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The Lowdown
Pros: Lots of characters to choose from.
Cons: Terribly dated, downgraded fighting system and graphics.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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Samurai Showdown, better known as Samurai Spirits in Japan, was one of
the better fighting series that SNK released. The original had large
characters, the rage system and scaling graphics all of which the series
eventually became known for. Five games later, Samurai Spirits Zero is
released. After five games you would imagine an upgrade, at the very
least a superficial one.Samurai Spirits Zero does have a few changes.
There are a few extra characters here and there that bring the total
roster to 27 characters. 27 different characters is a pretty good size
to have. Many of the characters are returning characters. You can't have
a Samurai Sprits game without the noble Samurai Haohmaru, Nakoruru with
her bird, and the acrobatic ninja Hanzo. There are some new characters,
four of which have entirely new movelists. For the characters that don't
have new movelists they play pretty much the same as any other Samurai
Showdown game. There aren't any revolutionary tweaks or even a bunch of
new moves for most of the old characters.
SNK Playmore did change the gameplay system, but most people will
think its for the worse. Many of the improvements that SNK brought into
the series via Samurai Spirits Four were removed from the game. You
can't perform an upgrade special attack when you're in rage mode. Life
recovery, the sidestep dodge, a continuous slash attack and even the
fatalities are all gone. Most of these tactics were what made the series
unique. The only thing left is the rage system, where you can give extra
damage by activating your "inner rage". What did SNK Playmore add in to replace the
gameplay system? There is the new Kenki system, that effects how much
damage you do. If you don't attack the meter fills up, which will allow
you to give more damage. This favors timed and precise attacks rather
than button mashing weak attacks. The new Kenki system also favors
slower gameplay. If you want to do maximum damage you aren't going to
rush the enemy and hope they don't block. Instead you're going to wait
for the right moment to strike.
Because of this new system and the occasional slowdown Samurai
Spirits Zero doesn't feel "action packed". Instead the game is a slow
and monotonous process of blocking and attacking. This wouldn't be too
bad if the game wasn't a fighting game. Fighting games are meant to be
exciting, but Samurai Sprits Zero just isn't. Another core problem with
the whole fighting system in Samurai Spirits Zero is that it suffers
from old school 2D fighting syndrome. If you've played any of the other
games you don't even have much to master.
Whoever was in charge of porting this game to the PS2 hardware did an
abysmal job of doing so. Granted, Samurai Spirits Zero is a 2D fighting
game designed for the Neo Geo. You can't expect it to have the same
level of graphics as a game designed for the PS2, but you can't accept
that the translation be this bad either. First off all the characters
look like sloppy cut and paste objects from the Genesis. They suffer
from using a limited number of colors, which was solved after the Saturn
was released. The backgrounds are equally unimpressive. They're lifeless
and boring. Some of the special effects are just plain laughable. When
Haohmaru uses his tornado attack its a rainbow of colors. The same
attack looked much better in the SNK vs Capcom Chaos, which was released
awhile ago. How can the graphics get worse? Hmm...
Equally unimpressive is the control system set up for Samurai Spirits
Zero. The original Neo Geo controller has four buttons, the Playstation
2 controller has eight. You would imagine that the game would be set up
to utilize the extra buttons for two button combinations. Samurai
Spirits does have the extra button combinations, but they alter the
gameplay similar to how using the camera stick altered the gameplay in
Capcom vs. SNK 2 Easy Operation. It upsets the balance of gameplay more
than it helps.
SNK Playmore gave Samurai Spirits Zero a downgrade in gameplay,
graphics and overall fun. They removed many elements of the game, that
the series is known for. It wasn't to increase gameplay speed because
Spirits loads and plays as slow as a drunk slug. Everything about the
game has the 16 bit home console philosophy, but done so terribly wrong.
The only thing that may redeem SNK Playmore from this flop is that the
series has its fan base. Some gamers who love the characters and the
series may stick through this game, but everyone else should avoid it.
All of the important menus are in English. Although the ever so
important skill list and all of the "story" quotes are in Japanese.
US Bound?
It has a North American release date slated for November 1st under
the name Samurai Showdown V.
Overall
A bad fighting game that even fanatics of the series will regret
owning.
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