07-28-2008, 08:40 PM
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Samurai Showdown Anthology Preview
Samurai Showdown Anthology Preview
SNK serves up seven classic games in one. We go hands-on to check out the whole package.
SNK's Samurai Showdown series has always been something of a different beast among fighting games -- particularly arcade brawlers where the series made its debut. Instead of focusing on juggles or massive combos, the game was far, far more concerned with quick, decisive strikes. It was (and still is) possible to take down enemies with just a couple of hits if you know what moves to use and how to use them. It's an entirely different pace from any of the Street Fighters, Mortal Kombats or Killer Instincts of its day.
It was also something of a graphical showpiece for SNK and their Neo Geo arcade (and later home AES) systems, sporting incredibly detailed, huge sprites and detailed, scaling backgrounds that were without peer when they first hit. It may explain why most people cut their teeth on the first game in the series, and, thanks to a dwindling number of arcades and the rather exorbitant cost of the home Neo Geo, may well have exited with the second. It was an almost universal sentiment around the offices, and offered us plenty of incentive to see how the series had progressed since many of us last saw it with the upcoming Samurai Showdown Anthology.
[Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...] Deadly Kabuki
The good news is that the games' pacing and particular style of combat has arrived wholly intact. We're not foolish enough to claim it's arcade perfect, but the core feel of things is exactly how our atrophied muscle memory remembers them; the now-classic setup of having weak and medium hits, and combining them to create a strong slash is still every bit as entertaining as it used to be -- even if we were playing the game without an arcade stick.
In an odd twist to things, though, some of the different games that make up the Anthology (seven of them in total, including SS I-V, V Special and SS VI) have different control defaults, which is a little confusing. Luckily, remapping them can be done in as little as a few seconds once you've familiarized yourself with the game's Select Button menu system, and this includes using the more extensive button layouts of a controller to do combined button presses mapped to a single shoulder button, for instance.
[Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...] Attack like a Phoenix.
It's an interesting thing to see the progression of the series. The addition of quick, almost twitchy defensive moves like hops and rolls, the ability to parry attacks or switch sides on an opponent, cancels, fake-out moves and so on show a rather natural evolution of the basic game, even as the series's roster and visuals were regularly gutted and rebuilt while still staying largely familiar. It's not until the Anthology moves to the last game in the series that things make a huge change from what we can tell so far.
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