Samurai Shodown Preview

Samurai Shodown is one of the major reasons people pay hundreds of dollars for NeoGeos on eBay. A seminal classic of the weapons-based fighting genre, the game features a compelling cast of fictional Japanese fighting legends. Samurai Shodown and its sequels are almost on par with the Street Fighter series for their wide appeal and influence. Digital Bridges' mobile version of the SNK classic, due out in July, hopes to earn its place as a part of that rich tradition.

Samurai Shodown features four familiar characters: Haohmaru--the master samurai swordsman, Nakoruru--the warrior protected by mountain spirits, Gen-An--the horribly deformed sewer creature, and Charlotte--the androgynous, French fencer. At present, you cannot select between members of this motley crew. Instead, you play through the game as Haohmaru first, then switch to Nakoruru, and then continue to play through each character in order.

Paramount to making a good fighting game is fast action and ergonomic control. This latter quality is incredibly difficult to achieve on phone numerical pads. For fighting games, a separate directional pad is a true necessity--although Samurai Shodown's simplified control scheme seems to work decently. We also noticed that the pre-release build of the game runs rather slowly. In its current state, the game's command queue is easily flooded; you can input a bunch of punches and kicks, take your hands off the controls, and watch your moves being executed at about a half-second delay. Here's hoping the game significantly speeds up before it goes gold this July.

Showing promise, however, are the game's lush backgrounds and detailed character sprites, each of which looks very similar to its arcade antecessor. Also, each character has been afforded two special moves, executable via keypress combinations, detailed in the title's in-game instructions. Most of these moves are not impossible to perform, and yield similar animations to those of the arcade version. Samurai Shodown also boasts a survival mode which may lend it some extra replay value.

We'll have more on this game when it hits US handsets next month.