Digital Eclipse, the developer who gave us the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (one of my personal favorite releases in recent years), is at it once again. This time they’ve given the same treatment to SNK’s darling Samurai Shodown. And WOW, they have really outdone themselves! Get ready for the Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection.

This collection includes seven classic Samurai Shodown games, all arcade-perfect. And most intriguing of all: one of these titles was never before released! When selecting a game in the menu, you are able to select either the US or Japanese versions. Also—and this is key for the collection’s replayability—you can choose to play “Arcade” or “Versus” mode.

Finally, we just jump straight into Versus without any menu nonsense getting in the way.

Since this game is a compilation of SamSho’s greatest hit, we should give each title a quick look. The following is our take on the seven games included….

The Games

SAMURAI SHODOWN

The original weapons-based vs-fighting game, SamSho really knocks it out of the park on the first attempt. The sound design is excellent, especially for 1993, with the traditional Japanese instrumentation going a long way to produce the evocative atmosphere the series would become known for. Visually it’s no slouch either, showing off the NeoGeo’s impressive graphics scaling with the fighters’ sprites jumping into the stage at the beginning of a match.

The character designs are varied and appropriately iconic. Haomaru makes for a great Miyamoto Musashi-like samurai, Hanzo is the quintessential ninja, and Nakoruru is the Ainu shrine maiden we even didn’t know we needed, but she’s obviously the best! I’m not so sure about Gen-An though… Perhaps after Blanka in SF2, every game wanted to have their own beastly green weirdo whose main attack is a flying roll? He’s certainly different from the other fighters…

SAMURAI SHODOWN II

Going immediately from one game to the next, it’s interesting to see how much changes, despite the game largely delivering the same sword-fighting experience. Stage backgrounds and character sprites in the sequel appear to be completely redone, and everything looks much cleaner this time around. Even the text boxes and in-game dialogue are much easier on the eyes.

The Power gauge at the bottom of the screen, when full, now displays the input needed to unleash your super move. This is a welcome addition, as it becomes very handy when playing new characters (or if you just haven’t played this game in like 20 years). Speaking of the super moves, I like that when they land in this game, it will actually destroy your opponent’s weapon. So fun!

SAMURAI SHODOWN III

This game seeing an even bigger visual overhaul than its predecessor. The graphics scaling is still being used impressively, essentially “zooming out” the camera when fighters move to opposite ends of the stage.

Controls have been changed as well, with the C Button now used for Heavy Slash, instead of having to hit A and B simultaneously. (Hitting A+B in this game will perform a little dodge to the side.) After picking your character, you can select between two different technique options: Slash and Bust.

In terms of theme and tone, SamSho III takes on a darker atmosphere than the first two entries. No longer is there a match referee or item-drop runner in the stage backgrounds. Now it’s just the two combatants dueling.

If you lose in the arcade mode, the game will have you enter your initials in silence before the Continue countdown even starts. All the while, your character just sits defeated on the ground. It’s an interesting touch, surprisingly sad and melancholy.

SAMURAI SHODOWN IV: AMAKUSA’S REVENGE

Oh man, SamSho IV…I can dig it. I’d actually bought the ACA NEOGEO release for this game on Switch already. For the first time, this game looks visually similar enough to the last entry that I think the developers finally stopped throwing out all their old sprite work. And that’s great, because the game looks just as stunning as ever. Character portraits look particularly good.

The Slash and Bust options return, as do the general controls from SamSho III. For some reason, the gameplay here feels a bit faster and less plodding than previous entries, giving one the sense that combos are more a possibility.

The ninja brothers Kazama, Kazuki and Sogetsu, are introduced in this game, and they’re fun additions to the cast. Each has an elemental inclination—fire for Kazuki and water for Sogetsu—that influences their fighting techniques, as well as their personalities. I’m particularly fond of the hot-headed Kazuki, and the way he butts heads with his calm and restrained brother reminds me very much of the dynamic between Raphael and Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Although honestly, his crouched fighting stance looks a bit awkward in my opinion. Still pretty cool though.

Now sure, this game does have a few typographically oopsies, such as the game’s giant ‘KO’ text reading, “VICTOLY”. But the typos only add to the game’s charm, if you ask me.

SAMURAI SHODOWN V

With SamSho V, the controls for Strong Slash return to being performed by pressing A+B together. The C Button is now for kicks, and the D Button is for different movement and dodge techniques. The Slash and Bust options have also been removed.

Just under each fighter’s life gauge there’s a new bar, kind of like the stun meter in SFIII. It appears to be a strength meter for your attacks. Each attack you perform taking a chunk off of this meter, and it refills again automatically over time. I suppose this indicates how much power is behind each strike, so throwing out attacks too quickly would result in the hits that you land doing less damage. This would encourage one to choose their shots carefully, I guess. (Though as a mechanic, it sounds kinda lame.)

SAMURAI SHODOWN V SPECIAL

Pretty much just like vanilla SamSho V, except all boss characters are now playable. There are also new character portraits by artist Satoshi Ito. But I’m not sure why you’d play either version of V when the next game is available…

SAMURAI SHODOWN V PERFECT

Well, look at that: here’s a game that was never even released! The third iteration of SamSho V, Perfect introduces stories to the arcade mode which weren’t previously included. Apparently it also includes some fixes for issues present in the last game, as one would expect.

Ironically it sounds like this game wasn’t given the green light back in the day, as SNK had already begun work on SamSho VI. So when the higher-ups learned that the game’s director was doing a location test for a new iteration of SamSho V, they immediately canceled the project. It wasn’t until this new collection that the rom file for the basically finished game was unearthed and officially released to the public. Which is just so sick.

It’s nice to have a comprehensive collection of the whole mainline SamSho series in one place. Looking at all games included, I suspect we will probably be playing II and IV the most. SamSho II probably offers the best retro experience for anyone yearning for the olden days, feeling just the original but with more polish. While SamSho IV has a great roster, snappy gameplay, and the controls align with the 2019 series reboot.

Bonus Content

The collection’s museum contains over 2,000 development documents and images, which to me is already more than enough to warrant a purchase. But what’s more, the museum even includes interviews with the original developers who share candid stories about the process of making these games. That includes interviews about Art Direction, the Sound Direction, a panel of four main producers/directors reminiscing about what happened during development, and even a walking tour of where they made the games in Osaka. It’s some super interesting and historically important stuff.

Obviously I’m a big fan of this historical type of game collection, but wow—this Samurai Shodown collection is the absolute pinnacle. This is truly a treasure trove like none other!

Let’s wrap this up…

OK, so we’re looking at seven arcade-perfect SamSho classics. One of those games was completely unreleased until now, with story modes for all characters properly translated for audiences outside of Japan. Each game can be played using either the Japanese or US rom, and both Arcade and Versus modes are selectable right from the main menu.

Then on top of that, this collection has a staggering amount of bonus content, with design docs, production sketches, music tracks, and recorded developer interviews. The museum section here is the stuff of video game nerds’ dreams.

So yeah, Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection is absolutely amazing. I highly recommend that everybody download this one. Or, even better, order a physical copy from overseas so you can hoard that media for real. As an easy mark for precisely this kind of production, that’s what I did.

Physical copy came with a supplemental SamSho art book.