When it comes to the influence ingratiated during the early ages of one-on-one tournament fighters, SNK has always been one of the more prominent fixtures in the genre. Since almost the beginning, they were running neck and neck with Capcom for arcade exposure and appeal hitting their stride with the success of Fatal Fury, and even trying out some ideas with Art of Fighting. The popularity of Samurai Shodown in the early 90's cemented SNK as a cornerstone of fighting games for the time.

1993's Samurai Shodown captured the appeal of fans with its dynamic presentation, enthralling and scenic music, and of course the gameplay. Some of the series' characters would be notable figures in SNK's promotions, like the "Mother Nature's Guardian" Nakoruru, and swordsman Haomaru, who I like to affectionately call "Sword Ryu". The dude embodies all the fighting game tropes of your vagabond combatant, and he has the same color scheme, I only have so much to work with here. SNK's development partner Takara was responsible for porting the home versions of SamSho to the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Decent and respectable ports for what they are on the 16-bit machines, but the arcade versions are the way to go.

I'll never get tired of talking about SNK's sprite work, they boast great color and detail. It's one of the traits that made people turn their heads to SNK cabinets. Samurai Shodown's fluid animation and vivid character designs are just eye candy, combining its scenic set pieces, outrageous proportions (seeing the massive Earthquake for the first time is harrowing), and the camera work, it can feel like anime at points. 

As SNK's first weapons-based fighter, the controls in the first SamSho became a solid foundation upon which to build around. For as speedy as the fighting can be, Samurai Shodown is one of the earliest games in the medium that placed a strong emphasis on the art of footsies and heavy strikes instead of flashy combo chains. 

The attacks in SamSho balance intricate button presses to initiate your normal attacks. A and B serve as your light and medium weapon strikes (and punches, when you're disarmed during a weapon clash), the third and fourth buttons are you medium and strong kicks (C and D, respectively), the big damage heavy strikes are launched by hitting A+B and C+D.

When rendered unarmed by the aforementioned weapon clashes, you begin throwing the hands. That becomes an amazing game within the game, as depending on where your sword, polearm, or glove lands, you might have to fight your way past your opponent, who's standing over it and WAITING for you to make a careless move. The special moves form the characters, who each have distinct fighting styles (save for Galford and Hattori Hanzo, who sport vaguely similar movesets) have properties the medium wasn't seeing at the time, like Galford and Nakoruru's animal companions, Poppy and Mamahaha respectively, aid them in combat. There's also healing items or damn BOMBS that are thrown onto the battlefield at random, it happens at such odd intervals that I regularly forgot about them. Take that, Smash, SamSho did it first.

On top of the tight gameplay and fascinating characters, the soundtrack in SamSho is composed of instruments from 18th century Japan, such as the shamesin and the shakuhachi, which only further adds to the atmosphere. With the gameplay aging well, the first Samurai Shodown can still be a delight to revisit. The roster is hearty enough, and the characters pack some great diversity, in both art direction and play style.

Not many first entries are easy to go back and play, so if you have this one on one of your digital platforms, or happen to have one of the 4,881 plug-n-play consoles SNK has made in the last 14 years, give it a go and have a blast.