Samurai Shodown V

Just freaking awesome. That’s all. Plain and simple. If this gets a high-res makeover and internet multiplayer for a PS2 release instead of the half-assed job most SNK games get, it would be a huge game, exactly the breakthrough title they need.

Too bad it’s incredibly unlikely to happen.

Here’s hoping.

I dig the new fighters quite a bit and the game is a blast to play, but Sam 4 is still my choice for anime-addled ginsu-brawlers.

The new ‘all purpose’ hop and dodge button doesn’t seem to gel with the flow of battle all that well. Granted some neogeo-phytes out there may blow my mind with their mystical ability to predict and evade, hop, etc… rather than stick with the tried and true ‘block’; but then again that D button wasn’t doing much in previous games IIRC so what the hell am I complaining about really anyway?

Well…the backgrounds are mostly recycled; the loss of ‘slash/bust’ renditions of each fighter cuts the roster in half(though the new entrants again are fabulous), and that sub-boss with the hammer can heal himself at will AND send out various sidekicks from any angle making him likely the “most cheap” fighting boss ever. Fucker…

Still this melee fighter has an archer in the lineup roster, gotta count for something!

Oh and the unified :UBER ATTACK: commands for most every character is a blessing. Amazing, an SNK fighter that doesn’t require a visit to gamefaqs to figure out what the hell to do when that power bar is blazing red!! Even better? The actual command input is nothing more than a simple fireball motion. Practical and intuitive! SNK Playmore has me playing more…

But I still love me some SS4 on Saturn a bit more.

I like that big demon guy. Does he use his own sharpened forearm bone for a weapon? Awesome.
This is SNK’s only good game apart from Metal Slug, so they better not screw it up.

Yes he does. Furthermore, you can knock it off.

extarbags, you mind telling me where you played this? I’m not going to bite your head off if its through emulation (I have all my NeoGeo games backed up with emulation just in case it ever konks out, I’m not paying for them all over again!), but my perception was that this game is in extremely short distribution throughout the US and its really hard to come upon it. It’d be nice to know what’s going on outside of Japan.

Right now I’m all hot and bothered for The King of Fighters 2003, but I did like Samurai Shodown quite a bit. I think its done the best job of making a good Samurai Shodown game since maybe Samurai Shodown II. I’m not usually who will claim the older game is the better and something of an untouchable classic, but in this case, 3 and 4, while not bad games just couldn’t measure up in the end. I’m unconvinced so far that its better than SSII, but the game will have to be around a lot longer for that measure of worth to come out anyway, so meh.

I will say this game’s personality is just gold and spot on. Not too extreme, but not too sedate either. Unlike a lot of other players, I really think the new additions to the gameplay make for a very fresh fighting experience, relative to the genre’s state right now and I really don’t care if some of the new fighters are just recolored old sprites, they feel pretty new in play and use, it might be lazy, but hell, that’s not why you play this genre. Also, what’s with all the comments about its unbalanced play? Have people forgotten the reason SSII was so well-loved in the first place? Say it was because of the balance and I’ll be tempted to call that person a liar. All you really need is enough balance to make sure the game isn’t ridiculously unfair and SSV more than acheives that. The number of fighting games that are perfectly balanced I can’t count on only one hand, and even those are quite debateable.

For some reason, this game reminds me a lot of Mark of the Wolves and I don’t know why that is. Maybe its because Mark of the Wolves was the first Garou game in quite a while, and this game has a similar difference in years, but it feels like a very new coat of paint onto a very old series. Then again, so did Matrimelee to Power Instinct. Its been a good year for SNK, if you ask me.

Oh and Kusare Gedou is indeed fantastic, but I’m surprised after all these years, Ukyo is still the man. Usually that type of sheen wears off after a couple of years of the character’s introduction, but he still rocketh mucheth.

-Kitsune

I absolutely agree. Matrimelee was quite awesome. And I’ve been playing both of those emulated, because I haven’t been able to find them anywhere around, and I haven’t got the hundreds and hundreds of dollars required to buy a neo and import a copy.

15-year bump, first bit of news is that the sequel to this game V Special, hit Steam this week, with GGPO-quality netcode. Very good port.

The sequel to this game comes out tomorrow, looks very promising gameplaywise, though load times and netcode are a concern. They’re offering the 1st season pass free to anyone who buys in the next five days. A PC port is planned but delayed to the end of the year.

The game made me want to go to Evo this year- so finally doing that (also entering Soul Calibur)

I have it. It’s in today. I will be playing tonight hopefully. I’m on PS4. We should probably start a new thread since it’s a new game?

I didn’t know about the Steam port of V Special. Neat.

Reviews of the new game seem good. Very excited!

Streaming a bit…

Did you get it? It’s awesome. It’s even got the juggling monkey from the Neo CD. :)

You’ll have to post in the Evo thread when the time comes! Excited to see how you fare!

I can vouch for the SS 2019 netcode so far. I played five or so matches on PS4 last night. If you watch about an hour and 45 into the archive of the stream from last night you’ll see that I had no issues playing multiple games (and losing all of them because I tried to play Earthquake…). My son and I are messing around with VS mode at the start and I did a solo run with Haohmaru.

I love it so far. It totally captures the essence of the first and second games for me, which are my favorites. High level play of this game is going to be damn fun to watch.

…also, my understanding of that Season Pass is that you can download it separately on PS4 whether you own the game or not and you will qualify for the DLC for free. Even if you aren’t purchasing before the 30th, get that anyway.

I don’t own a console so I can’t get it, I’ll be playing through offline events and a local game shop. SCVI is going to be my focus anyways, and I played a lot of special back in the day. I’m PC only these days.

Bummer. I thought you had a console.

I played online last night for a bit again. I had only one game with a little bit of a hiccup in it. I’m very happy with the netcode. It’s actually been better for me that Street Fighter V so far which I also had mostly good luck with.

I really should get Soul Calibur VI… maybe with the Steam Sale…