You can also roll forward or backward to avoid attacks, as well as duck to avoid high attacks and take small hops to avoid low strikes.
Overall, gameplay was expanded from the original “Samurai Shodown” with more responsive control and more moves, including a special POW meter that could do severe damage and break an opponent’s weapon, causing them to have to fight unarmed until a replacement weapon was issued. This was later used in Namco’s “Weaponlord” and popularized by Capcom’s “Street Fighter III.” Like its SNK fighting brethren, “Samurai Shodown II” also created a first for the genre – the use of parry, which could be used at the last second to block an opponent’s attack and leave them vulnerable for a counter. If that isn’t enough, some characters have animals that can actually attack you! You haven’t lived (or died in a fighting game) until you’ve had to defend a dog or hawk attack! Stages have so much going on, with spectators moving around, effects like lightning flashes and waves crashing, and then there are the characters – man, what an eclectic, but awesome bunch! Yeah, you have your stereotypical spikey haired samurais, but you also have little green trolls with Freddy Krueger claws, a muscle-bound dude with a huge shoulder pad and metal fist, what look like two medieval knights, and a guy carrying a chained sickle who is so huge that, in a beat ‘em up game, he’d surely be the final boss. Like “The King of Fighters ‘94” that I reviewed two weeks ago, the artistry in this game is simply breathtaking and astounding. While the character and announcer voices are nearly inaudible, that’s OK because the voices aren’t in English anyway. Effects like the rush of wind through a wheat field or the splash of waves upon a shore further immerse the player in the game. In addition, and perhaps the most important aspect, are the sound effects that go on as the level music plays and the fight commences. Believe it or not, in the plethora of fighting games out there, you definitely encounter stage tracks that just don’t match the fighter at all. What makes the soundtrack so great is how it fits each level and fighter so well. It’s far from terrible, but there’s not too much that really makes it stand out. The reason I give the soundtrack to “Samurai Shodown II” a high score is not because of how good it is. We end March with a showdown with “Samurai Shodown II” on the Neo Geo AES! SNK was also wise enough to know that one fighting game wasn’t going to be enough to sway gamers away from the established “Mortal Kombat” and “Street Fighter” franchises. In the case of today’s final topic in this month of Neo Geo games, developers decided to take something that was enthusiastically received by the masses and rebuild it from the ground up to something even better. What often makes a sequel to a game so great is the chance for developers to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work with the original game. Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page Send by Email