Review: Samurai Shodown! 2 (Nintendo Switch)

Samurai Shodown has always been one of the best, if not the best weapon-based fighting series. Most people know the series from the arcade or home console iterations, but the series has also been featured on SNK’s handheld devices. The Neo Geo Pocket and the Neo Geo Pocket Color played host to some handheld SamSho games. Now, newcomers to the franchise can experience one of those early handheld titles on the Nintendo Switch: Samurai Shodown! 2.

The gameplay will be very familiar to anyone who has played typical, console/arcade versions of Samurai Shodown games. The combat is fast and frantic, and each character has their own weapon that players must master. Fan favorites such as Haohmaru, Genjuro, and Ukyo are featured in the game’s roster. With 16+ characters, there’s quite a bit here for a handheld fighting game. Players will need to counter combos by their opponents or block incoming attacks if they want to last in the later encounters and beat the game’s boss. For a handheld fighting game, there’s a lot of diversity to the gameplay. Enemies can be stunned, flipped in mid-air, and countered even after powering up a finishing move. I wasn’t too keen on the music in the game, but it was definitely serviceable for the hardware at the time.

The game features a typical single-player mode to play through, complete with a boss fight at the end. Those who want more of a challenge can even tackle the game’s Survival mode, which tests your talents working through an onslaught of opponents. After each opponent is defeated, you’ll regain a bit of your health before moving on to the next round. Keep surviving for as many rounds as you can! There is also a multiplayer mode that uses the Switch’s screen in a unique way. It will split up the screen in half with one player on one side of the Switch and another player on the other side (similar to the two-player table arcade machines). I wouldn’t recommend this on the Switch Lite, but I’m sure it’s much better on the regular Switch, especially since you could detach the Joy-Cons for more comfort.

From a presentation perspective, the game runs beautifully and has some sharp-looking sprites. The colors really pop on each stage while the characters themselves are a bit duller to help differentiate between them and the background. Animations are all quite good, and I could recognize many of the moves from the console/arcade SamSho games being reproduced quite faithfully in this portable rendition. Ukyo’s classic throwing of the apple and slicing it in mid-air is probably my favorite of the bunch.

Overall, Samurai Shodown! 2 has come over quite well to the Switch. If you’ve played the original, you’ll find most everything is in-tact save for the trading card send/receive system (which is understandable). Cards can still be collected in-game, just not traded to friends from what I could tell. I can think of some better fighting games on the Switch that I would probably purchase first but for a walk down memory lane or to see a classic portable fighting game in action, Samurai Shodown! 2 is certainly a fun novelty.