Samurai Shodown

Archaic story mode and load times aside, Samurai Shodown succeeds as a fundamentals driven 2D fighting game.

While Samurai Shodown has taken a very slight visual hit as part of its protracted journey to Switch, the most important thing is that the core 60FPS gameplay remains intact. The downgrade is most noticeable when playing in handheld mode, but it's still incredibly enjoyable and compelling, especially if you appreciate fighting games that exercise your mind as well as your fingers. The single-player portion of the game is perhaps a little too lacking by 2020 standards and some of the ideas don't work as well as they should (Dojo mode, we're looking at you) but with its appealing cast of fighters, decent multiplayer options and a host of new gameplay ideas to keep things feeling fresh, Samurai Shodown is nonetheless a confident and assured update of a classic fighting game series – and bodes well for SNK's future attempts to resurrect its enviable stable of titles for the modern era.

For those who game on the go, Samurai Shodown on Nintendo Switch is a weighty and undeniably fun-to-play fighter well deserving of your time.

Samurai Showdown works great on Switch, but not as well as the other versions. If you just want a casual way of enjoy it, then it’s more than enough, but if you want to get competitive, you might be better off on other platforms.

Despite the DLC gripes and the heavy downgrade in visuals for this Switch port, Samurai Shodown really stands out from the crowd, and it's great to see the revival of a popular series return in such a good way on the gameplay front. It takes weapons-based combat and creates a smart system out of it, putting players on edge, and provides moments of pure bliss when bare knuckle comebacks are made. The strong Japanese style only adds to the appeal. It really could have done with a more fleshed out story mode, though.