel the right proportions and have a really solid and chunky look. Solid use of color as well.
I have always loved Samurai Shodown.The one question I have always had tho, and have never been able to find an answer to is this; Even in the arcade game, some characters can be cut in half, but some can't be.(Gen an, Kyoshiro) I realize the obvious answer for this (some not being able to be cut in half) generally speaking was probably just to save memory, but what I want to know is was there a specific reason that that decision was made for each character, and if so, what was it, or were they just randomly chosen by the programmers at the time as to who would or wouldn't be able to be cut in half. Because if it was just saving memory, then why wouldn't they have picked Earthquake to not be able to be cut in half since he was by far the largest sprite?
They even lied to you on the back of the box: it says "choose from 12 characters" - but that's not true, Earthquake is still missing. It would be 12 fighters with Amakusa included - but he's the boss and an unplayable character (at least without cheats or other tricks, but I don't know. He's for sure not playable by default)...
I used to have this game back in the day, mainly because I wanted SamSho at home. I also had Fatal Fury Special. No way in hell would my parents have been able to afford a Neo Geo with games, much less myself back then. So the watered down 16-bit ports were the only options. Anyway yea, this is not the definitive way to play this game these days. We could easily download it on various modern platforms or emulation now. Only get it if you want a complete Sega CD collection or whatever.
I'm not sure why, but the Sega Genesis version felt better gameplay wise than the Sega CD version. Though it could be because I played that one first and at least the Sega CD version looks better.
@@SegaLordX That is definitely a good point. I'd have to put some more time into the Sega CD version someday. I don't think I appreciate it as much as I should.
It's not that Earthquake can't be included in these ports but that Sega just plain hate the guy. Sega got 3 ports of SS1: the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and Sega Game Gear port. To missed him on the Sega Genesis version, that's fine we'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one, to miss him in the Game Gear okay probably just limitation issue (although he was playable on the Game Boy version just fine), but to missed him again on the Sega CD port, at that point they just making excuses. They just don't like him. I mean how many versions of SS1 does Nintendo had, six? The Super NES version had Earthquake, the Game Boy version had Earthquake, the Nintendo Wii version had Earthquake, the Wii/Wii U Virtual Console version had Earthquake, the Nintendo Switch version had Earthquake, and the HAMSTER version on Nintendo Switch had Earthquake. Nintendo had six ports of the game and it all had Earthquake in it, at this point Sega had no excuse. Yes there are only 3 versions but to missed Earthquake in all three is unacceptable, at least one should have had included him. The only SS game on Sega that even featured Eartthquake was Samurai Shodown RPG on the Sega Saturn but on that one he's not playable either.
@11:30 you could literally say the same for Any Other Arcade Home Conversion. It isn't really a fair critique, because every home port of ANY arcade game has been rendered irrelevant in a world where emulators exist, and even commercial/licensed re-releases and compilations of arcade games have been made available on most current and contemporary platforms... Games like this should always be measured against their peers, and it really seems like this would have been a solid option for fans who might have wanted to play the game at home without spending a fortune on specialty hardware. (yes, it required a genesis AND sega cd, but most of those kids probably got a genesis for christmas/hanukkah/birthday, and perhaps they got a sega cd from allowance money or an early part-time job... the hardware was still accessible, and the game still offered something better than its contemporaries) as a parallel: I can't be angry about my ex-rental copy of Virtua Racing for the genesis while, 30 years later, I still entertain the pipe dream of owning an arcade version if I ever become a homeowner... I could emulate the original all day, but that's not the same as experiencing a developer's deliberate effort to offer the same game to a home audience on whatever hardware was available at the time. I never had the luxury of playing any of the popular 80s and early 90s arcade games, but my experience on home consoles (NES, Genesis, SNES.. nobody I knew had a TG16 or neo geo) was really my only exposure to a lot of these games. Magazines could sing praises of arcade and other expensive hardware, but it mostly fell on deaf ears because the context of 'something better' never existed in my world.
Can't believe you don't have more subscribers...
Cheers to this great channel 🍻🍻
I appreciate the thought. You know, honestly, I'm happy with my small audience. It's mostly devoid of the garbage that occurs on TH-cam daily. It also spares me the toxic crowd that attacks every statement and opinion as the worst thing ever. I look at some of the larger channels from time to time and don't know how they tolerate it.
@@SegaLordX Good honesty. Personally I feel like people today are incredibly toxic, all they can do is bitch and moan about anything and everything. Social media has melted peoples brains (overall negativity has increased gradually since 2007). I'm getting so tired of the negativity I've just been seeking out smaller channels that don't chase trend, don't try to get me to buy Raycons and Soylent and can say more than "This game is sooo bad." People these days consider a 7/10 game to be "Dogshit." They are spoiled crybabies.
@@SegaLordX they just don't read the comments 🤣🤣
@Gatorade69 I don't mind sponsorships, that's part of the deal but I don't like when they post a video and never engage with the audience
@@greenkoopa Yeah, I don't mind all sponsorships, you got to make that money. Just some channels will hock anything and their videos only really become a thing to serve ad reads instead of a passion.
Hey, Sega Lord X!
Your reviews are the BEST ones coming from a Sega fan, man! I really do appreciate that u don't flourish the games, and just give your HONEST opinion about them. If it's good, it's good, period... but if it's not, u just go and just say it bluntly.
Keep up the good work, dude!
Cheers.
Love your honesty. My number 1 retro gaming channel 👍🏾
The funny thing is Amakusa Shiro was a real person (a Christian revolutionary). Yagyu Jubei and Hattori Hanzo were also real life people. Their appearances are a result of Samurai Spirits/Shodown being a loose adaptation of the historical fantasy novel Makai Tensho.
Also, Hattori Hanzo made Black Mamba katana ;-)
I had this for 3DO and all my friends were jealous... Until when they found out that the 3DO only had like 5 good games and I wasted a whole summer mowing lawns to buy a trash console.
Yea 3DO was like 700 i think and wasn’t very reliable either
You had a really good port of Super Turbo
When you spend $700 on a console you'd better hope it has 5 good ones.
I read gaming magazines back in the day like nobody's business back then. I could smell these stinker consoles from a mile away. Just reading article after article, not liking what they were doing.
Trash console, no, but much too expensive for the time, and certainly not worth wasting a summer mowing lawns. If I was thirteen and paid $700 for a 3DO, I'd hold a grudge too.
I remember reserving and pre-paying for a copy of this game back in the day. I recall it getting pushed back several months before it's release. I was at the time amazed how faithful it was to the NG original, but once I got my hands on the 3DO version, this port just sat on my shelf.
And this is the truth. The 3DO version was superior to all versions including the Neo Geo. Wasn't until Saturn and PS1 came around that it changed.
@@Trick-Framed The thing is both consoles didn't get a port of the game over here. Sega Saturn never got a port of SS1 & SS2 while the PS1 got both games but for Japan only and both are arcade accurate with load times. The only other port that most could go for was the NeoGeo CD version which is better than the 3DO but had terribly long load times. It wasn't until the Wii, PS2, and Xbox that we finally get arcade accurate versions of these games.
I used to have the Snes version 😢😢😢😂
The sprite work blew me away in the arcade 😮
Neo-Geo sprite work is god tier. It still looks impressive to this day.
It was a good Arcade machine - ur right
To this day I still wonder what a Street Fighter 2 on Sega CD would have been like
It's fascinating nobody made a romhack/port
It would look same as the cartridge, but would have Q-sound and maybe a grainy video from the animated feature. And added load times.
Regular 2d games wouldn’t have made much of a difference on the system because it had the same color palette.
They type of games that would have benefited from the architecture are forward scrolling games. Core did a great version of Jaguar XJ220, and I think Sega could have done some cool super scaler conversions.
I think a good conversion of Wolfenstein 3D was a missed opportunity. Would have been more detailed than the SNES version, and kept the German stuff in. Zero tolerance could have not been so heavily letterboxed on the CD add on.
One on one fighters never scaled to anything too special on the add on though.
@@sloppynyuszi The Megadrive/Genesis now has a great homebrew port of Wolfenstein 3D, it really is impressive.
@@sloppynyuszi The main issue for the SNES/Genesis ports was the cost of the cartridges. The first SF2 ports on both systems were 2 megabyte cartridges, less than a third the size of the arcade ROMs. Given the 768K of RAM on the Sega CD, we could allocate say 200K for each fighter, 200K for the stage, then squeeze everything else into the remaining 168K. Given 12 fighters and 12 stages, and adding on the end sequences and menu elements that don't need to be loaded during a fight, and we could expect a port to be 5-6 megabytes. With the necessary conversion to 6 bit color, we might not need to shrink any graphics or drop frames.
Also, the music on the Genesis ports was really bad, something that should not be an issue since we could play music from the CD.
X68000 was a beast back then. Only maybe the 32x can have something relatively close to it
I remember this game having cameos of characters from other SNK games. Mai Shiranui being one of them. Also, I find funny one of Jubei's quotes. He says, "No, I am not related to that character from Fatal Fury." lol
What else is funny is that Mai is supposed to be Gen an's wife.
@@nickparsons337 He's actually related to her. He's one of her ancestors. I'm not 100% sure on that info, though.
(edited)
So I went to the SNK Wiki. Apperantly, it says that he is not related to Mai, even though both characters share the same last name. Also, it says that the female character that appears in his ending is not Mai. Just so happens to be a ninja that kinda looks like her. Hmm...
@@nickparsons337his wife's name is Azami
@@VBrancoPT It's very likely that they are from the same clan but not same family.
@@Hektols True. But then again, those are details I usually don't bother giving too much atention in a fighting game, so.. lol
I had the SEGA Genesis version and enjoyed it so much, I think it was an amazing port, had a lot of fun playing it.
This game had such a unique atmosphere.
Got this on my NEO-GEO! I still play it until this day😆
Lucky rich bastard to have had a neo in its prime. I played the hell outta the snes version and my mom got so mad that I didn’t listen to her that she ran my console and the game under a tap of water Ms I slowly got both working again by waiting over a month.
Good review! I enjoyed Samurai Showdown as a kid at the local arcade. I didn't know the Sega CD got a home port. I'm sure back in the mid '90s this was a dream come true! It doesn't look half bad at all!
Although, now that it is really easy to play Neo Geo and arcade games on nearly any modern device, it does make little sense to play a watered down version over the original version. I still have to give credit to the developers since it looks like they did an admirable job with the port (despite cutting back on details).
side by side with the genesis port, the cd port looks more colorful with slightly larger sprites. imo the best 16-bit port state side.
Yes, I was surprised he didn't mention how much better the color was on the Sega CD version compared to the Genesis. Neither is as good as the arcade, but the Genesis version looks pretty bad with some of those color choices.
You always dig up games I didn't even know were on these Sega systems, despite me growing up a Sega kid!
SLX, thank you so very much for doing what you do. You've done a large part in shining a light on sOme of the most overlooked games and overhated pieces of hardware. I swear, for every time I hear someone discuss a flaw of the Sega CD, I keep hearing about different reasons to love it!
Should’ve had the scaling effects. Another wasted chance to use the Sega CD to its fullest
RIP Akira Toriyama
😢 he was my childhood
"Unlike the Super Nintendo and Genesis, the Sega CD had the arcade intro."
The SNES version did have the arcade intro.
Fact is the SNES version was the more complete version overall. While the SNES version took the zoomed out look (to have Earthquake) I still preferred it to the Genesis version due to it's completeness. It played just like the Neo Geo version. Really the best version of the game on the 16bit consoles hands down.
I meant the arcade intro in the strictest sense. Music and voice, specifically. The SNES intro feels very different in this regard.
I am a die hard Samurai Shodown 1 fan. I would go to the arcade to play it even several years after it was initially released. I had the game on both the Genesis and Super Nintendo. Once Neo Geo was emulated in around 1999, that was all she wrote. I never went back to these versions again.
Another amazing review of a classic game that few may know much about these days. Thanks for the pro analysis and the honest run down of its pros and cons. Excellent job once again SLX! Thanks for the retro content.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I can remember drooling over a preview of this version in Gamepro's coverage of CES 94. They used a screenshot from the Neo Geo version with Earthquake in it and said he Sega CD version looked great. But they didn't make it clear that the screenshot wasn't from the Sega CD port.
It didn't end up mattering anyway as I ended up getting a 3DO for Christmas in 1994 and I got Samurai Shodown for it not long after. To my 13 year old eyes and ears, the 3DO port was arcade perfect and I couldn't have been happier.
Many years later I finally played the Sega CD version and I was underwhelmed. It was definitely better than the Genesis port, especially in color, but it paled in comparison to the 3DO version. Then when I finally played the 3DO version again, I couldn't believe how inconsistent the frame rate was and I thought maybe my 3DO was not working correctly. Now I just play it on my AES when I get the hankering for some Sam Sho.
Oh snap! Can't wait to watch this after work. I had this on the Sega CD back in the day.
I enjoyed the SNES version quite a bit back in the 1990s. When I finally tried the Neo Geo version through the Wii Virtual Console, I couldn't get past Earthquake. The Neo Geo version was a LOT harder than the SNES one.
Home versions of arcade games were usually made easier, the developers would only get your money once, and not continuously through quarters, so they made the games more accessible.
This is the best retro game channel on TH-cam.
Facts , passionate, honest and to the point I hope he hits a mill one day
Yeah. SLX always delivers.
please, make a Sega CD Fatal Fury video
Yeah, lots of games had their best version on the Sega CD.
That's cool! However, the 3DO version will always be my #1 favorite port outside of the Neo Geo.
I’m crushed to learn the Sega CD had this game! I had no idea as a kid; I would have asked my parents to buy this immediately if I had. My 44 year old self feels sorry for 13 year old me.
I had Samurai Shodown for the PS1. It was Awesome. The combos was wicked but the final boss with the orb kicked my butt a lot. Such Nostalgia. 😄👍💯
I found the PS1 version had shorter load times than the NeoGeo CD and Sega CD versions. It's too bad it's Japan exclusive only.
The library of 2d Fighters on Sega CD is very small, this is in the top 2 with Fatal Fury Special
What bugs me about Sega CD Samurai Shodown (aside from the rough voices) is that the final battle against Amakusa and the ending feels... unfinished. Unpolished. Like the development team handed it off to someone else and said, "Here, you do this part."
I'd like someone to hack the Genesis version, adding all the missing content, but really. It's 2024. Like you said, if people want to play Samurai Shodown, they can get the Neo-Geo version without much trouble. It's no longer 1994, where making a home version of an arcade game is a Herculean feat. The once mighty Neo-Geo is a technological trifle now, and even the Switch has no trouble at all handling it.
I never even knew SamSho was on the Sega CD. I read EGM religiously but never saw it mentioned...
You and me both.
The first video game magazine I ever got had a review on the original Samurai Shodown arcade with extremely botched pictures. It was a long time before I actually saw what the game looked like. I remember playing quite a bit of the SNES version of this game and seeing de Genesis version around as well. I don't think I ever saw this CD version out in the wild. It's interesting to see how things were adapted/cut back back in the day.
Amazing in 1993 how we got the first true Street Fighter 2 competitors in Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special in a sea of pretenders and bad games. SNK’s developers refined their gameplay mechanics until they got it right.
I remember seeing this version back in the magazines Neo Geo arcade was the best version 😊😊
Back in the '90s when the Neo Geo game were new, I settled for used copies of the SNES and Genesis ports of most games. Later, in the early 2000s, I finally bought an AES when they were relatively cheap, and built up a decent library there, and got an MVS cabinet later to expand further. That made getting the 3DO and Sega CD versions that I used to really want no longer relevant to me. However, I find it pretty wild that those versions cost more than an authentic AES cart complete in box these days! I imagine it's either a nostalgia or completionist collector thing, but it's pretty interesting to see objectively worse and more wildly available versions cost so much more.
I don't think the Sega/Mega CD was powerful enough to do zooming in and out in fighting games like we all wish it would do. The jump to Neo Geo was big.
No, it probably wasn't, but nothing was tried at all. And that's just sad.
@@SegaLordXyeah, true. They barely tapped into the potential of the system that we still don't know what it's truly capable of.
@@mrnicktoyou we will never see it since hackers will rather improve and port games on the genesis and 32x instead. The sega cd is too difficult to program.
While it probably would've been easier said than done, I did wish we did get an exclusive character like Shinobi's Joe Musashi. Heck, I wish Sega versions of KOF had an exclusive team like the original Streets of Rage cast as a Team or even Golden Axe given how SamSho got a team in KOF 15 and was supposed to have one for '95.
Great review as always. I bought Samurai Showdown w/high expectations. I just couldn’t stand the slow access timing, lack of the zooming, and noticeable cuts, especially the absence of the boss. After, a few days I returned the game.
Now that you’ve covered Samurai Shodown, you must feature The Last Blade series, as it’s just so incredibly well executed in graphics, gameplay, and with presentation that leads the fields of 2D fighters!
Nice to see that no one is getting tied in knots and getting ''triggered'' over silly things on this video because in the last video there were quite a few of you who were getting heated and taking offence at SLX over statements and opinions that he made regarding SNES and Genesis. I guess it just goes to show that despite the console war was 30 plus years ago, gamers still hold strong in their beliefs and won't accept another's opinion on the matter. I'm a Mega Drive man but I can admit that for some games SNES has the better versions and better music on them.
I don't have much experience with Samurai Shodown and the Mega Drive/Genesis port sadly so I can't really comment on it. SNK games were something I never came across back in the day, but to try and answer why Capcom never released a Street Fighter II port on the Mega-CD/SEGA-CD well, quite frankly Capcom didn't care much for Sega in those days. They were in bed with Nintendo during the 8-bit era and most of the 16-bit era and they didn't like the Mega Drive/Genesis much as most of their games were out-sourced to outside studios to develop rather than Capcom in-house. Plus the Mega-CD/Sega-CD wasn't selling in large numbers so maybe that's why no Street Fighter on the Mega-CD?
At least they make up for that with the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast support. Saturn had the better Capcom arcade ports over the PS1 whereas Dreamcast had Street Fighter III all to themselves cancelling the plan PS1 ports of those games altogether.
"Rub my brain" can't unhear..
For those interested in this game (and many more Samurai Shodown titles):
There is the "Samurai Shodown Neogeo Collection" for the PS4 which doesn't cost an arm and a leg and features whole 7 Samurai Shodown titles: I, II, III, IV and three versions of V:
V, V Special and the until then never before released V Perfect.
I'd say that's one hell of a deal if you're a fan of it or want to get into it.
And they're direct Neogeo / Arcade Ports as well.
Great review. A small error - the boss is named Amakusa, not Amaksa.
The Japanese pronunciation is what I used.
@@SegaLordX I don't think it's pronounced as "A-MAK-sa". The Japanese wouldn't pronounce it as "AmaKOOsa", either, the "Kusa" would be more subtle. Of course I could be wrong.
It was interesting to see two takes on the game from the cart version and the one made by a different company and how they both approached the source material. There is a lot of stuff the cart version did better but over all I do like the Sega CD version.
I never even knew this came out back in the day. I had Samsho for the Genesis, but I really would have loved to have it for the Sega CD if I knew it was out there.
❗️I liked 'SamSho'.
At first, I liked Galford but now love Genan.
This game also reminds me of 'World Heroes'.
To me it’s simple: If you have a 6-button controller, it’s absolutely worth playing. With a 3-button controller it’s not.
Being big on Street Fighter 2 (normal original edition) at the time, one day after school in elementary school, my friends and I on our way home would stop by a little corner store, like a Circle K or something only this was family owned with a unique name. they had a few arcade games at the time, and had picked up Samurai Showdown. I loved Ninjas and stuff at the time, so upon seeing the game? I fell in love with it. @_@ still Love it today.
Thank you really putting time and effort into your videos. Love them all SLX
My pleasure!
In my opinion this version did well for the time. It was a great two player beatem up as my brother or friends and I played for hours. The loading time was our time to talk smack and it usually was a close match each time as the controls were spot on. I was happy this version was released at all as it was delayed multiple times as the Sega CD was coming to an end. It would have been great to bring it over to the Saturn with all the bells and whistles. Being that Funcom/JVC did this version while Takara did the Genesis version is what took so much development time to create rather than a quick port. It was interesting that the Sega CD was even thought of to bring a title like this over. Too bad the SCD wasn’t as popular to bring other dynamic titles like Street Fighter 2 or MK2 (even though it got MK1) my guess the SCD market was not too strong to invest those titles to come over.
This is probably the best they can do despite having 2 68000 motorolas, the sprite and ram was the biggest limitation
Very broken add-on and should've had been released.
A port of Super Street Fighter 2 turbo for Sega CD would be a hit but Capcom didn't support Sega CD as well as Megadrive...
I own every single samurai showdown game across various consoles and watching this has made me wanna play through them all
I still have this game. Its on a snk collection. This game collection is 20 plus years old
Yea the missing scaling and Earthquake really hurt it. Unlimited continues would've helped too. Maybe a hacked version could improve alot of the issues. Alot of these older games was under time constraints sadly.
I believe hackers will rather work on the genesis port over the sega cd.
@@maroon9273 maybe so, but the sega cd version would definitely be more interesting.
Love your Sega CD reviews. Keep 'em coming. Cheers!
This channel deserves at least a million subscribers!
I thought the SNES version was superior to the Sega CD it may not have had the Zoom Feature but everything else was faithful to the arcade. The intro was also present in the Super Nintendo not in its entirety as far as the Japanese voice but it had the intro from the arcade…it also had better sound…. definitely outclassed the genesis I wouldn’t even hold them in the same category in my opinion. I’ve played both 3DO, SNES, Megadrive and arcade versions.
The 3DO version was the closest version to the arcade. Far above the Mega CD version.
Without Earthquake......... No thanks !!!!!
I didn't experience this franchise back in the day, but the reboot that came out a few years ago is more fun to me than any other. I'm no good at stringing together frame perfect combos, so I appreciate a fighter than leans more toward strategy.
Huge fan of this game series! I also absolutely loved the anime movie from back in the day. I had it on VHS and watched it quite a bit!
Wow i've somehow never even wondered what Street Fighter 2 (and its varients) could've been like on Sega CD, until it was mentioned in this video.
That could've been excellent!
SNES version has the arcade intro, without the speech of course, but it is still mostly intact. Sam Sho 2's only non Neo console port of course, was in Japan to the PS1. It's on the same disc with Sam Sho 1, and though both have a lot of load times with them, I don't mind owning the PS1 version of both games, hell I paid a hair over $50 to have 2 games on one disc that I enjoyed.
Right, but Sega CD had the perfect arcade intro, which I should have pointed out. Sam 2 was in PS1 in 1998, which would have been 3 years later.
@@SegaLordXWeird how Sam Sho 2 was ported to so little hardware, yet 1, 3, and 4 were ported at least 3 times for SS 3, three for SS4 (there's a PC port IIRC, SS 2 also has a Windows port too, so it got 2 ports), 1 was ported to a lot of systems and a PC (FM Towns Marty), SSV had a couple ports as well, PS2 and X-Box, SSV Special sat on the sidelines until the modern consoles (SSV Perfect sat in a programmer's house for decades before coming to console, it's censored), and SS VI still to this day came out on the PS2, and that PS2 port was brought to PS4.
For the first four games, SNK seemed allergic to porting SS2 to anything.
@@Bloodreign1 Yeah SNK love to keep SSII for themselves, if you don't own an expensive NeoGeo AES console at the time, the only other home port of the game you could get is the NeoGeo CD version which is still good but hard to find and you had to deal with them long load times. When the NeoGeo Pocket Color launch in 1999, there was a game called Samurai Shodown! 2. At first I thought it was just a handheld port of Samurai Shodown II paying no attention to the "!" part of the title. Little did I know that game is a handheld port of Samurai Shodown 64 II and not Samurai Shodown II. The "!" in the title was a nod to 64. It was still a fun game but just not SSII. SSIII actually had more ports than that, there's also a Game Boy port too with a smaller roster. As for SSIV, the PS1 version is the most definitive as it got one console exclusive playable character, Cham Cham, who was not in the original NeoGeo SSIV roster. Cham Cham; however, was more of a bonus character and not a storyline character as she could only be play in Versus Mode in similar way to how Cammy was in Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. She can't be play in Arcade Mode or had any bio, storyline, and ending in the game. Unlike Cammy, you don't even had to unlock her either, just go to Versus and she's available from the get go.
Has its flaws but it's a fantastic port
first time I played SS was at our local Aladdin's Castle, they had the big screen cabinet, this was my first experience with NeoGeo
I had this for 3DO! I loved this game! It could be hard sometimes! The green guy with the razor fingers is the best!
I loved this game, played it on multiple systems. Hanzo was my favorite character. Also, played 1 thru 6.
Sounds like They didn't port the digitized voices over the thr Sega CD's PCM audio hardware. Still low bitrate low resolution audio. Also no utilization of the hardware scaling chip. Still a half hearted port.
Never was I more popular in my day than when I was the only one in my circle that got the Neo Geo and those $200+ games were actually worth it
I still have my copy of this game because I like to pop it into the CD player to hear the soundtrack.
I loved this game, back in the day ! I kept it until they came out with the Samurai Shodown collection on the PS2 ! GREAT SERIES !
Sega CD was the only home version I didn't play, but 3D0 version was excellent, SNES was good in it had all characters/backgrounds, but with the scaled out panoramic view, Genesis had a solid version, just with worse sound and no Earthquake or his background. Wonder if maybe the Sega CD should have tried "fake" scaling like what the PC engine CD did with Art of Fighting.
Speaking of PC engine CD, it's a shame there wasn't an Arcade Card port of this game on that system.
@@redbaron9420 yeah, would have luved to have seen it, the Neo Geo games they did were pretty good versions in their day. Only arcade fighter they really failed at I know of was Martial Champions, not a Neo Geo fighter, but an arcade fighter that they did not do a good job on.
I don’t understand the 6 button layout. How does it have more function to assign than the original 4-button Neo Geo game? Why does the 3-button pad need any sort of button combos when the Start button is clustered with A, B, & C to match the original 4-button control scheme?
You had button combos in the original to get the hard attacks. The 6 button controller gives you a button for everything. And if you used Start on the 3 button controller as an action button you couldn't pause the game.
@@SegaLordX Thanks! That certainly explains it.
IIRC, resetting the PC Engine Arcade Card Neo Geo ports requires you to hold Run + Select for longer than other games since they are used as action buttons… or that might’ve been Street Fighter II’. Either way, you can’t pause. I don’t see that as an issue for an arcade fighter since you obviously couldn’t pause the arcade. It’s an easy sacrifice to make for having the right number of buttons, but in this case it sounds like it’s the Neo Geo original that didn’t have enough buttons for what it was trying to do. ;)
I am glad SNK released that Samurai Shodown collection.
I had this for the neo geo aes and cd. It's so hard to go to the sega version afterward. Still so much fun!
I came across this game at my local mini golf played it out
The Neo CD was the best way to enjoy games like this on a budget, if you could bear the epic load times
Neo Geo and Sega CD have the same 68000 processor, for that reason the 2 Sega 16 bit versions were the best.
My friend had bought a Genisis in the mid 90's , I liked Samurai Showdown on it, I enjoyed it
While I do had to say this is a good port (not as much as the Sega Genesis or Super NES versions), a lot of the cutbacks and decisions it made just made me not worth recommending it. For one the judge and courier man are gone, they took out the pinata body slice fatality, Earthquake and his stage are still missing, the zooming and scaling failed to be implemented, a lot of the features exclusive from the Super NES and Sega Genesis versions are gone including the fun Showdown Team Battle Mode and the Countdown Survival Mode, and one of the most guilty thing they did with this port was pretending to make people think Amakusa is playable in the game when he's really not.
For those who just look at the screenshot of the game instead of actually playing it, Amakusa in the Sega CD version like the Sega Genesis version is seen at the character selection screen but no matter which mode you play at single or two player mode, Arcade or Versus, you can't just pick him at all. His character slot seems to be locked for some reason. This is unlike the Sega Genesis version where although you can't pick Amakusa at the character selection screen in Arcade Mode, you could still pick him in Versus Mode. Perhaps a code to unlock him exist somewhere but to this day nobody knows anything. The only thing I won't fault this game are the load times since those are expected but c'mon to lose this many features is just unacceptable.
For some reason I thought the Sega CD version zoomed out when you moved further apart.
Pretty good port. It didnt had Earthquake or the zoom effects, but the sprites were pretty much arcade perfect, and without all the slowdown and broke framerate of Fatal Fury Special.
Since emulation, I was able to try out this version. And I burnt a copy for my Sega CD. Plays pretty good as you said and it does fair well against the other fighters on the CD. Even though this, Fatal Fury Special, and MK are on the Sega CD, my favourite fighting game on the console is still Challenge from the Dark Side. Awesome Game!
To be honest, Neogeo selling their games for 200 bucks was cheap, i mean, their cartridges were basically arcade boards, and arcades were amusement machines, not just toys like videogames, were machines designed for you to make a business on them, each game should have cost like an arcade cabinet, but yes of course were expensive in regard as the regular videogames
hey ive always sucked at fighting games and especially don't have any personal history with SNK fighters, but that 3-button layout makes a lot more sense than street fighter's approach of using the start button to shuffle between kicks and punches. It requires you to use the A/B/C buttons with your fingers instead of your thumb, but it probably wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for people who were already accustomed to using an arcade panel
It's odd cause later Samurai Shodown games only used a 3-button setup ditching the 6-button setup altogether. In the later games it only had Hard Slash, Weak Slash, and Strong Kick (with variables). Only the first two games used the 6-button layout which are Weak Slash, Mid Slash, Strong Slash, Weak Kick, Mid Kick, and Strong Kick. SNK later find out that nobody used the other three buttons (Mid Slash, Weak Kick, and Mid Kick) so they just kept the three main ones (Weak Slash, Strong Slash, and Strong Kick). Had they used the 3-button setup from the get-go, then Sega wouldn't had to worry about changing setup or requiring the 6-button pad.
The art is really clean. Unlike the conversion of something like street fighter, the characters feel the right proportions and have a really solid and chunky look. Solid use of color as well.
The beginning of a legendary series... 🥷
I dont understand why Earthquake is again missing in CD support!!! Programmers didnt knew how to shrink the sprite? 🤨
I don't know what it's worth but I still have my snes game. The original that I got when I was a kid. It still works
I have always loved Samurai Shodown.The one question I have always had tho, and have never been able to find an answer to is this; Even in the arcade game, some characters can be cut in half, but some can't be.(Gen an, Kyoshiro) I realize the obvious answer for this (some not being able to be cut in half) generally speaking was probably just to save memory, but what I want to know is was there a specific reason that that decision was made for each character, and if so, what was it, or were they just randomly chosen by the programmers at the time as to who would or wouldn't be able to be cut in half. Because if it was just saving memory, then why wouldn't they have picked Earthquake to not be able to be cut in half since he was by far the largest sprite?
They even lied to you on the back of the box: it says "choose from 12 characters" - but that's not true, Earthquake is still missing. It would be 12 fighters with Amakusa included - but he's the boss and an unplayable character (at least without cheats or other tricks, but I don't know. He's for sure not playable by default)...
Okay, you can unlock Amakusa. But Earthquake, my favourite character, is still missing...😢
@@greensun1334How do you unlock Amakusa on SEGA CD?
@@RageQuitter87 I don't know, Sega Lord X said it!
I have this, it was nice back in the day. It wasn't arcade perfect but I had plenty of fun with it.
Well done, Sir! A great review!
Thank you kindly!
I used to have this game back in the day, mainly because I wanted SamSho at home. I also had Fatal Fury Special. No way in hell would my parents have been able to afford a Neo Geo with games, much less myself back then. So the watered down 16-bit ports were the only options.
Anyway yea, this is not the definitive way to play this game these days. We could easily download it on various modern platforms or emulation now. Only get it if you want a complete Sega CD collection or whatever.
I'm not sure why, but the Sega Genesis version felt better gameplay wise than the Sega CD version. Though it could be because I played that one first and at least the Sega CD version looks better.
The Genesis version didn't have all the moves and attacks. The Sega CD does.
@@SegaLordX That is definitely a good point. I'd have to put some more time into the Sega CD version someday. I don't think I appreciate it as much as I should.
The characters have their own lore from their animations, Ukyo was always coughing I never understood why, turns out he has tuberculosis. Dank lore.
Character Eartquake impressed me...but I was dissapointed to find out that it was not on this version !
It's not that Earthquake can't be included in these ports but that Sega just plain hate the guy. Sega got 3 ports of SS1: the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and Sega Game Gear port. To missed him on the Sega Genesis version, that's fine we'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one, to miss him in the Game Gear okay probably just limitation issue (although he was playable on the Game Boy version just fine), but to missed him again on the Sega CD port, at that point they just making excuses. They just don't like him. I mean how many versions of SS1 does Nintendo had, six? The Super NES version had Earthquake, the Game Boy version had Earthquake, the Nintendo Wii version had Earthquake, the Wii/Wii U Virtual Console version had Earthquake, the Nintendo Switch version had Earthquake, and the HAMSTER version on Nintendo Switch had Earthquake. Nintendo had six ports of the game and it all had Earthquake in it, at this point Sega had no excuse. Yes there are only 3 versions but to missed Earthquake in all three is unacceptable, at least one should have had included him. The only SS game on Sega that even featured Eartthquake was Samurai Shodown RPG on the Sega Saturn but on that one he's not playable either.
@11:30 you could literally say the same for Any Other Arcade Home Conversion. It isn't really a fair critique, because every home port of ANY arcade game has been rendered irrelevant in a world where emulators exist, and even commercial/licensed re-releases and compilations of arcade games have been made available on most current and contemporary platforms...
Games like this should always be measured against their peers, and it really seems like this would have been a solid option for fans who might have wanted to play the game at home without spending a fortune on specialty hardware. (yes, it required a genesis AND sega cd, but most of those kids probably got a genesis for christmas/hanukkah/birthday, and perhaps they got a sega cd from allowance money or an early part-time job... the hardware was still accessible, and the game still offered something better than its contemporaries)
as a parallel: I can't be angry about my ex-rental copy of Virtua Racing for the genesis while, 30 years later, I still entertain the pipe dream of owning an arcade version if I ever become a homeowner... I could emulate the original all day, but that's not the same as experiencing a developer's deliberate effort to offer the same game to a home audience on whatever hardware was available at the time.
I never had the luxury of playing any of the popular 80s and early 90s arcade games, but my experience on home consoles (NES, Genesis, SNES.. nobody I knew had a TG16 or neo geo) was really my only exposure to a lot of these games. Magazines could sing praises of arcade and other expensive hardware, but it mostly fell on deaf ears because the context of 'something better' never existed in my world.
makes me wonder if the full screen scaling could be done by the sega-cd if they tried...