Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection

The series began in 1993 and is known for being one of the earliest in the genre with a primary focus on weapon-based combat. The stories in the series take place in 18th-century Japan, during the Sakoku or seclusion period of Japan with great artistic license so that foreign-born characters and fictional monsters can also be part of the story. The plot of each game is quite different, but they circle a central group of characters and a region in Japan. Samurai Shodown consequently portrays snippets of the Japanese culture and language internationally with little edits. For the early games , the characters are created and illustrated by Eiji Shiroi. While he continues to design for a few of the later games, they are illustrated by another artist named Senri Kita until the fifth title. The Samurai Shodown games are most famous for their "Rage" gauge, a meter that only increases as a player receives damage, and which when fully activated has numerous effects depending on game. Earlier games also have a referee in the background, officiating the match. Over the course of years since the first game, the Samurai Shodown games have come to feature over 80 playable warriors. Characters directly inspired from historical figures and keeping their names, like Hattori Hanz? and Yagy? J?bei, are present as well. A television special Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture loosely based on the first game aired in Japan in 1994. The plot means to reenact the events of Samurai Shodown , but the characters’ roles highly deviated from their original source. Another questionable change was the inclusion of the “Seven Holy Warriors”, skilled warriors who were resurrected to specifically fight Ambrosia, which is an idea never mentioned in any other continuity. Several manga adaptations of Samurai Spirits were produced in Japan. One of them, titled Makai Bukei J? Samurai Spirits , written by Kyoichi Nanatsuki and illustrated by Yuki Miyoshi, was serialized in the Weekly Shonen Sunday in 1994. It was later adapted into English under the simplified titled Samurai Shodown by Viz Media in 1996, where it was serialized in the short-lived Game On!