This week only a single game was released for the Virtual Console, but man WHAT a game! Samurai Shodown! One of SNK’s most famous titles, it’s now yours for 900 Wii Points. What was our staff’s creaction to the release? Check below!
Alexander Lucard – EIC
I realize that asking me to comment on whether or not Samurai Shodown is worth paying 9 bucks for is a silly question in line with asking Godzilla if he’ll be smashing stuff in his next movie or Tony the Tiger is he thinks Frosted Flakes are great.
The answer is, “Of course!”
Samurai Shodown is one of the best 2-D fighters ever made. I do prefer SS2, but I think most people would agree with that. For $9 you are getting an Arcade game that at times rivaled Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat for the “Most Popular Fighting game in the Arcades” award.As much as hardcore SNK fans will give their thumbs up to Fatal Fury and King of Fighters as the big SNK franchise, the truth is in terms of pure popularity and money making power, the first two Samurai Shodown games were it for SNK. You probably can’t tell now, but Earthquake alone was so ahead of his time in terms of graphics size and quality, he was cut from home versions, even the Sega CD one, because no system save for the beloved Neo*Geo could replicate it.
There IS supposed to be a Samurai Shodown collection coming out for the PS2 down the road, and you can get this particular game in a PS2 port with all the other titles in SNK Classics Vol 1.
If you are a true fan of the series, and this game in particular, I’d still go for this one. Why? Because the dual shock is ass for quality fighting games, especailly this one. The Wii’s classic controler works a lot better. As well, if you’re truly a SNK zealot, you can always import the NEO*GEO classic controller from sites like Play Asia to have a rock solid Samurai Shodown experience.
Chris Bowen – Columnist
Of all of the SNK fighting games I grew up playing, Samurai Showdown was always my favourite, to the point where it was on par with Street Fighter on my personal list of fighting games. There’s nothing I can say about this game that Lucard hasn’t said in the past, so I don’t see the need to be redundant.
Though there are multiple versions of Samurai Showdown, I still recommend this one. The PS2 port on Arcade Classics Vol. 1 seems to have goofy AI, and the Classic Controller is awesome for fighting games.
ML Kennedy – Crank Caller
I refuse to play this game as Charlotte. I hate her. She is the worst. I hate her stupid face. I hate the fact that I cannot beat her with Genan Shiranui. AM the supercomputer would be embarrassed by how much I hate Charlotte Christine Colde.
Almost as bad as Charlotte is that damned dog-boy Galford Weiler. Galford? That’s a common American name, right?
A-holes.
It is worth more than 9 dollars to punch his stupid face in.
Bryan Berg – Veteran of many a console war
I never played Samurai Shodown. But I remember it well. It was part of an ill-fated attempt to convince my mom to buy a Neo-Geo. Obviously, with games at $100+ a pop, it was never going to happen. Still, it was nice to dream.
Now that the game is $9? I may have to check it out, just to see what I missed out on as a child.
Mark B – Devil’s Advocate
In opposition to Mr. ML Kennedy, I rather like Charlotte, and she’s my favorite character in the game.
And in opposition to everyone else here, I’m suggesting that buying this is a waste of your money.
See, in about four or five months, SNK is releasing SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for the Wii. Much like the PS2 and PSP versions, the Wii version will include a whole bunch of SNK Arcade games for a reasonable price (presumably), but UNLIKE the PS2 and PSP versions, a lot of people who own the Wii and wanted these games have had the position to download them on the VC.
Stop and consider this for a second.
Even if, for some asinine reason, SNK Arcade Classics on the Wii costs, say, $50, EACH Neo-Geo game on the VC costs $9 apiece. If you download, oh, six games onto the VC, you’ve paid for SNK Arcade Classics, which has more than DOUBLE the games you just downloaded.
Why bother? SamSho is a GREAT game, no doubt about it, but it’s not like it’s getting any older; wait on buying it until the collection comes out, save yourself a bunch of money and get a bunch of really good games along with it.
Just saying.
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