SNK’s 2019 reboot of Samurai Shodown is now live at the Epic Games Store. This week, for early adopters there is a 10% discount. For hardcore Samurai Shodown fans, additional franchise title Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection can be obtained free for a week. Samurai Shodown on PC will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store unless playing on the Stadia platform, which has received significant community pushback for lack of playability.
In taking a look at the PC port of the game, there are some key highlights to point out. Below, we’ll tackle three positives, as well as three opportunities to improve that will contribute to the title’s ultimate success.
Three Positives
The Samurai Shodown fanbase is extremely excited to find the title on PC, especially those who primarily game on PC. With crossplay still unavailable, there has been significant hope that a large PC community will emerge. This classic arcade fighter is available on PC via Stadia. However, it does not appear crossplay to PC is functional at this time, nor is the Stadia version well received. This all contributes to the PC arrival being potentially huge.
Second, the game runs smoothly, and shifts between keyboard and controller with issues. There’s no stuttering, lag, or anything weird that makes it feel like a port. This game runs smoothly out of the Epic Games Store, and doesn’t run into any weird playability issues out of the digital box. In particular, playing against local multiplayer, CPU, or online players had no lag to input, and brought back waves of nostalgic arcade play.
The customizable controls available for PC are probably the biggest win of the PC port. While the default controls may be clunky for players on keyboard and mouse, the customization is seamless and provides an extensive array of options not available to the standard console or arcade player. When using a controller on PC, the keymapping is similar to console, and is comfortably effective in-game. The ability to customize lets players suit their needs nicely, and is a huge win for SNK.
Three Opportunities
As early reporting on the PC port suggested, the port arriving to an Epic Games Store exclusive could be its Achilles heel, or it could ride the recent wave of players getting AAA games free from Epic and be a smashing success.
In playing on the PC launch day, and the following day, there was tremendous difficulty in finding online ranked matches. In fact, the one time we were able to find a ranked match opponent, we changed all restrictions to “Any”, and even when matched, were unable to find a room. The decision to go exclusive to the Epic Games Store may significantly hinder the success of this title.
With many titles, especially first-person shooters, it is not uncommon to understand the debate over whether or not to enable cross-play. For a fighter, it is not clear what barriers exist to prevent cross-play, but given the genre doesn’t require accurate aim, this is likely something that wasn’t considered in 2019. Even massively popular FPS games like Warzone have figured out to crack the code on making crossplay accessible, and have set a new minimum standard that this title just barely missed. Samurai Shodown can be a niche market anyhow but has some committed console players. Linking all in cross-play would be a huge boost to viability.
The default keyboard controls are underwhelming - even downright terrible. The typical WASD player need not apply here and will find extreme frustration if this is their first attempt at a fighter since playing in the arcades of yesteryear. The default is a combination of up, down, left, right keys, and a mix of the POIK side of the keyboard. Here, players should definitely consider connecting a controller before signing on. In our playtesting, the controllers functioned smoothly and without any advanced keymapping required. If users insist on keyboard play, it is highly recommended to take time for advanced keymapping.
Overall, this is a necessary port to PC that is long overdue. While there are several opportunities to improve the initial impact of this game, the core gameplay is beautiful and fluid on PC and runs incredibly smooth. Those unsure of the franchise should try the free Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection pack while it can be obtained at no cost this week. A few days with the classic should be enough for anyone to get curious enough to hop on Epic Games and download this enjoyable arcade-style fighter. Currently, the game is severely limited by the exclusive release to the Epic Games Store. However, snagging the title now may provide time to hone your skills until a wider release to Steam and other platforms next summer.
Hopefully, others follow.
