Customer Reviews

Samurai Shodown Anthology

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Samurai Shodown Anthology is, put simply, basically the reason I bought a PSP; I grew up with the Samurai Shodown games in the arcade and on the SNES, and so it's great to have them in a format I can take with me on the go. I won't debate the merits of each of the six games individually, suffice it to say that they are all enjoyable and a lot of fun.

...Except for Samurai Shodown 5. This game, for whatever reason, suffers not only from inordinately long load times but also from lag during play - at times, the game will just freeze for a few seconds, which can be maddening when you're in the thick of a big fight.

The other problem is that this game, like a number of other PSP games, suffers from lengthy load times when you're choosing or switching between games. They try to make up for this by putting up a "hint" screen showing a character from one of the games and one of their move sequences, but that is only interesting for a little bit.

Now, I don't mean to be negative about this game - I plan to take this with me when I travel and I love the Samurai Shodown franchise. Indeed, this game looks, sounds, and controls beautifully and I have very few complaints about the games overall. Just be aware that, when you buy this, you will endure a lot of waiting when you play it.

With SNK's recent compilation releases of their various franchises, I've been anxiously waiting one featuring the Samurai Shodown games. Well, here we are finally. Samurai Shodown Anthology features Samurai Shodown's I-VI, with Samurai Shodown VI making its first appearance on the PS2 and PSP in North America. The games have been emulated well, and all play just as well as I remember them being. For me personally, Samurai Shodown VI is worth the price of admission alone, featuring a huge roster of fighters and some deep and varied fighting mechanics as well. While it isn't without its flaws and not such a favorite of other fans of the franchise, it's the best of the bunch, and it's good to finally see it make it to our shores on a console. The game isn't without its flaws though, as Samurai Shodown V Special isn't included here, which is a crying shame. Not to mention that the PSP version features some occasional slowdown, and some long load times specifically on Samurai Shodown VI. All that aside though, Samurai Shodown Anthology is a worthwhile collection of a great 2-D fighting franchise that any PSP owning SNK fan should definitely check out.

I don't think anyone under 25 will like this, but if you loved SS in the arcades back in the day, you'll love this. Yes, the PS2 version does run much better, but if you need this on the go, this is as good as it's going to get. The two problems I have with the PSP version:

1.) Slowdown in 2 of the games on this disc (4 and 5 seem to be the worst offenders)

2.) Long loading times for SSVI.

Some people call them unplayable, but to me these things are a mild annoyance and after playing I still feel satisfied.

Alright first of all, i've been a fan of this series as long as I can remember. That and Metal Slug. So seeing this release was really welcome news to me. Even more since I could play it on my PSP. But after it finally arrived, and I popped it in my PSP, I was a bit upset. Reasons are as follows:

-Load times are terrible and there are many of them

This you can overlook slightly because it is no where near as bad as Shodown III on the original Playstation. But it does get to the point you'd rather keep the game loaded even while the console is off so you don't have to sit through it all again.

-Audio lags, really bad. Even in the older games.

This problem is worse in the later games. Especially SSVI. I've never seen a game ported so bad where the audio lags behind the action by at least a few seconds in some cases. Really how did this even escape testing? Its not as pronounced in the first three games but even in those, its there. The game is playable despite this but it is distracting

-Animation lags, mostly SSVI

This is mostly an issue with SSVI. But at times, usually at the start of a fight, the action will freeze for a moment as like the system isn't finished loading yet.

-SSVI is without a doubt, the worst of the entire series

Ok being a fan for years, i've seen the games get better graphically but SSVI is literally almost like playing a cellphone game. The backgrounds are poor quality and the animations are stiff and rigid in comparison to the prequels before it. Visually, it is also graphically inferior to SSIII-SSV. Then getting to the controls, its just as bad. Characters just do not move as well as they did in previous games. I'm not sure if its a porting issue or what but literally its like they made SS for cellphones then slapped a fanservice maid on the cover as a new character and called it SSVI.

-Finally, and not really something i'm proud to admit, the endboss of SSVI is probably the most overpowered and unbalanced boss i've ever seen.

I'm used to SS final bosses being tricky at times but SSVI's endboss is horrors. He has an extremely long range weapon that can hit you even across the screen and practically decimate your health in only a few shots. Then to make it worse, he's buffed with so many special moves and attacks that with some characters its near impossible to land a hit. But thats not the worst part. He does a special powerup move frequently and if you get caught in it, your weapon is shattered and he pretty much instant win. He tends to use it most when your in the air and can't defend so characters with strong aerial attacks are useless. After a few hours total trying different fighters, I finally used Gen-an and beat him but its just insane how poorly designed he is. And yes, I did finally drop the difficulty to lvl 1. You don't want to know how much worse he is on normal lvl 4 and I don't want to ever see higher than that.

So now that all that is out of the way, why do I give it a 3/5 instead of worse?

Simple. There are five great games here which are great to play on the PSP. Putting the issues aside, all of them look great on this handheld. In fact, some even look better than I remember. Just loading up SSII took me back to those good ole days wasting money in the arcades playing it.

Really if you play the classics and avoid SSVI, this is a great title for the PSP. Sure you don't have the arcade stick to go with it, but controls are very nice and work well on the little PSP. I'd just recommend using D-pad as the stick is sloppy when trying to do the combos or specials.

For fans of this series, buy it, enjoy it, never play SSVI. You can't get much better for a handheld with five great Samurai Shodown games. Putting up with it's quirks is just a small price to pay for that.

I've played the first Bioshock, however, the second one picks right up from where the first one dropped off. The environments are spectacular and breathtaking. Also, the interaction between the characters are spot on. I would recommend this game to anyone who wants a storyline from a first-person person perspective. Lastly, the seller provided the game brand new and shrinkwrapped. I would recommend this seller to anyone. Great job.....!!!!!!!

Thanks for the fast and prompt service. I like the game its exciting. Very good value for the price I paid for the item.

After reading the various reviews on how the load times were pretty bad on this PSP version, it took me a long time to finally get myself to purchase this game. After all, nobody wants to wait through terrible load times between having spectacular matches through various rounds.

I saw this game was available on the Playstation Store on the Playstation Network on PS3. (I think it is also available on the Playstation Store via the PSP's online network as well, but I have yet to confirm this.) Since direct downloads from Sony are stored in the PSP's internal memory, load times are greatly reduced and in some cases almost non-existent. This was the case with Samurai Shodown anthology.

All of the titles except for SS4 & SS5 load very fast. This greatly and significantly improved gameplay for me. What amazed me is that SS6 has barely any load times in between rounds! (and that game seemed to me the most complex!)

So if you are still on the fence with this game because of the bad load times via the hardcopy version, I would highly suggest purchasing this game through the Playstation Store online. It is well worth it. As a Samurai Shodown purist, it is very nice to not have a PSP disc inside my system that I have to worry about putting in and taking out (or losing). The game is stored in my PSP's memory card and ready to be played at any moment I please.

Excellent compilation of Samurai Shodown. There is no reason not to get this, as this is another superb release by SNK Playmore.

Highly recommended, my highest approval!

5 stars.