Departing from the modern setting usually present in fighters at the time, Samurai Shodown takes place in the 1700's. This is brought to life by the game's distinctive art style, which still manages to impress, and an outstanding soundtrack composed on instruments of the era.

Samurai Shodown was the first fighter to arm all of the combatants, and as such, the level of violence was upped. Strong hits draw spurts of blood, and strong finishing attacks will literally generate geysers. This is actually intergrated well into the gameplay, and doesn't come off as gimmicky, like some other fighting games that use violence to overshadow a weak engine.

As good as Samurai Shodown is, it still must be asked if the game is worth a download at 900 points, especially since the appearance of SNK Arcade Classics, a $20 PS2 compilation disc (that is headed to the Wii) which has this game on it.

If you're a fighting fan, the answer is yes. The PS2 version suffers a bit of slowdown, and it's not know what (if any) fixes there will be for the Wii release. More casual players just wanting to check out this game might just want to wait for a bit.

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