Samurai Shodown!

If there is a franchise that should be spoken more about, it's Samurai Shodown. In it's brief history, Samurai Shodown has transcended far more than one could ever have imagined. And when I heard there was a portable version on it's way (that wasn't a bad Game Boy dub) I knew what I had to do.

Trouble, you see, is that before I had a chance to get my grubby mitts on the black and white Samurai Shodown, the color sequel was released! So I ended up going into Samurai Shodown with the amazement of Samurai Shodown 2.

First and foremost, Samurai Shodown does not look or sound as good as it's color counterpart. It also is missing a few characters. But the control is nearly identical to Samurai Shodown 2 on the Neo Geo Pocket Color AND in the arcade! The game plays like a dream.

But the game does have a few bugs that keep it from being all it could be. There is a strange mid air trick that the computer tends to use, it often has them sitting in the middle of the air for a little longer than needed. The game also features one too many white flashes. But the backgrounds are as good as you can expect given the hardware. And it's amazing the amount of characters SNK was able to fit in this little cart.

It's the best fighter, perhaps even the best game on the short lived Neo Geo Pocket. However, in a world where we all have Neo Geo Pocket Color's, this is more like Blue Grass than the Blues!