Respect or die. This is the Nintendo console version of the SNK game.
Samurai Shodown arrived hard early last summer. A franchise was recovered with a lot of solera and was taken as the basis for much of the good of the second numbered installment, the most beloved and recognized. His EVO had follow-up and the game's fit in the community was positive. But the months have passed, the non-arrival of the title on PC has been a disservice to the community and is currently far from being one of the great benchmarks at a competitive level, although it will continue to give war. In spite of everything, it is still a great fighting title with a different tempo and ways to the dominant games at the moment. And now it comes to Switch. Although it is a somewhat dull version.
For those who do not know the title, we are facing a slow and leisurely one-on-one fighting game, where knowing how to enter the enemy is much more important than knowing combos, which are neither long nor complex. Here, a couple of blows can destroy the rival life, hence there is necessarily talk of respect and punishment in the fighting of Samurai Shodown. With a system based on three types of blows (loose, medium, strong) and kick, we combine attacks that change according to the distance we are from the rival. Basically, space and distance mark and much the future of the games.
The grace of the game is in the rulings of the rival, which leave the character totally sold to be punished. Blocks, parries and perfect guards complete a cast of defensive movements that allow responding to rival offensives. He also dodges it. All this to disarm the rival, open a hole in his defense and destroy it. The super movements, only one per combat, the bar of fury that allows us to use the disarmament technique and increase our attack power; or the explosion of fury becomes strategic tools: knowing when to activate and use them – they cannot be reused in a fight – can mark the game. The result is a different and attractive fighting game.
All this with a cast of 16 characters, 13 of them classics and three novelties, which are going to give cakes -or better, of cuts- in several game modes nothing revolutionary but usual: a story mode that actually camouflages with its name a lifelong arcade; versus mode, championships with the obligation to end all rivals and others such as survival, time trial or Dojo, where ghosts are generated that play as their users Killer Instinct and its laboratory. A basic tutorial and informal and matched online fighting complete an offer that is not too attractive for the offline and lonely player, but that contains several interesting challenges.
You can consult our original Reviews to delve into all the details of the game.
And the Switch version?
We enter somewhat less convincing terrain. The game maintains the essence both playable and modalities, as well as in the squad of characters and in the artistic style. The big problem comes in its performance. The title looks very far from what it does in the other versions, and that ends up taking its toll. Playing it on a laptop, an undeniable attraction, is not recommended. We find a low resolution that affects the posters and indicators of the menu. Some texts can barely be read. Then there is the definition of the characters, pixelated and much less detailed than we would like.
Worst of all is the game's performance, with special attacks falling regularly below the 60 fps required of the game. This ends up being a somewhat more severe setback, and although the reality is that this happens especially in special attacks and specific moments – it has not happened to us in a pressure or in a normal combo – blur the experience, as do the long times of cargo, which are heavier than usual between battles.
Finally, note that during the departure of Samurai Shodown in its main versions, a campaign was announced through which we could get the season 1 pass for free. This does not happen in this version, something that is an obvious comparative offense: it not only comes out almost a year later, but also that the game will arrive somewhat more lame when the second season pass is announced. In return, yes, it was announced that game reservations would arrive with Samurai Shodown! 2, not the recreational classic: the game that came out for Neo Geo Pocket, an interesting curiosity, yes.
CONCLUSION
Samurai Shodown arrives on Nintendo Switch with the virtues we met several months ago: a fighting game with a combat system and a rhythm totally different from other powerful and solid contemporary titles. The problems come with the version in question, below clearly on a technical level, with performance problems and without the free season pass as happened in the first days of the title on PS4 and Xbox One.
THE BEST
- Gameplay very different from others of the genre: leisurely, strategic and satisfactory
- The tension of the fighting remains a differential element
- Return to the origins adapting to the current times
WORST
- Performance issues and graphics that blur the version
- Long loading times
- Without the season 1 pass
- Unattractive to the lonely player
Right
It is not the latest or the most original, nor does it have the best execution, but it can be fun if you like the genre. Good, but improvable.
