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Yet another sequel in the Samurai Showdown (or Samurai Spirits) for the Neo Geo system is ported perfectly to the Saturn. But unfortunately, just because it is a perfect port, doesn't insure an incredible game. I will give Samurai Showdown 4 a 7 out of 10, and if you are interested in why I give this grade, read on.

To those unfamiliar with the Samurai Showdown series, it is a "story fighter" taking places in Old Japan. Samurai's, swords, attitudes, unique fighting styles, and incredible art is what makes this series so popular. SS4 is the fourth episode in this SNK classic (duh), it brings a few new things to the series, but mostly it is the same game with some new animation's, moves and characters. The story is basic, Shirou Amakusa has taken control of Japan with his evilness and it is up to the Japanese samurai swordsmen to put his legacy to an end. You can choose up to 18 different characters in the story mode, each with 2 different fighting styles, "Bust" or "Slash". Each style has it's own characteristics and also gives the character a new color format and easily gives the game 36 unique characters, plus there is a experience option which allows for a beginner mode, medium mode and upper mode!! There are 4 options available when you start this game, which, by the way, is only available in Japan. There is the "Game Mode" in which you choose your character and battle until you fight the bosses and ultimately destroy Amakusa (oops hope I didn't ruin the story! ^_^ ). There is a Versus mode in which you and a friend can battle it out with the 36 characters. There is one flaw in this mode. When the game goes back to character selection screen, the winner is not able to pick a new character, is not able to change character fighting style, and is not able to change the experience mode. This is quite irritating when the winning player wants to change characters, but does not want to have to allow his opponent to beat him. There is a practice mode which is a very, very nice addition, with the ability to change characters quickly, and program the opponent to stand, crouch or jump, guard or hit guard (for certain moves and combo's). My only tick about this practice is that often, the opponent will be bashed into the corner, and there is no way to move him/her back into the center of the screen. There is an option mode, which is very nice, and more comprehensive than most fighting game option screens. This screen allows for the basic fighting game options, plus some more, like Normal or Maximum power, player capacity, language toggling, and some Sega Saturn only options, plus a complete sound test mode, cool!

We can start the actual review talking about graphics. Samurai Showdown 4 is a sprite based fighter similar to the Street Fighter series. Due to the 1 MB RAM cart that comes with the game (the cart is required to play the game) there is no evidence that SNK cut any of the frames of the original game. This allows for some very big sprites and fluid animation. However, when large characters are on the screen, there is very evident slowdown, and if 2 large characters are active, slowdown is incredibly distracting. The characters are animated very well, and every move and special move is an incredible show of art. In some moves the anime style characters have long pauses, and relatively long special moves, for melodramatic effect, which some people dislike. However, staying with the traditional "Samurai" moves, this is a very effective way of showing the fighting style of Old Japan samurai's. A fan of this series won't find this a problem, but a twitch fanatic looking for an incredibly fast game, with less detail should look elsewhere. The game's many backgrounds are quite extraordinary. SNK's artist have done very well, they are colorful and animated, capturing the Old Japan look, with beach scenes, Japanese forests and many old style Japanese castles. Often, during a fight, the background will turn black, and a new background will appear, creating a feeling of "There is only the battle", nothing else matters, just the battle. Very cool effect. During the story mode, there are certain times when Amakusa will appear and the background will change to some weird BG with some kind of evil symbol or something having to do with Amakusa in the background. Very nice effect! The blood in this game is incredibly realistic looking, and there sure is plenty of it! In the Samurai Showdown series, there is a trademark camera move, where the camera zooms out an in on the action. When the characters are next to eachother, the camera zooms in, and likewise, when they are separated it moves farther away. You usually notice this feature in the other Samurai Showdown games, but it is done so smoothly in this game, it's hardly noticeably unless you actually take the time to notice it! The loading time is very good, mostly due to the RAM cart. Loading time before matches is around 7 seconds. To the graphics I give a 9, if there had been no slowdown it would have gotten a 10, but don't worry about the slowdown, there is very little of it.

The sound is the next subject. The voices are poor. Not extremely bad, but not good. This game has done nothing to improve the voice quality, even though one might imagine they would have the capability to do that with the extra RAM cart, but I suppose that 1 MB is reserved for sprites only. The sound effects, however are much better. The clanging of the weapons hitting each other is very cool, and sound realistic, the special move sound effects are good too. One thing I especially appreciate is when Ukyo runs, he lifts up his dress and patters over to the opponent, and the sound effect is very cool, "tap tap tap tap tap tap". The BGM's are satisfactory. Most are the usual old style Japan songs, with traditional Japanese instruments, there are a few exceptions. One song is sort of a guitar, rock like song which sounds like it is straight out of Castlevania: Nocturne in the Moonlight (Symphony of the Night). Some BGM's go with the background, like in the beach background, there is no BGM just the relaxing sound of the waves hitting the rocks and sand. Sound gets a 6 mostly due to the radio quality voices.

Gameplay is very cool. Each character has his or her own fighting style, and some have animals that aid them in fighting. One interesting use of an animal is when Nako Ruru uses her wolf by jumping on it and can access some moves she can only do on the wolf. Each character has different moves in each style of fighting (bust or slash). My only gripe being that there is very little change in the special move controls. Almost all the characters moves are started by the same moves, over and over. This is one of the reasons I think that the normal, D-pad controls should change, possibly start using 2 d-pads for certain moves, or creating a 3-dimensional pad.....hmm.... anyway. Every character has a power bar at the bottom of the screen, in which if he/she is hit enough, it will become on fire, and this will give the character the ability to initiate a special move, which takes away the opponents weapon, leaving them pretty much harmless until they can get over to their weapon and pick it up by pressing Down and the A button (default buttons). There is also the option to sacrifice your power bar during a fight, if you choose to do this, you can sacrifice it by pressing the L-button on the top of the controller, or by pressing A,B,X and then you can initiate the weapon removing special, or the artery kill, in which the entire background turns white and your character zooms across the screen to do an artery slice move that takes away about half of the opponents life, but be warned, if the opponent jumps, and you miss, you no longer have a power bar, so play wisely! One thing that isn't so cool about the special weapon removing thing, is that, if you've had your weapon removed, often the other character will "guard" your weapon and every time you try to get it, the opponent just smacks you away, somewhat unfair, but it is a very competitive game. The controls are very tight, and responses are extremely good, moves are very easy to initiate and the combo system is a step up from Samurai Showdown 3. Combo's are very easy to do, even for a beginner, with easy moves following easy moves for stunning combo's. There are ending moves where the opponent gets sliced in half, there are moves where arteries are sliced, and blood squirts everywhere (one cool thing is where the person who sliced the artery gets sprayed with blood, and one side of the player is splattered in red), there are other ending moves, all very dramatic. The action is quite fast paced when there are 2 small characters, and the variety of moves is fulfilling to most standards. One addition, there is a way to move around an opponent, without having to jump over him/her, by pressing diagonal towards and AB at the same time, you can rotate around the opponent, which adds for some interesting gameplay. An impressive fighter. Gameplay receives a 8.

From a lover of 2D fighters this game would have received a 9 from M.E. (bad joke). But I realize that not everyone is a NEO fan. For this reason, a gamer not familiar with the Samurai Showdown series would not appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the creation of this game, looking only at how fast or fun it is, or how it sounds or looks. So in essence, this game is only an average game, with mediocre sound, obvious graphical flaws and some gameplay ticks that people would criticize. For these minors details that I honestly realize detract from the value of the game I give it a 7 out of 10. For a Samurai Showdown fan, I will move into a more subjective statement, and give it a 9 out of 10. For someone who has never played Samurai Showdown, but enjoys a good 2D fighter, I strongly urge this game. For a person who thoroughly enjoys Samurai Showdown game and wouldn't mind a sequel that doesn't change much, I strongly urge this game. For a person who doesn't enjoy a 2D fighter..... well you understand. Thanks for reading.

Want to e-mail M.E?---> mark_w_evans@hotmail.com