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Samurai Showdown
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Samurai Showdown

Samurai Shodown (Samurai Spirits in Japan), or SS for short, is the name of a fighting game series by SNK. It is considered to be the premier 2-D weapons fighter, and is one of the best-known video games created by SNK. This series also started SNK's reputation for their unique style of Engrish, known as SNKgrish in their games. Unlike Mortal Kombat, the usage of blood in this game is generally accepted, and the decision to replace blood with "sweat" or "white blood" for the English language release remains a sore point among fans of this series.

The Samurai Shodown games are most famous for their rage gauge, a super combo gauge that only increases as a player receives damage. Earlier games also have a referee in the background, officiating the match.

The stories in this series takes place in ancient Japan, allowing some 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.

Stories in Samurai Shodown have been made into anime, while some anime series, most notably Rurouni Kenshin (Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, incidentally, created some of the new characters in Samurai Shodown V), are homages to Samurai Shodown.

Samurai Shodown is considered by some to portray Japanese culture and language effectively. Unlike most American versions of Japanese video games, the characters in this game (including the announcer) generally speak fluent Japanese with subtitles, and traditional Japanese music is often heard during gameplay.

Table of contents
1 Games
2 Characters
3 See also

Games

An adaptation of Samurai Shodown IV for the Neo-Geo Pocket Color. An adaptation of Samurai Shodown 64 II for the Neo-Geo Pocket Color.

Characters

Characters With Appearances in Other Series

Other Characters

See also