Samurai Shodown Special Edition Review – Xbox Series X

Samurai Shodown has been around for nearly two years now; we reviewed the original for the Xbox One, but a few weeks ago they released a special edition to make the most of the new features of the Xbox Series X|S consoles.  It is those features I will be covering in this Special Edition review, so if you are looking for a more detailed analysis the gameplay and content please check out our original review.

This new generation of Xbox promises several new features including enhanced graphics and faster load times.  I have to say; despite the artistic style being used for Samurai Shodown these graphics are insanely good.  The backgrounds are loaded with details that nearly distract you from the fight, while the character art and animations are second to none.  The level of detail on the textures is impressive, and it looks like these characters were painted on canvas then animated.  You can see an almost fiber-like pattern on some parts of skin and clothing.  Speaking of skin, the game certainly earns its M rating with plenty of skimpy outfits that struggle to conceal the ample assets of the female roster, along with copious amounts of blood splatter that will slowly cover the fighters as damage is dealt throughout the fights.  Blood and dismemberments can be toggled off in the options, but who wants that?

While Samurai Shodown looks great 99% of the time there are some visual glitches.  There is no v-sync toggle and many of the cutscenes have horrible screen tear, especially with any fast horizontal panning.  There were also other oddities like certain objects vanishing then reappearing in the cutscenes.  It’s nothing game-breaking; just slightly annoying since the actual fighting portion of the game is flawless.  The game also supports 120fps if you have the hardware to support it.

The new controller for the Series X|S hasn’t changed much since the Xbox One, and the controls still felt great with instant response for both single attacks and elaborate combos.  As mentioned in the original review, Samurai Shodown is not a button masher, and even though you might mash your way to the final boss you’re going to need to pull off some advanced moves to defeat her.  The game even learns from your actions to create these impressive AI ghost characters.  I was disappointed in the lack of a proper tutorial.  Yes, there is a practice mode but nothing that teaches you while playing.  You basically review a moves list then try to recreate those moves from memory.  While I did enjoy the strategy of combining the various attacks into devastating combos, your heavy attack is usually more powerful than any combo and relies merely on timing the button press.

All the modes are back for this Special Edition including the Story mode where you can take each of the 16 characters through a series of fights, unlocking assorted content along the way.  There is a nice progression of difficulty through these fights until you hit the stone wall of the boss.  My only minor complaint is that load times, while shorter than before are still fairly lengthy, and you have this awkward pattern of going from fight to map screen to possible cutscene to the next fight; each with a 10-20 second black loading screen.  It was nearly double that on the Xbox One, so I probably shouldn’t complain too much.

Other than the Story you have the local and online modes for casual and tournament play.  There still seems to be people playing Samurai Shodown and finding opponents online was rarely a problem; finding someone I could actually beat proved more challenging, as everyone still playing this game was infinitely better than me.  There is also a Gallery where you can view all your unlockable art and movies.

Owners of the 2019 version can “upgrade” to the Special Edition via the Smart Delivery system, and those who purchase a physical copy will still be paying $60 but will get the Season Pass and DLC included.  Even with this added content, Samurai Shodown is still a relatively barebones fighting game.  The story is short with mostly the same opponents and cutscenes shuffled around.  Playing alone vs. AI or with a friend on the couch or even heading online becomes more of an advanced game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.  The overall shallowness of the game and its overall lack of content (even with DLC) means you probably won’t stick around for long after mastering your favorite characters and ogling the bouncy babes.  I had moderate amounts of fun and frustration for the few hours it took to review but sadly, Samurai Shodown Special Edition probably won’t fit into my fighting game rotation, but I will use it to showcase some amazing next-gen visuals.

 

Author: Mark Smith
I've been an avid gamer since I stumbled upon ZORK running in my local Radio Shack in 1980. Ten years later I was working for Sierra Online. Since then I've owned nearly every game system and most of the games to go with them. Not sure if 40+ years of gaming qualifies me to write reviews, but I do it anyway.

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