I’ve been told it can even support up to 120 fps on televisions that support it.
On Xbox Series X, it runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second on most TVs. Visually, Samurai Shodown is kind of a stunner. Even disarming your opponents is a very reasonable option, as it leaves enemies scrambling to snatch their weapons up off the ground. You likely won’t see long strings of combos and instead will find yourself waiting to find that perfect opening for a powerful attack or a couple of quick strikes. It’s defense instead of offense, making for a really interesting fighter. Where games like FighterZ push players to create their own openings for an attack, Samurai Shodown opts for a slower pace of battle. Other than that, it’s almost identical to any classic arcade mode. Players go through a series of fights, just to see each character’s very brief story content at the beginning and end of the mode. There are unique videos for each of Samurai Shodown’s base 16 characters, but because the story is so thin, there isn’t any depth to it. Story mode is pretty underwhelming because of it though. The story here is pretty standard and thin, but it gets the job done. It takes place in Japan (duh), and follows a group of fighters trying to take back Japan in the 1700s from an evil spirit during a time of great distress for all citizens in the land. From what I’ve gathered, this iteration is a soft reboot of the franchise, set somewhere between Samurai Shodown V and Samurai Shodown. I’ve heard of it, but never invested time previously to look into it at all. Samurai Shodown isn’t generally a franchise I’m familiar with. It was actually kind of refreshing, but since I hadn’t played a fighter in a while, I found myself referring to the controller menu if I couldn’t quite figure out the input. For the most part, it expects you to understand fundamentals and instead opts to teach players about what makes it unique: disarming fighters, rage attacks, and lightning blade attacks.
Right off the bat, Samurai Shodown’s tutorial isn’t as robust as other fighters. It’s a slow, deliberate game that really rewards those who learn its intricacies. It isn’t the typical fast-paced fighter that most people are probably used to with Injustice, Mortal Kombat, and Dragon Ball FighterZ in this day and age. I’ve played plenty of fighting games over the last two decades, but Samurai Shodown was one of the more interesting experiences I’ve had with them. The one I ever got the best at was probably Injustice 2, but even then I was only mediocre.
Let’s kick this off by being brutally honest: I love fighting games, but I’m absolutely terrible at them. Samurai Shodown returns with a slower, more deliberate fighting game that is accessible enough for new players, while also having the depth of a modern day fighter.