Samurai Shodown for Sega CD and Neo Geo Comparison and Screenshots
Samurai Shodown was originally designed for the Neo Geo in 1993 on a 15 MByte cartridge. This version features graphics considered to be on par with the Arcade version of Capcom's Street Fighter 2, with the addition of having the entire scene and all characters scale in and out as the characters move closer or further away from each other. Also, rather than focusing on combo systems, Samurai Shodown innovated a unique strategy system similar to Iai/Kenjutsu in which you must force your opponent to attack first, in order to block/dodge and counter. In addition to that, Samurai Shodown innovated a 'rage' meter which increases as you land successful attacks or are injured, which increases your attack strength and how much damage you take when injured. These two innovations add up to a fighting experience which can be very frenetic and matches that can be long and drawn out, only to end in a few choice strokes at the end.
The Sega CD version of 1995 is graphically very comparable to the original game except that it has no scaling as the characters move closer or further away. This version also has the exact NEO GEO music streaming off the CD, but is missing some sound effects not related to gameplay. Like the other home versions of Samurai Shodown, the Sega CD game is also conspicuously missing Earthquake's character and level, possibly due to the sheer size of the character. The lack of Earthquake's character and the scaling effect are unfortunate, as it ought to have been possible to recreate them using the Sega CD's graphics hardware.
Aside from that, when compared to the SNES and Genesis versions of Samurai Shodown, the Sega CD game is the only one that made it with virtually all of the original gameplay intact. The Genesis game is missing basic animations for important moves such as Haohmaru's heavy attack. Meanwhile, the SNES game choses to display only in the original's fully scaled out size, which means the sprites are always tiny on screen, and the "amazing" SNES sound chip managed to create a truly surreal "remix" of the game's sound effects and music, that sounds like it's echoing through a tin roof at all times.
Game magazines of the day dismissed the Sega CD version as horribly flawed due to the load times, which they also failed to adequately describe. Unlike later Playstation and Playstation 2 games, there are no load times longer than 10 seconds in Samurai Shodown CD. There is a 2-3 Second load time from the Title screen to the Character Select screen, and a 6-9 second load time from there to gameplay. After a match, there is a 1-2 second load screen to the victory screen. If you lost there will be 2-3 second load to the continue screen, followed by another 2-3 second load to the character select screen. The magazines should have said that it was the load frequency that may, or may not, be disconcerting, rather than just complaining about load times, as there is a huge difference between a 20-30 second load time, and several very brief loads between menus and such. Given that the Industry became used to excessive load times on newer systems the same year this game came out, it is unfortunate that an entire generation thinks the game was fatally flawed thanks to game magazine editor's expressing their "feelings". The Sega CD game was the best home version that wouldn't cost $600+ to get a hold of on a 3DO or NEO GEO AES, and it is a very good port in light of the smaller sprites and chopped animations of the cartridge versions of Samurai Shodown, not to mention Street Fighter II.
Click to view Sega CD and 3DO comparison and gameplay movies of Samurai Shodown
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