In 1993, SNK released Samurai Shodown on the Neo Geo MVS arcade platform. It did enough to stand out from other fighting games of the era, earning itself numerous sequels and console ports throughout the years. The last time the franchise saw an arcade release was in 2008 with Samurai Spirits Sen.
Today, SNK is making waves with the announcement of a return to Samurai Shodown with Samurai Spirits. Now, before I post that, I should mention that there is no confirmation of an arcade edition being in the works at this time. But I did notice that the company did not mention which platforms this is coming to at the end, or on the website. It could mean nothing, or they could just be holding their cards back for some kind of arcade reveal a little later. Where SNK just released SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy AC over in Japan, I don’t think that the possibility of this coming to arcades in some form is totally out of the question.
Here’s the trailer, possibly NSFW due to blood and violence. By what is shown here, they certainly seem to be staying true to the original:
The question now is: would you like to see this hit up arcades? I think it would be great, as long as there is some significant content that would stay exclusive to the arcade version (unique characters and or/stages).
I’ve never heard of this game series before but it certainly looks fun and yes I’d love to see this in the arcades. The thing that might hurt it however is the blood shown in the game since a lot of games in the arcade tend to panda to families these days. I’d certainly play it.
I don’t think american arcades will be caring enough to post this. Most places are tourist attractions to keep the kids busy. Also SS is too much into the FGC circle, so exclusives that get blocked off for only the few who have to keep paying to practice isn’t going to run well.
You can keep Kung Fu vs Karate Champ.
Sadly I agree with voltz. It would be nice if it came out west but with the blood and violence shown in the game trailer and being a game not aimed at casual players I highly doubt this would get a wide release if any at all other than imported. When I go into arcades these days I see an awful lot of easy games mostly aimed at little kids and just casual gamer with no games that have the sense of competition. I’m not saying there aren’t any such as the big buck series and time crisis 5 but the games tend to be those based on apps, obviously it’s important to have game catered to everyone but I find it rare to find games when you can get a high score other than time crisis 5 or games especially that last longer than they should. There’s just no sense of achievement, at least not the games I’ve come across near me. Couldn’t say about the US.
Yeah I get kinda bothered talking about franchises having shifted their format and people saying bring them out with exclusives for a market that hardly exists anymore. I brought up the other title because the fanbase doesn’t look anywhere near big enough for people to make an issue out of it, but converting other mainstreams and more people who can’t play the content is going to bring more problems then it’s worth. Japan can keep this, but over here is just a sign of the times and I sadly don’t see this improving anytime soon.
Had barcades been given a more serious look at instead of focusing on classics, some publishers could have brought back an interest by cross-porting some games to that scene with coding for arcade use. I keep thinking Mortal Kombat was well beyond a missed opportunity to get this ball rolling for others to have a following interest. Maybe by now SS would have had a better chance?
I would like to hear a solution that would work for the arcade market and revitalize the genre here. That would be beneficial to both operators and gamers. What has been done for the past eighteen years clearly isn’t working; simply releasing big name franchises doesn’t work as operators pay out the nose for the game, then 2% of the hardcore fans hang around once they get a superior version of the game at home with an arcade mode then plenty of other things. They also all have their arcade sticks, so there is no reason to go and play at the arcade unless you are one of the very few that prefers the social aspect. That or you have the Injustice route, which is more for redemption fans – fighting fans don’t care or hate it because it’s as casual and watered down as you can get. In Japan, operators get raked over the coals as they not only see business on fighters drop with home releases, they have to pay manufacturers a percentage of the credits that go to each play. This is why many of them are backing Exa.
With exclusive content, you have incentive of a difference for bothering to go to the arcade and for operators to want to buy it. From my perspective, why should I spend $3000-$20,000 for a game that is not going to pay itself off because it isn’t unique in any way and bring people into my venue? We’ve had big franchises – Tekken and Street Fighter – but for a majority of ops, they were too high risk or a flop because they couldn’t compete with the home edition. Seems that simply making the arcade version unique in one aspect is really a win-win; more operators would buy the game, allowing more players access to it and players get the essentials at home anyways. I fail to see how that would be a negative thing, but I’m open to the debate to have my mind changed. The way I see it, fighters are a dead genre in arcades until we see a drastic shift. Doing the same thing or hoping that a major franchise will bring people back to arcades in droves won’t work. The only other solution I see is to leave it dead, but that’s not satisfactory when we know that fighters can still bring people in and make a major impact.
I should add, there are some bigger names headed to EXA for fighting games. Here’s hoping they’ll be announced soon, but they will carry name recognition plus exclusive content.
I hear what you mean. The big problem is when we hit our slump over a decade ago, this has left us with nil for good titles being released and has forced the change to have them in japanese only arcades while those overseas get the home release. There’s been literally a new generation of people introduced in that period till now, so it’s obvious where interests lay have “gone over the cliff” and it’s hard to come back from that. New players are brought up to know arcade versions are a payola scheme (their label), while everyone else has not only grown accustomed to home releases, but now we have the tools and knowledge to make custom arcade cabinets ourselves (probably information the general public ISN’T SUPPOSED TO HAVE lol), so all the incentives aren’t there anymore. Then there’s MY personal issue on living in a surrounding number of dead zones. The costs you mention are not going to bring this industry back. Back in the 80’s cabinets were more standardized and cheaper, plus I doubt new boards and kits weren’t going to take an arm or a leg to possess, but with these manufactures aiming at $5k and up per unit, it probably should be up front and center discussion on why they’re the one’s who are ruining the industry from having any sort of chance to come back? Does Killer Queen have to cost as much as it does, even though the tech is clearly an Android App? No, it doesn’t and this is exactly why I keep questioning myself how anyone who wants to open an arcade locally can afford to actually do so.
That’s why I think that the EXA platform at the moment is really the best solution to the problem. They will have a dedicated cabinet, the kit makes it able to go into plenty more spaces and you have much lower overall costs. If the big name games are only $1000~ after you already have the kit, then that really makes it easier/more likely for the dead zone problem to be overcome. Although what we’ll really need for fighters is a huge name to push those dead zones into going for one. Although by what I know, there is at least one game coming to it that could certainly be such a catalyst 😉
Just to let you know by what I call a dead zone, we have one of the top winning NFL teams in our city and there’s only a small game room at a hotel resort in my area. Every place was closed down or just flat out decided to get rid of their game cabinets. If that isn’t a clear indicator on the health of our industry, then I don’t know what is, but in the 90’s we had probably 5 very solid locations within 15 miles.
When i first saw the teaser webpage, i thought to myself, ok so this is gonna be another 3D catastrophe. There is no way they will make another 2D SNK game. They amputated that leg, didn’t they.
Then the trailer dropped and i repeated that ritual before pressing PLAY, lol.
I can’t shake the disappointment. I mean how many more half-assed polygon Street Fighter and Samurai Shodown games do we need, before they realize that these games STINK with 3D graphics. Going back to the roots worked wonders for Sonic Mania.