OUR RATING: 6.7 GOOD About our ratings

TANGIBLES: Gameplay: 7 Visuals: 7 Audio: 8 Value: 6 Quality: 6

Why you should buy it: Not Available Why you should rent it: Not Available

UNIQUE RATING: 6.7 SUGGESTION: N/A

Before there was SoulCalibur, there was Samurai Spirits, or “Samurai Shodown” as we know it over here. Like SoulCalibur, the Samurai Shodown franchise strayed from the combo-happy fighting games of its time, opting instead for a highly positional and tactical format that rewarded players for setting up that one big attack rather than the back-and-forth momentum-based play of games like Street Fighter and Tekken.

Also like SoulCalibur, Samurai Shodown gathered a small but rabid fanbase behind the scenes of the fighting genre. While Street Fighter dominated the genre back then just as it does today, Samurai Shodown managed to gather a dedicated fanbase of its own. Although this fanbase was unable to push the franchise into the fighting mainstream, it wasn't enough to persuade SNK to provide much console support on this side of the pond beyond the initial installment, which was ported to virtually every console at the time, and its dog (aka the 3DO). All we would receive beyond that was a halfhearted PlayStation port of Samurai Shodown III, which was universally recognized as the weak link in the series even before the poor transition to PSX. The two strongest installments from the 90s, II and IV, went unreleased on North American consoles.

Thus, it seems strange that SNK would arbitrarily release Samurai Shodown V in North America, and even stranger (at least to those who don't follow relationships between game companies) that it would land on the Xbox of all systems. Also consider that an upgrade of the game, titled Samurai Shodown V Special, has been around for about two years now, and you have a recipe for perhaps the most bizarre fighting releases of this generation.

So is it any good? When you break it down, it all depends on what you want from it. Casual Shodown fans from back in the day who just want to get their hands on another SS after all these years will be thrilled by this release, but online fighting enthusiasts and hardcore SS players will feel burned by the fact that SNK had a better, more balanced, and more complete version of the exact same game in-hand, and still opted to release the first edition. Simply put, although SSV is certainly a quality fighter in its own right, SNK did not give us the best game they could have.

For those who haven't played a Samurai Shodown game, the gameplay might seem a little more typical of a 2D fighter than it really is. The conventions are largely the same, and a handful of its characters have been used in SNK's more popular crossover titles with Capcom, thus perpetuating the sense of consistency to the uninitiated. Once you spend some time with it, however, you'll quickly find that it plays more on the “chess game” aspect of fighters. Tactics and strategy over reflex and execution. It won't take long for this mentality to envelop your entire approach to the game.

Also included in Samurai Shodown V is the now-obligatory Xbox Live mode, which is sort of middle of the road as far as SNK online modes go, and thus also kind of a first, as SNK's online fighters have either had amazing online modes or very poor ones. It really shouldn't make your decision for you one way or the other, since online is to be expected in today's Xbox fighters, and online is here despite not being anything special after having seen what the DOA series and KOF Maximum Impact Maniax have put forth.

Graphically, the game is a NeoGeo port. What you see is what you get; well-drawn characters of moderate resolution. If you're even considering buying this game, it's already obvious you don't mind too much. With that in mind, however, Samurai Shodown V is one of the better looking NeoGeo games to come along, and despite not quite being on the same level in this regard as the likes of Last Blade 2, it is still quite the artistic accomplishment, especially when considering it was developed for arcade hardware that was made in the late 80s.

The aesthetic high point is the audio. Included in the game is an arranged soundtrack, which SNK very rarely screws up, and really doesn't do often enough. Arcade players can opt for the original music, but that might be hard for even the most old-school of SS fans after they hear the re-recorded classic themes of characters like Galford and Nakoruru. The diversity of the soundtrack remains as well, ranging from traditional-style Japanese music all the way to the other end of the spectrum; fast-paced rock. Complementing the great music and atmosphere are perfectly executed sound effects and voice samples that really drive the whole package home.

To summarize, Samurai Shodown V is a solid game with a grossly-mistimed release. When you consider that it was upgraded about two years ago, and the series has a new installment; Samurai Spirits: Tenkaichi Kenkyakuden, arriving on the Japanese PS2 this week, it's difficult to look at Samurai Shodown V as anything more than an unnecessary port of an obsolete game. It will satisfy completists (as much as a series can when it has missed two critical North American releases) and those desperate for some new 2D sword-fighting after all these years, but it would have been much better utilized as one half of a double-pack with Samurai Shodown V Special, and it desperately needed much more meat to it before it could be truly recommendable. Samurai Shodown really deserves better than this. Hopefully a more timely release of Tenkaichi Kenkyakuden is on the way.