For honor

Fans of the classic SNK arcade fighting series Samurai Shodown and newcomers to the series alike have a lot to be excited for with the release of Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection on PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. This collection pairs together the entries of SNK’s seminal samurai games running on emulated NeoGeo arcade hardware, with 7 entries in the series to play in all. The major draw of this package for fans of the series will surely be the first ever release of Samurai Shodown V: Perfect, long thought lost following its cancellation. These 7 games, coupled with a museum full of well meaning (if imperfectly executed) extras make this a package worth picking up for fight fans in the mood for a little nostalgia. If your intention is to showdown (or Shodown as it were) with other players online however, you may be better off sticking to other versions of individual games in the collection.

It should be mentioned first off that I found the emulations in this collection to be basically flawless. I had no issues during my playtime with any of the 7 games in the package, and they all ran and played exactly as I expected them to. As is standard with a collection like this there are several visual overlay options to suit different preferences, including filters for both tube TV style viewing and the original arcade screens. You can also adjust the screen space to full or widescreen views, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend it as the visuals don’t translate well.

MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, Switch, PC

One nice feature of this collection on the visual front is the option to turn on HD Scaling, which increases the quality of the sprites when the action is zoomed out while characters are across the stage from each other. This feature makes a pretty substantial visual difference on the early games in the collection and I kept it on for most of my playtime. I should mention here that this feature is not available on the Switch version of the collection, and is an On/Off toggle on consoles while the PC version has options for High and Low.

Any collection of retro games worth its salt will pack a museum mode full of goodies for long time fans of the series, and this collection has a really solid one. In the museum you’ll find a really nice History section with background information on both the in-game and real world stories of the Samurai Shodown series, complete with detailed write-ups for games in this collection and even art and logo collections for games that aren’t, like SNK vs Capcom and King of Fighters XIV. You’ll also find a Character section that includes character profiles, art and concept art for each of the characters across all 7 games. On the audio-visual front you’ll find soundtracks for the games in the collection as well as a collection of interviews with the developers and Pro Match Videos, complete with written commentary on the match. My only problem with this admittedly deep collection of extras is that the video content can’t be made into a full screen presentation, which seems like a silly omission. You’re stuck watching the pro videos in a small PIP window off to the side of the match commentary and the developer interviews are windowed with a large border even though they are widescreen.

Perhaps the biggest piece of history in this collection isn’t even in the museum though. It’s the inclusion of Samurai Shodown V: Perfect for its first release anywhere. There’s a great rundown of the story of this game in the History section of the museum, but the short version is as follows: The game was being developed in parallel with Samurai Shodown VI (not present in this collection because it was on the Atomiswave platform) by a very small three person team. Cancelled by leadership at SNK after only one copy was pressed (for a location test) the game was thought to be lost. When this compilation was being created the creator mentioned that it was finished, and they managed to dig up the completed ROM. This kind of thing is exactly what compilations of this type should strive for, the ability to unearth new content that has been rumored but yet unseen and even outside of the game’s additions to SamSho V: Special (including some cutscenes and new endings) it’s worth playing just for the historical significance of it’s inclusion.

Technically all 7 games in the series can be played in either ranked or casual matches online. I say technically, because I never actually got in a match. Across several platforms and all 7 games, as well as across ranked and casual match types, I never found a single opponent to play against. While it’s tempting to assume that the player base for a collection of this type is low, I think the issue is more structural than anything else. You see, in order to get to matchmaking you have to first select a game, then select the type of match (casual or ranked) that you want to try and get into. Spreading players across this many permutations means that even if there were plenty of people online playing, matches would be hard to come by. The game would have been much better served treating the entire collection as a “whole package” from a matchmaking standpoint and showing available players queued up across all games.

All in all this is a solid collection of an excellent series of games. If you haven’t played the games before this is a great way to jump in to all of them at once. The four button setup makes these games relatively welcoming for newcomers, and an in-game move list helps as well (although a full training mode would have been preferable). As a longtime fan of the series I greatly enjoyed the museum content and the ability to play SamSho V: Perfect for the first time. I would say it’s a must buy if you’re an experienced fan of the series and want a chance to explore its history in a unique way.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Arcade perfect ports of 6 classic entries in SNK’s seminal fighting game series
  • First ever release of Samurai Shodown V: Perfect
  • Museum has some neat extras for fans of the series
Bad
  • Several of the extras in the Museum feel half-baked in execution
  • Online play needs a matchmaking overhaul to work effectively
8
Great
Written by
Wombat lives by the code that if you are playing a game from this year, you are doing it wrong. His backlog is the stuff of legend and he is currently enjoying Perfect Dark Zero, Skies of Arcadia and Pong.