Samurai Shodown V is a straight port of the Neo Geo game of the same name. This in itself means it's fairly dated - but even moreso when you consider that the engine was first used in Samurai Shodown III back in 1993. Utilise the power of the PS2 this game does not.
A lot of ropey preview code comes through the PALGN offices, but Samurai Shodown V is even more questionable than most. To be completely honest, there is basically nothing that the game does right. Controls are slow and unresponsive, the game itself looks like it’s running on a Super Nintendo and STILL has slowdown, and…well, the less said about the audio, the better. The worst thing is that the game seems to be awfully close to completion, as there were none of the gaping holes that we’ve come to expect from preview builds. Apart from the hole where, y'know, actual quality gameplay should be.
This guy broke his opponent’s wrist with his hair. Nice.
Just controlling your fighter feels like a chore. Unresponsive controls are enough to drag any game into the mud – but when it’s a 2D fighter like Samurai Shodown V, you might as well completely forget about it. When moves connect there is seemingly an eternity before you can press another button to execute a move on-screen, making combos fairly tough at best. D-pad rolls were also quite questionable, even for the usually difficult PS2 controller.
Jumping is just disturbing, with characters almost floating into the air before returning to earth. Compared to fluid 2D fighters such as the Guilty Gear series and even the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, this game feels horrendous.
Sonic boom! Oh wait, wrong game.
By far the most off putting aspect of the game is the 16-bit presentation. It is simply unbelievable in the modern era. The sprite characters are not particularly detailed or interesting, backgrounds are static and utterly boring, while the animation is quite disturbing and often choppy. But, somehow, the framerate still manages to chug severely at times. The effects of special moves tend to be a cause of this, and often it seems deliberate, in order to ‘savour’ the move. We really hope there is a long way to go in the optimisation process, because this is a severe disservice to even the aging PS2 hardware. Yes, we understand that it's a port - but it still needs some sort of dressing up to be considered even remotely viable.
Hampering it even further are the ‘cut scenes’. These are straight from a 16-bit RPG, with the sprite characters wandering onto a static background and a speech bubble emerging from their head, before they wander off screen in the opposite direction. It goes without saying that the story is rubbish and incomprehensible (being a fighting game), but it would be better to completely disregard these story sequences completely rather than using this dated method of storytelling. If there is any place where the dated feeling of the game could be decreased, it's with some slick cut scences. Oh well.
Some good character design there. Well, not really.
Fighting games have always had a tendency to feature annoying effects, and Samurai Shodown V is no exception. Characters scream loudly and often, and it is really freakin’ annoying. Infuriating, even. This cannot be stressed enough with words – within seconds of a bout, the constant stereotypical 'WAHHHHHS' and 'YAAAHHHSS' – doubly so for the female characters – will have you reaching frantically for the mute button.
Samurai Shodown V – known as Samurai Spirits Zero in some parts of the world – is scheduled for a PAL release in December. Unless something really drastic happens between now and then, this is one game that should get lost in the Christmas shuffle. And deservedly so, judging by this showing.
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