While it may not be the most balanced 2D fighting game, it's by far the coolest!
Mai Shiranui is hotter that Chun-Li (and it's not because she has less clothes)!
Infact the whole SNK cast is better looking than Capcom's legendary roster. Kyo Kusanagi with his 90's street look and emo bangs... Terry Bogard with his blue jeans, red sleeveless jacket, and ripped up white-T... Iori's laugh far surpasses Sagat's in it's sinisterness. I know this is all a matter of opinion, but colorful characters make up 50% of the enjoyment of fighting games for me. Greg Kasavin, my favorite critic and prior to Samurai Shodown an SNK hater, pointed out that what made Samurai Shodown special compared to all of SNK's games was it's incredible and somewhat unbalanced cast of characters. How can you not love a Buddahist monk with the name Nicotine Caffeine whose special attack is burping?
On top of all this, the use of swordplay and other weapons created an interesting dynamic to the 2D fighting formula such as timing your blocks perfectly resulted in deflecting your opponents attack and the loss of his weapon. My favorite addition to the Samurai Shodown series is the fact that Samurai Showdown was the first fighting game to introduce animals as a form of attacking. Nakoruru could summon her hawk/falcon to attack, while Galford could sick his pet wolf on his opponents. While goofy hit detections were often a problem with the origianl Samurai Shodown, SNK fixed these buggs with Samurai Showdown II. Samurai Shodown II also introduced the Rage gauge which gave a heavy advantage to an opponent who was constantly being bombarded with attacks.
It's been stated that the artwork for Samurai Shodown II was created by the same anime artist who did the the Ninja Scroll movie (which I do not recommend at all for its terrible, cliche stroy and abundance of violent pornography including a disgusting rape scene). This is believable when glancing over the character roster as the similarities do exist. The stages are all beautiful and theme-based according to the characters' nationality much like from Street Fighter II.
***Side note***
It's very sad how many of the modern fighting games have shyed away from the theme-based stages. Marvel vs. Capcom series could have had a wonderful set of theme-based stages (ex. Spider-man=New York City, Mega Man=Dr. Willy's Laboratory, Jill Valentine=Haunted Mansion or Raccon City) Why are staple developers like Namco and Capcom replacing theme-based worlds with generic stages such as a forrest, a meadow, the north pole?
Samurai Shodown is one of the few fighting games that actually takes pride in their Japanese culture. Instead of the generic bleeps and blips of electronic, techno, and sometimes heavy metal that so often accompanies the soundtracks for fighting games, the complete soundtrack is done by a biwa accompanied ocassionally by traditional Japanese flutes and drums. If you've ever appreciated the soundtrack for movies like Kwaidan or Yojimbo then Samurai Shodown II music will instantly mesmerize you. Other sounds such as the clashing of swords and the laceration of flesh may be exaggerated but very effective. When you get slashed, you feel it in your subconciousness. The voice acting is some of the best in video gaming. These warriors are prideful, arrogant, humble, self-centered, caring, kind, hateful, evil, joksters, sickly, and stupid and their voices and taunts do a great job at insinuating this. Unfortunately, the Japanese-to-English translated subtitles didn't accompany the great voice acting. But I don't speak Japanese and have never translated anything in my life, so I can't condemn (nor do I want to condemn SNK).
With the wonderful characters, great voice acting, colorful theme-based stages, incredible Japanese soundtrack, great replay value, and even a since of humor makes Samurai Shodown II my favorite 2D fighter. Sure the characters are unbalanced... but as Greg Kasavin mentioned, "Nobody cares!"