Samurai Shodown 2

The first Samurai Shodown released in late 1993 to massive critical and commercial success. While Capcom played it safe with Street Fighter 2 iterations during this time, SNK went wild innovating on the fighting game genre and created numerous early titles that differed from each other in a number of ways. Samurai Shodown introduced the world to weapons based fighting with high-stakes and BIG damage. The second game takes this concept further by adding additional characters, moves, backgrounds, music, and all sorts of secrets. 

Samurai Shodown 2 was hotly anticipated by fighting game fans, and for good reason. It is the follow-up to one of the smash arcade hits of the early 90's. Sadly, this second game didn't see any ports to popular home consoles due to it being far too big and complex for the 16-bit consoles to handle any sort of meaningful port. By the time the 32-bit systems got a port it was much too late for most people to care about. It's a shame, really, because the overall lack of availability to the general consumer market (who relied on home ports of popular arcade games) seriously hurt the series' popularity in the West. While it never went away, and stayed very popular in Japan, the general western consumer from this generation remembers the first game and not much else sadly. 

Still, Samurai Shodown 2 was wildly popular in Japanese game centers, making it the eighth highest grossing arcade game of 1995 in that country alone! The release of Samurai Shodown 2 was also a hot button seller for the newly released Neo-Geo CD in the 1994, which saw an incredible first week sales of number 20,487 copies and a lifetime sales figure of 129,951 units. If that's not impressive enough, the Neo-Geo AES version had a lifetime sales number of over 205,000 units! Considering Samurai Shodown 2 was $250 when it released in 1995 (roughly $500 in 2023 money), that's a very respectable number. That number also gives you a good idea why Samurai Shodown 2 is one of the most common cartridges on the Neo-Geo AES and keeps its value low even in the wild 2023 retro game market.

The storyline in Samurai Shodown 2 picks up one year after the events of the first game, and falls inline as the 6th entry in the official cannon timeline. Interestingly enough, the events of Samurai Shodown 3 and 4, which are closely related plot wise, happen in the same year as the first game but occur after the downfall of Amakusa Shiro. In this game, the god Ambrosia sends an emissary in the form of the evil sprit Mizuki who possesses a shrine-maiden of the same name to prepare the world for the coming chaos wrought by Ambrosia. The samurai and warriors you were introduced to in the first game all return (yes, even Tam-Tam in some form) with their own reasons for being "involved in the troubles" (in-game joke). 

Joined by the entire cast of the first game, five new characters were introduced:

• Cham-Cham: In place of her brother Tam-Tam. 

  • Tam-Tam is actually Cham-Cham's pet monkey (a curse put upon him for failing to protect sacred stones from Mizuki). 

• Genjuro Kibagami: True rival of series hero Haohmaru.

• Neinhalt Seiger: A knight from Prussia that has a giant, iron fist, arm, weapon...thing.

• Nicotine Caffeine: Haohmaru and Genjuro's master.

• Kuroko: The referee you see in the background of Samurai Shodown 1 and 2. He is a secret character, and essentially breaks the game. Fun though!

Similar to the first, Samurai Shodown 2 is a 6-button game masquerading as a 4-button game. A and B are your slashes, and C and D are your kick buttons. You press both buttons of the same type together to perform the heavy version of that move. The Rage Gauge returns in this game with an extra bonus! As in the first game, your Rage Gauge builds the more damage you sustain until you burst with energy and get a generous damage buff that is not dissimilar to the Max Mode mechanic in King of Fighters. In this game, you can choose to spend your Rage Gauge by performing your desperation move. If this "super" move connects with the opponent, they will lose access to their weapon for a while forcing them to fight bare-handed. Their weapon eventually flies back onto the screen, but they will have to risk picking it back up. 

While subsequent Samurai Shodown games would increase the amount of defensive options you have at your disposal, Samurai Shodown 2 adds two new key defensive mechanics on top of a generous back dash and weapon catching (while bare-handed) - you can now lay prone on the ground by double pressing down (which even ducks under many low attacks) or you can hop over low attacks by pressing B and C together! Some characters have an extra super move they can perform, and all characters have access to a few fun secrets you can access by code. You can find a list of these fun cheats and additional moves on most move-lists and FAQs for the game. 

Generally, Samurai Shodown 2 moves at the pace of the first game and plays very similarly. The focus is less on percentage based counter damage buffs as with subsequent games in the series and more on strong footsies and short combos to deal damage; i.e, normal move -> xx (into) -> special move. Where Samurai Shodown 3 is a very deliberate departure from this gameplay style, this second game builds on and perfects on the ideas present in the first game; much like how King of Fighters 95 is just a more refined version of the concepts put fourth in the '94 edition.

Samurai Shodown 2 is one of, if not the most beautiful Neo-Geo games of the early years. Even though the sprite work in the first game was strong, very few frames were reused in this second game. Most character sprites were entirely redone, which led to much more fluid animation, better key frames to telegraph when and where a move should connect with the opponent's hurt box, and more. The general sprite work is excellent and the backgrounds match that level of panache. Reused backgrounds from the first game were spruced up with all new animations and effects, and the backgrounds introduced in this game have become iconic over the last three decades. Genjuro's windblown field, for example, is a true work of art - it really is incredible even 30 years on.

Like the first game, music samples are clear and varied, and there lots of cool, layered vocal chants on some stages. Voices are clear and also entirely redone from the first game. The extra vocal samples really bring to life the characters' personalities in ways other fighting games just hadn't managed up to that point. The extra voices really help sell each character as their own unique entity rather than a punching bag of game mechanics. SNK traditionally put a lot of personality in their characters, making each individual personality trait just as important a reason to select a particular character as their gameplay style. The soundtrack in this game is better than the first, but it's mainly just different arrangements on those tunes with new melodies being created for the new characters/backgrounds. Cham-Cham's theme is a personal favorite in this one. It's so...cheery, even with all the blood. 

In the arcade collecting and fighting game communities, Samurai Shodown 2 is a legendary game. Along with Samurai Shodown V Special and the 2019 series reboot, it is one of the most consistently played classic fighting games in modern circles and is just approachable enough that even series and fighting game newbies can settle in and have some fun. The overall balance (well, mostly) of the the cast, excellent audio and visual design, and incredible game feel and player feedback make Samurai Shodown 2 a true masterpiece not only in the fighting game genre, but also in all of video games. It's a game that is fondly remembered because it's still actively played today. And the more people that get turned on to it are just that many more people that will make the legacy of this legendary game endure for many decades to come. 

So, you want a copy? You're in luck. Remember how I mentioned that it is one of the most common Neo-Geo games? All three variants are quite affordable. A complete, good condition Japanese copy on AES will run you no more than $100. A US/Euro edition will run you a cool $200-$300 these days, but that's still well within "Neo-Geo Affordable" range. On Neo CD? $25 bucks or so, and MVS isn't much more at around $50 USD. 

As I mentioned above, there were no meaningful home ports of this game except a middling PC release in 1996 based on the Neo CD version and a port to the PS1 in Japan only on the Samurai Spirits Fencing Pack. Thankfully you can easily find it today in one of the many Samurai Shodown collections, the Arcade Archives series on modern platforms, and of course on one of the various SNK all-in-one units like the Neo-Geo Mini and MVSX cabinets. 

If you have a Neo-Geo of any hardware variant, you likely have this game already. It is essential to the Neo-Geo just like Fatal Fury Special. Like it or not, the Neo-Geo is primarily a fighting game players machine, and there are few games on any competing hardware from the 90's that have the pedigree and respect of this gem. 

What are you still here? Go play some Samurai Shodown 2!