Samurai Spirits Zero

By Spencer . September 27, 2005 . 5:20pm

aka Samurai Showdown V.

 

Purchase at Play-Asia

 

Purchase at Lik-Sang

 

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.

 

Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 2

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.

 

+ Pros: Lots of characters to choose from.

 

- Cons: Terribly dated, downgraded fighting system and graphics.

 

Overall: A bad fighting game that even fanatics of the series will regret owning.

 

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