Samurai Shodown

Samurai Shodown from 1993 brought the age of cold steel to fighting games, moving the genre from fistfights into a stylized period of feudal Japan, where characters like Haohmaru, Nakoruru, or Genjuro clash with swords, spears, sickles, and other blades. Fights are noticeably slower and blows far more devastating than in the competition of the time – a single well-placed strike can take away a large portion of the health gauge, making the game more tactical, more deliberate, and much tenser than the fast exchanges of blows typical of Street Fighter.

On Neo Geo hardware, the game excelled with striking, almost painterly graphics of characters and backgrounds inspired by Japanese art, and atmospheric, traditionally styled music with prominent wind and percussion instruments that underscored the historical theme and the tense atmosphere of a life-or-death duel. The weapon element also brought a disarming mechanic – after losing their weapon, a fighter had to continue bare-handed, adding another tactical layer beyond classic strikes and kicks.

The game was received at the time as a fresh, atmospheric alternative to Street Fighter and Fatal Fury and founded its own long-running series of sequels that continues to this day. Its slower, more brutal take on combat and its historical theme with elements of violence and blood influenced a number of later weapon-based fighting games that tried to emulate its tense atmosphere. Thanks to its striking visual style and pace different from the competition, Samurai Shodown still holds a reputation as one of the most atmospheric and distinctive fighting games of the entire nineties. Characters like the fox warrior Nakoruru also became icons in their own right, and the series saw a number of sequels and reboots that tried to recapture this opening atmosphere. The bloody finishers and the ability to sever an opponent's weapon also gave the game a reputation as a rawer, harsher alternative to the then-dominant, more colorful Street Fighter.

Why play it: Anyone looking for a slower, more brutal, and more atmospheric alternative to Street Fighter will find in Samurai Shodown one of the most distinctive weapon-based fighting games of the nineties.