An outstanding portable conversion of the first of arguably the best weapons-based fighting series ever created.
User Rating: 7.6 | Samurai Spirits GG
When you think ‘weapons-based fighter’, the first game into many people’s heads would be one from Namco’s Soul Edge/Calibur series. Take a step more than a few years back in time, specifically to late 1993, and you’ll encounter SNK’s classic (and, in this case, this most overused of words is not solely synonymous with ‘old’) Samurai Spirits/Shodown series. The first of the Samurai Spirits games appeared on NeoGeo arcade and home hardware, spawning four 2D and two 3D sequels, numerous ports to home and handheld consoles, various side stories and even a role-playing game for the NeoGeo CD. Home conversions varied greatly in quality, usually limited by the power of the native hardware. However, where the 3DO version of Samurai Spirits is a badly-conceived mish-mash of fuzzy sound, horrible framerate and questionable control implementation, the GameGear version shines as a stunning example of what could be done with the system when developers put their minds to it. Takara’s knowledge of the somewhat limited hardware also shines through in their other GameGear conversion for SNK, Fatal Fury Special. As with that game, GameGear Samurai Spirits contains nearly all of the qualities that made the arcade version as popular and genre-defining as it was almost twelve years ago. A drop in graphical detail is to be expected to fit everything into the GameGear’s native 160x146 screen resolution but even if you can’t quite see the whites of their eyes, for the most part, characters don’t get lost in the backgrounds and are all easily distinguishable and fully recognisable from their arcade counterparts without having to resort to the super-deformed art styles that Nintendo seem to insist upon when a port comes to one of their systems. Backgrounds suffer from a slightly bare appearance with the loss of animation and detailed touches but, as with the character sprites, every location is recognisable and represented to the best of the system’s abilities. You won’t see the referee or delivery man make any appearances but their absence doesn’t detract from the overall experience and bombs and food still make their way onto the screen every now and then, falling from the top of the screen in lieu of special delivery. The GameGear may only be able to display 32 colours at any one time but Takara have certainly done their best to make the hardware perform to a high standard. While spot effects are somewhat sparse, limited to noise-generated swooshes and swishes, background music is slightly above what I’d expect from the GameGear. The original’s evocative drums are missing and the lack of anything approaching bass is obvious but, as with the graphics, all of the music tracks are recognisable if you’ve had experience of the arcade version and, while the music does suffer from the high-pitched tinkliness which is synonymous with audio generated by the system, it’s certainly a fine effort and there’s nothing that can be called glaringly wrong considering that Takara had to work within the strict confines of three tone generators and one noise channel. There’s no speech here, but to ask for that would be unreasonable. A total of ten playable characters make the trip over from the arcade version. Earthquake, Tam Tam and Wan Fu are missing from the character roster, most likely for ROM space limitations and sprite size reasons, although Amakusa, in all his cheaty, near-invincible glory, is still accessible via a simple pad code or by completing the game. Characters retain most of their specific attributes such as movement speed and reach while special moves are all present and correct, performed using the same pad and button motions as the arcade version. This is a clear step above the poor control translation of other GameGear conversions such as Mortal Kombat, although as with Mortal Kombat it is still possible, and in some cases easier, to perform special moves by tapping the required directions in sequence rather than performing a rolling motion with the directional pad. With only two buttons to play with, a cut-down of controls was inevitable, although with one button for weapon slashes and one button for kicks, with a fieice weapon slash accessed via a simultaneous press of both buttons, everything works just fine. On the whole, control is responsive enough to not attract too many complaints. Overall, there are minimal game-affecting bugs. However, odd things occasionally happen with the amount of energy a hit will take from the energy bars, a special move or rage-powered attack can sometimes take away a huge amount of energy or none at all and I’m not quite sure why this happens as there seems to be no obvious reason for it. Generally, presentation is of a fairly high standard, options offered are a sound test and selectable three level difficulty, continue and round timer settings. The introductory story is present as are the Amakusa-related intermissions and each character has their own ending. Sadly, the straw doll slashing bonus game that made it into the Gameboy port hasn’t found its way to the GameGear, but it’s not likely to be too sorely missed. More importantly, a two-player mode is absent so fighting against CPU-controlled opponents is the only way to go but even the easiest difficulty mode provides a fair challenge. This version of Samurai Spirits isn’t quite good enough to be used as practice for a superior version but, for those looking for their miniaturised fighting fix, it’s a close call between this and Fatal Fury Special. By the GameGear’s standards, to call this ‘awesome’ is an understatement.
