| Console: | Nintendo Switch |
| TV Standard: | Region Not Set |
| Developer(s): | SNK |
| Publisher(s): | Deep Silver |
| Release Date: | 2020-02-25 |
| Players: | 2 |
| Co-op: | No |
| ESRB: | M - Mature 17+ |
| Type: | Fighting |
Samurai Shodown, known as Samurai Spirits (侍魂?) in Japan, is a weapon-based fighting game by SNK released in June 2019. It's the 12th "mainline" installment of the Samurai Shodown series and the first "mainline" game since 2008's Samurai Shodown Sen, marking an 11 year gap between the releases themselves. It is the prequel of the first Samurai Shodown[1] and the second of the official chronology, succeeding Samurai Shodown V. This is also the first SNK game that utilizes Unreal Engine graphics (in this case, Unreal Engine 4). The illustrations, in-game artwork and background were mostly done by Yumi Saji while covers were done by Eisuke Ogura.
The game was first released in June 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and later ported to the Nintendo Switch and Stadia. An arcade version (running on Taito Type X3 hardware with the NESICAxLive2 digital distribution platform) was playable in August at EVO 2019 in Las Vegas[2] and was released in October 2019 in Japan. A PC version has been released in June 11, 2020 via the Epic Games Store,[3] and the Xbox Series version will be released at the Winter of 2020.
The new director of the game, Hayato Konya, announced a new mechanic called Guard Crush, along with a new rebalancing, whose main objective is adding measures to prevent weapons from disappearing off the stages. Both changes will be slated on March of 2021.
