Samurai Shodown 4

By 1996 the Samurai Shodown series wasn't seeing the sales it saw in the past. The third game was extremely divisive because of its high damage output and sweeping changes to the mechanics from the first two games, and arcade operators were most likely worried that a new game in the series wouldn't draw back in the crowds that had already moved onto other fighters. Seeing this trend, SNK tried to win back the fan-base by keeping what made Samurai Shodown 3 great but expanding it even more to try and balance out the high damage. After the game's release SNK decided to shelve the 2D series for a few years and turn their focus on reinventing the series in 3D on their Hyper Neo-Geo 64 arcade hardware. 

Samurai Shodown 4 sold well in the arcade, and was the most popular game in Japanese game centers at the time of its release. It apparently sold just shy of 10k copies in its first week on sale on the AES in Japan as well. That said, that's a small number considering just a year prior Samurai Shodown 3 sold 4x as many copies in its first week alone at over 48K! There's little sales data or interviews to go by to make any other assumptions about the game, but it was popular enough in the arcade to warrant ports to the popular 32-bit consoles and quickly became a fan-favorite entry in the young but now established series.

Samurai Shodown 4's basic gameplay mechanics carry over most features from the prior game. So for an in depth look at the button layout and systems at play, see the Samurai Shodown 3 review. The remainder of this review will only focus on changes/additions to this edition. 

The plot of the game follows the third directly and is part two of the two part tale of Shizumaru and Zankuro. This makes Samurai Shodown 4 slot in just before the events of the second proper game. 

SNK expanded the roster to 17 playable fighters by adding back in most of the characters taken out of the prior game: Jubei, Charlotte, and Tam-Tam. Sadly, Earthquake is still nowhere to be found. Additionally, SNK added in two new characters that tie directly into the main storyline for this game and made the boss, Zankuro, playable without a code or cheat. The Kazama brothers, Kazuki and Sogetsu, control the elements of fire (Kazuki) and water (Sogetsu). While both are "good guys" in the storyline, you can imagine which one is the hot tempered one. All characters had their move sets tweaked or changed in both their Slash and Bust versions, so everyone feels familiar but fresh to play at the same time. Personally, I'm not a fan of many of the changes made to move properties on many of the returning characters, but I'm in the minority here.

In an effort to try and make the game more approachable, but not change the damage output, SNK added a second life bar so fights would last longer. The development team also removed all instances of air blocking - which is one mechanic I wish was left alone. Air blocking in the already fast paced Samurai Shodown 3 made offense even more aggressive as the opponent had more defensive options at their disposal in which to cause a counter or reversal state for big damage. 

There were multiple changes made to the Rage Gauge as well that would have a lasting impact in the rest of the series. In addition to removing the ability to manually charge the Rage Gauge , the development team added a new high-damage come back mechanic. So long as you're willing to sacrifice your Rage Gauge, you can press ABC at any time in the match to enter a lethal state. While the game moves normally after activation, you have access to one high-risk / high-reward move by pressing ABC again. This one single strike can decimate your opponent and kill them often in one blow. There are a few caveats, though. The amount of power at your disposal is equivalent to the amount of HP you've lost in the round, so it is best to wait to use it as a comeback mechanic only when you're low on life. Basically, how much life you've lost will dictate how much meter/damage you have to use in this mode. Once you are in this power state the meter slowly drains until you turn back to normal. Be fore warned, though. If you use this mechanic in the first round you will not have access to it OR your Rage Gauge in the subsequent rounds. 

In one of the more confusing updates in this game, SNK added weird chain combo strings you can activate by pressing CD. If the activation is successful, each character has 3 or 4 combo string follow-ups. It's a fun mechanic, but I've never felt it added to the gameplay in any meaningful way. These combos don't do a ton of damage, either, making the risk almost not worth the reward when you won't do much more damage than a normal heavy slash. The Samurai Shodown series is less about combo strings and more about patience and high-risk/high-reward counters, so this mechanic make little sense in the grand scheme.

SNK also added slightly more gory fatalities done by a universal input if certain match conditions are met. There is also a universal command to commit suicide and forfeit the match. If you commit suicide in the first round, you will begin the second round with a full Rage Gauge - so that's a thing. Not sure if this kind of risk if worth the reward, but it's there to use if you are so inclined. 

The overall sprite work is generally the same as the prior game, and new characters were drawn to match that art style. Colors are brighter overall, though, losing the gritty look and thick black outlines of the third game. While many fans enjoyed the brighter colors here, I personally prefer the darker tones of the third game. Backgrounds are less than inspired as well. Some borrow directly from the third game with a slightly different color pallet, while some are new but don't have many interesting features to make them memorable. Like most SNK games from this era, there are no character specific backgrounds as the backgrounds serve to give backdrops to each chapter of the story rather than telegraph a particular character's personality. Samurai Shodown 4 is still a stunning work of pixel art to be sure, and any fan of this art style would be remiss to check it out. I just don't feel the art direction overall is as strong as the third entry. 

Music is great overall, and the game has all the high quality sword clashes and the like you've come to expect from the series. There isn't a lot to say about this aspect - if you've played the prior games in the series you know what you're in for. If you haven't, the traditional sounding Japanese tunes with smart use of rock guitar is always a treat. Kazuki's theme and the intro music are the two standout music tracks.

In retrospect, Samurai Shodown 4 feels more like a "do-over" of the third game rather than feeling like its own thing. It is the third game with more characters and more gameplay systems. The new mechanics do little to add to the experience, and in many ways I feel they miss the mark on what this series is all about. And while the third game could be kind of glitchy here and there, I've run into my fair share of glitches and disappearing hit boxes in this game as well over the years. While I personally think that Samurai Shodown 4 collapses under its own weight a bit, the general fan consensus prefer it to the third game. 

As I stated in the opening, by 1996 players had become weary of the series for a variety of reasons. To that end, SNK did not produce nearly as many AES copies as they had with the third game. A good condition Japanese AES copy will run no less than $350, but will most likely run you closer to $500. In 2023, unless you're made of money, a US/Euro edition of the game will be completely out of reach financially at close to $10k at this point. The game got a Neo CD release, so that and the MVS versions will be your best bang for your buck at less than $50 each. 

Samurai Shodown 4 saw ports to the Playstation and Saturn, with the Saturn version be closer to the arcade experience due to the support of the 1mb ram expansion cartridge and the Saturn's natively higher amount of RAM. The Playstation version is dubbed Samurai Shodown 4 Special and added in Cham-Cham from the second game as an additional character to make up for the loss of animation and other features. 

If you're after the AES version it is hard to recommend over the second and third Samurai Shodown games when you can get both of those releases for less than the cost of this one game. If you're after a Neo CD or MVS version, though, price is a moot point because they are so cheap comparatively. Regardless, Samurai Shodown 4 is a solid game, in a solid series, and you won't be disappointed in your purchase no matter how you chose to play. P.S. Just give the third game a chance... ;)