Samurai Shodown(2019)

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raisinbman
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Samurai Shodown(2019)

Post by raisinbman »

With SamSho, I was completely new to the series. But in the fallout from the strange fall of Capcom and general wariness of Capcom shilling, as well as the confidence to move outside of Capcom with Injustice 2 and DBFZ, I wanted to support as many companies entering the sphere as possible. I knew NOTHING about SamSho, but, surprisingly, it shares a lot of crossover with street fighter IV, and ultimately, I think this series could’ve become smash bros in some alternate universe. When I say it shares DNA with SFIV, I don’t just mean in the fact that it reaches back to the past to give us all a new starting point for those who haven’t been playing every SamSho up to V Special, but also in what it provides. It’s a very basic experience that’s REALLY fun. Pros of course can make the most out of every movement, but the gameplay still serves newer players. And this sort of ties into where I see this possibly being Smash Bros before Smash Bros – it is a legitimate strategy to counter with one move, one button. And really, combos aren’t that long except for I think one character. It’s a question of fundamentals. It’s more important that you know your opponent than the game, really. Many would be players oftentimes say they’re intimidated by combo length or not understanding what’s going on. But here, it’s very clear. While there is deception in the form of cross ups or mixups, your opponent only has so many options and the combo will only go on for so long. Safe moves are safe, but there isn’t much you can do after them. Hits really have impact, in terms of both sides of stagger and damage. You only really to know the SRK and QCF motions to do the moves in the game. I really was surprised, and like many other fighting games I haven’t touched before, impressed, with the simplicity of it all. Most interestingly, we even see players who were more into the scene back in its infacy during street fighter II days like Alex Valle pick up the game and do well. That’s when I thought of this as the closest thing to Smash I’ve played yet in the form of a fighting game. SNK has never been at the forefront of the fighting games, especially in America, but internationally, it does have its hotspots. While the game has some serious issues with UI, online, menu-confusion and the like, it’s clear much like with the latest KOF entry, this game wasn’t on a triple A budget and wasn’t expected to sell like one. But the actual fighting itself is super solid. We’re starting to see this approach more and more where fighting game developers, either through choice or coincidence, realize they can’t compete with Tekken or Netherrealm’s production value, and instead aim a bit lower. And that approach culminated in SNK as a whole putting less emphasis on pachinko, and pledging to support fighting games. Which leads me to my next point in that as a gift to players due to sales, they’ve given the ENTIRE Season 1 DLC characters away for free for people who bought the game within 2 weeks of release. A fighting game will NEVER see that sort of generosity again. Combined with that, we’ve seen(Four?) free DLC characters, two from crossovers. If what SNK is doing for fighting games, having them be mechanically sound, but be a B project(as opposed to triple A) in its overall production, I’ll be happy to support this direction of fighting games in the future, no question.
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