Publisher: JVC
Developer: SNK (original) / Funcom (port)
Released: 1995
I covered Fatal Fury Special previously in this series, another of the extensive list of fighting game franchises SNK released on their Neo Geo hardware. Back when they were shiny and new most of us who weren’t rich pined for a chance to play these arcade games at home. The closest a lot of us got were the ports to the Genesis and SNES, which were plentiful since, I guess, SNK must have decided it made more sense to tap into those large markets rather than rely solely on arcade sales and boutique consoles?
Every SNK fighting series had a pretty interesting gimmick. Samurai Shodown is a weapons-based fighter that feels so much different than most of the one on one games on the market at the time. It feels far more deliberate than something like a Fatal Fury or Street Fighter. Each combatant has a weapon, which they can lose in the course of the fight. Each match includes random drops that restore energy, as well as a referee shuffling around in the background signifying successful hits.
Based on the fact that they’re both ports of the same game, it’s easy to dismiss the Sega CD version of Samurai Shodown as nothing more than the Genesis version with a redbook audio soundtrack. But nothing could be further from the truth.Takara released the cartridge version in 1994, and for the most part it was a pretty decent port, featuring a deep multiplayer mode and almost all the characters from the arcade original. Instead of the active camera zoom found on the Neo Geo, Takara opted to show all the action up close, which meant excising the gigantic Earthquake character from the game, as I’m guessing he was just too big at that distance.
The Sega CD version released in 1995 by JVC was developed by Funcom, the same fledgeling developer which had previously ported Fatal Fury to the system. And it’s fascinating to see the different decisions they made in the process. Funcom also locked the game to an extreme closeup in order to show off those beautiful fighters, and like the cartridge version, this meant that Earthquake was not included in the roster as there just weren’t enough sprites to have two of him on the screen during versus play. Also missing are the official who follows each match to signify successful hits and declare a winner, and the little guy who runs across the screen dropping items during each fight. Although special items do still fall from the sky in the Sega CD version.
Samurai Shodown plays pretty darn well. The movesets for each fighter feel more authentic to the original game, rather than the modified attacks found on the Genesis. And of course the music sounds much better in this version. All of the cut-scenes are back and there are way more voice samples to be heard during play. It just looks and sounds generally better than the Genesis cartridge.
Where the Sega CD port falls down, though, is in the multiplayer arena. While the Genesis cartridge features a robust multiplayer mode, complete with sequences of multiple characters and lots of stats to look at afterward, the Sega CD version features a simple, single match setup that doesn’t even include the ability to play as the final boss, Amakusa, even though he actually appears on the character select screen.
On some parts of the internet there’s a story that the Sega CD version of Samurai Shodown suffers from a catastrophic bug which will crash the game if a player reaches the final fight with Amakusa. The story goes that JVC decided not to do a second pressing of the game, and instead offered owners of Samurai Shodown a free copy of Fatal Fury Special as compensation. While I haven’t been able to confirm this myself (Samurai Shodown is pretty difficult, and the Sega CD version only gives you three credits to work with), I have seen playthroughs on YouTube where this alleged crash never happens. And after combing dozens of magazines from the time, have not been able to find any reporting on the crash or the offer of a free Fatal Fury Special. So, as far as I can tell, there’s no real validity to the story.
I reached out to developer Roar Flolo, who was gracious enough to share what he remembers about the development process. He has no recollection of this gamestopping bug, either. He did tell me a great story about the fact that they were so tight on memory with the Sega CD port that the subsequent port to Japan required JVC to simplify the Japanese text to the point that it read at a third grade level.
It’s arguable that Fatal Fury on the Genesis is the better of the two versions, but the Sega CD game is a solid port of a very unique fighter.
