Samurai Shodown V Special

Before we get into the review proper, I need to share a quick story. See, Samurai Shodown V Special has a unique history, unlike any other Neo-Geo game, that needs to be explained to understand the significance of the game and its place in the current market. I feel it's fitting that such a unique set of circumstances and a fair amount of drama surrounds what was and is the final, official, Neo-Geo release ever.

A few months after Samurai Shodown V Special's release in Japanese arcades in April of 2004, there was a brutal elementary school murder that took place in Japan called the Saesbo Slashing incident. If you live in the USA where school shottings and gun-based violence is an unfortunate daily occurrence, a stabbing incident doesn't sound like it would cause much controversy compared to what you're forced to deal with. Yet, when you consider Japan's exceedingly violent past and their non-violent present, a situation such as this has the potential to cause a nation wide change in tone toward violent media. Thus, this incident infamously impacted the AES release of V Special a week before it was set to launch globally that summer. 

See, Samurai Shdown V Special (V Special) included a number of rather gruesome fatalities that would dismember or cut characters apart. While no where near as gory as Mortal Kombat, V Special was and is the most violent game on the Neo. In the wake of the stabbing incident, SNK Playmore (SNKP) and developer Yuki Enterprises decided to recall games already assembled and update the game's code just prior to release to change many of the fatalities to less graphic versions and entirely removed the generic fatalities (which were series staples). Not only did this change the game from its original arcade release, which did not have any censorship, this hastily patched code introduced a number of glitches to the game that were not ironed out before pushing the game out to retailers. 

When the AES version of the game finally made it into the hands of eager Neo-Geo fans, you can imagine they were not too happy with the outcome having just paid over $250 for their video game. The outcry was so loud that SNKP took it upon themselves to offer willing customers a chance to send in their copies of the game to be "fixed."  SNKP also "fixed" the unsold stock up to this point as well. This "fix" replaced two of the MASK ROM chips with EPROMS coded to reimplement the fatalities in less violent form and it ironed out the myriad of glitches their original change in code introduced. It still wasn't arcade perfect, though. Still, because not all customers sent in their copies to be fixed, this created a split in the market leading to two different AES versions of the game. 

• Unfixed Copies: This is the original AES code with removed fatalities and numerous glitches that affect the sound and the training mode. 

• Fixed Copies: Removes glitches and restores most fatalities in less violent form.

**Here's a fun link to the original neo.geo.com post about the recall and where to send your copy to get it "fixed."  

Despite the unfixed copies having numerous drawbacks (while still being fully playable), this "unfixed" version of the game actually the most sought after in the modern second-hand market due to one tiny but important detail. Long time community member Razoola released an essential Neo-Geo bios chip replacement in the early aughts called the Unibios. This simple modification to your AES or MVS opens up a bevy of options like allowing for Action Replay like cheats to be implemented, changing the console's region, choosing between AES/MVS modes, and more! 

In an early version of the Unibios, Razoola implemented his own modified code to fix the damage done by SNKP's hasty censorship. This means that people with unfixed copies of V Special who also had a Unibios installed in their AES could revert the game back to its original code making it 1:1 with the arcade version again (outside of the Training Mode). Thus, the unfixed version of the game, when paired with the Unibios mod, is the only way to play the game in its original violent state on AES. The "unfixed" variant is not only the more sought after of the two unique versions, it is also more rare as the vast majority of the copies of the game were "fixed" by SNKP. Fixed versions of the game can be easily spotted as SNKP placed a small Neo-Geo logo sticker on the front of the cartridge shell.

**Here's another fun link to the Neo-Geo.com thread for the launch of the Unibios 2.0 that includes this fix. It happened less than a month after the game came out. 

Samurai Shodown V Special is also famous for being the last official release on the Neo-Geo platform. This release capped off an astounding 14 year run for the Neo-Geo, which to this day holds the record of the longest running arcade hardware of all time with a game launching every year it was supported. Despite being released on the AES, SNK officially ended AES production in 1997 - seven years prior to the release of V Special. To commemorate this release, SNKP added a special note on the back cover of the game's manual in both Japanese and English that reads:

"A Final Farewell. To all of our customers who have purchased NeoGeo ROM cartridges up till now, thank you very much. We offer our most heartfelt gratitude for your loyal patronage over these 14 full years and hope for your continued support for our games on the many other platforms we will provide for in the future. NeoGeo fans rule!"

Unfortunately there is little sales data for the game despite knowing that it sold out the world over quite quickly on AES. Due to the astronomical price of the MVS version in the modern era compared to just about all other MVS releases, one can also assume it didn't get as widespread of an arcade release as well. By 2004 arcades in Western markets were dying at an increasingly rapid pace and game centers in Japan (including those owned by SNK) were also closing in record numbers. The MVS arcade original version of V Special is the most pure version of the game and is highly sought after among collectors and players alike. 

Okay, enough story time! On with the game review. 

The story in Samurai Shodown V, or Samurai Shodown Zero in Japan, is set prior to the events of the very first game, which is why the game has the "Zero" moniker in Japan rather than being a numbered entry as with the Western release (much like Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha/Zero games). Samurai Shodown V was released in 2003, a full seven years after the last 2D game in the series. In the interim SNK released the two Hyper Neo-Geo 64 Samurai Shodown games as well as two releases for the ill-fated Neo-Geo Pocket series.

When Samurai Shodown V released in 2003, it was met with a fair amount of criticism. Not only was it a cut and paste job of backgrounds and sprites from Samurai Shodown 3 and 4 (despite a few new characters added that matched the art style), it was horribly unbalanced and glitchy. In an effort to fix the release, developer Yuki Enterprises opted to release a completely retooled version of the game with the "Special" moniker that denoted many upgraded versions of Neo-Geo games, like Fatal Fury Special. While the core gameplay mechanics remain unchanged, there are some significant differences to note.

Differences include:

• The addition of all boss characters from all prior Samurai Shodown games at the loss of two characters from the vanilla release. Special also removes Galford's dog Poppy as a secret playable character. 

• Redundant stages from the third and fourth games were removed and replaced with new art. 

• Characters were entirely rebalanced leading to one of the most balanced fighting games on the hardware.

• The Zetsumei Ougi (fatalities) were added. Explained in detail below, these moves are what caused the controversy detailed above.

• Character endings were changed or omitted to make more space for the new content as the memory footprint is the same as the vanilla release.

• All four boss characters must be defeated with a Zetsumei Ougi to see the true ending in single player mode.

The roster of Samurai Shodown V Special is a staggering 28 characters, and all bosses are immediately selectable. In a change from prior Samurai Shdown games, the Bust/Slash isms (each character had two different modes of play) were removed in favor of creating a pallet swap of certain characters to pad out the roster. While characters like Kazuki, Haohmaru, Nakoruru and a few others have a pallet swap character that consists of their "Bust" ism move sets from prior games, a glaring omission here is Galford. 

See, Galford, in his Bust incarnation in prior games, is an all out rush-down character that plays radically different than he does in his Slash ism - which is more zoning based - using his dog and projectiles to attack and distract. I point this out only because Bust Gladford is my favorite Samurai Shodown character ever, and to not see this version of him represented in this excellent game is a personal disappointment. Bust Galford was a very unique take on the character as this "rush-down" archetype is atypical for a Samurai Shodown game.

Despite looking similar to prior games in the 2D series, the V series games changed the controls a bit. You still have two buttons dedicated to light and medium slashes and third button dedicated kick. Your heavy slash is now performed by pressing both lighter attack buttons at once (like in the first and second games) and the fourth button is now dedicated to your defensive options. 

• Pressing forward plus defense will dodge an attack and move you forward.

• A neutral press will make you short hop over grounded attacks. 

• Down-back/forward plus defense will produce an evasive roll (that has a hit box).

• Down plus defense will lay you prone on the ground to duck under even some crouching attacks. 

• You can also parry opponent attacks and deflect their weapons entirely, making them fly out of their hands and land somewhere on the playfield. 

One of the chief mechanics in the V series is the Kenki Gauge. This bar sits directly under your life meter and will decrease with every attack you perform. The more attacks you do in succession, the less damage they will do overall. Your Kenki gauge gradually refills over time, though, and there are no actions you can perform to speed up this process. This mechanic create a push/pull in the game that slows down the pace considerably over Samurai Shodown 3 and removes some of the dangers of counter hits created by percentage damage buffs from Samurai Shodown 3 and 4. 

The Rage Gauge returns but functions a bit differently now. It still fills the more damage you take and produces a damage buff for you once full, and with a full Rage Gauge you can perform your main desperation move that will both hit and disarm your opponent. Rather than having a unique controller motion for each character, though, the desperation move has been simplified to a quarter-circle forward plus CD for all characters. As with Samurai Shodown 4 you can also burst your Rage Gauge by pressing ABC. While this grants you further buffs, it can also be used to activate the controversial new mechanic called the Zetsumei Ougi. 

After you have won at least one round and damage your opponent enough to deplete their life bar until it turns blue, you can press ABC to burst your Rage Gauge. When in your burst state you can then enter the command quarter-circle back plus CD to activate the Zetsumei Ougi, or fatality. While the input is universal for all characters, the resulting fatality will fit the personality of your character. These are rather gruesome, as mentioned before, with some being downright sadistic. Shizumaru and Jubei's are personal favorites. These fatalities are in addition to the generic fatal slices from prior games. 

Samurai Shodown V Special is an overall very balanced game and has become a favorite amongst the fighting game community even today in 2023. At just about every major tournament there are side tourneys that include this game, along with stand alone tournaments that focus entirely on this game. Above all other Samurai Shdown releases, including the stellar 2019 reboot, V Special gets the most play alongside the second game. Legacy Neo-Geo fans usually will point to Samurai Shodown 4 as their favorite of the series and pass off the V series as mere shadows of what came before. Though, that has less to do with actual game mechanics and more to do with the sloppy nature of the presentation compared to classic SNK's work. 

While Samurai Shodown V Special is a step above the vanilla release graphically, it still falls prey to many of the presentation flaws that turned away long time fans. Character sprite work across the majority of the cast was almost a decade old when V Special came out. And while the art was still beautiful, it makes these late release games feel more like cut and paste jobs than something truly new and fresh. Hand drawn pixel art of this level of detail is expensive, though, and Yuki and SNKP did not have the resources of 90's SNK. Bascially, the slightly slap-dash job with these games is understandable (if still unfortunate). That's not to say these are ugly games, though, and the artists at Yuki went a long way to make V Special even more unique than the vanilla release. New characters, like Mizuki, were redrawn to match the art style, and copied backgrounds from earlier games were removed and replaced with new work. While the detail and coloring are not to classic SNK standard, they are fine if a bit uninteresting. 

A BIG addition to Samurai Shodown V Special is the promotional and in-game portrait art being designed by Satoshi Ito, which gives a darker vibe to the game that is more akin to Samurai Shodown 3 than any other game in the series. The art for the game and in-game character portraits are quite stunning. This is in addition to Nobuhiro Watsuki's (Mangaka over the Rurouni Kenshin series) contributions to vanilla V in creating the base designs for the newer characters like Yoshitora Tokugawa (yes, that Tokugawa family). 

Music is hit or miss here with some new tunes being quite good, like the character select screen, while most others are fine to fight to but you won't be listening to this soundtrack much outside of the game like prior entries. The sound design overall is good, like prior games, with excellent slashing and clashing effects. Most returning character voices are reused from the third and fourth games, while some characters like Nakoruru not only saw an entirely new sprite design but new voice overs as well. This makes the sound and presentation feel a bit unbalanced, but everything gels nicely all things considered. If you aren't already intimately familiar with Samurai Shodown 3 and 4, though, this game (and vanilla V) won't feel nearly as slap-dash. 

Samurai Shodown V Special is an excellent update to a mundane game that really takes the experience to the next level. With a huge and balanced roster of fun characters, excellent mechanics, and loads of replayability, V Special is one of if not the most complete Samurai Shodown games on the Neo-Geo. It's just different enough from what came before to warrant a spot in any Neo collector's library even if you already have the first four games in the series. It's also a substantial upgrade from vanilla V, making that game somewhat obsolete overall - much like what Fatal Fury Special did to Fatal Fury 2 a decade prior. 

Unfortunately, Samurai Shodown V Special is one of the most rare and expensive games on the AES. Fixed Japanese copies typically sell for around $2500- $3000 and Unfixed copies for $3500 to $4000. US versions of each variant are worth about $500 above the Japanese edition due to a slightly smaller production run. There is also a significant difference in packaging art with many collectors preferring the excellent Japanese version's package design. An MVS copy will be substantially cheaper, but it's still over $1000 loose, so having an authentic version of this game in any format is nigh-unobtainable for the vast majority of gamers and collectors. You can find good deals if you're patient with some auctions, but you will not pay less than $1000 for any version of this game if you want to play it on Neo hardware. There is no Neo CD version, as is the case with all releases post 1999.

Thankfully there are a bajillion ways to play this game in the modern era. There is the $8 Arcade Archives release on all modern platforms you can download digitally, which is the cheapest way to play legally. Code Mystics also developed a stand-alone version on the Playstation platform that uses true rollback netcode for excellent online play. You can play the game on the generally excellent Samurai Shodown Neo-Geo Collection developed by Digital Eclipse that released in 2020 along with a stand-alone PC release developed by Iron Galaxy available on Steam or GOG for just a few bucks. If you want the best competition in the world, though, make sure to play the game on the PC-centric fighting game emulator client called Fightcade. Not only does it use the V Special MVS rom data, it also has spot on rollback netcode and a healthy community of expert players. Be warned, though, as the best players in the world play here. So unless you're quite confident in your skills, be prepared to get your ass handed to you. 

At the end of the day, if you're looking for an excellent sword slashing experience on your Neo-Geo, you'll find a lot to love here. Still, given the astronomical price of owning an original copy of any variant, it's asking a lot when you could play a modern release for far less money and focus on getting the earlier games in the series on SNK hardware. My suggestion is to get Samurai Shodown 2 and 3 before all others, but I also understand wanting to own this game on hardware for more reasons than just playing it. There is something special about owning the final Neo-Geo game, and as a life-long SNK die-hard fan, that's worth its own price of admission.