National Game Registry 1993: Samurai Shodown

SAMURAI SHODOWN
original platform
arcade
developer/publisher
SNK

The success of Capcom’s Street Fighter II resulted in a legion of imitators. SNK recruited some of the designers of the original Street Fighter from 1987, but considering how terribly that game actually plays it should come as no surprise that efforts like Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury were complete garbage. SNK finally righted the ship with Samurai Shodown, which incidentally plays much more like SFII than the previously-mentioned efforts, while maintaining the high special effects SNK became known for. The setting is feudal Japan and the cast consists of the great archetypes associated with that period. A whole series followed, although the later entries might be more accurately considered updates rather than sequels.

Samurai Shodown was inducted on November 6th, 2009.

Return to the National Game Registry to view more inductees.