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Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodown

Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 11:59 pm
by ewhac
We're back from the holidays! This time we decide to have a go with a couple of fighting games:

Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodown (3DO, 1994)

Hope you enjoy it.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 8:59 am
by a31chris
We will! You guys are awesome!

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 10:57 pm
by 3DOKid
That was brilliant thank you.

I had a Neogeo CDZ for a while, mostly for comparing Samurai Shodown. The 3DO version is, as far as i could tell, identical. But the loading times on the 3DO are way better.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 11:58 pm
by goldenband
I enjoyed that a lot! A few things I wanted to note:

- An episode dedicated to the M2 is a fantastic idea.

- Pretty sure that Rings of Power for the Genesis was actually Naughty Dog's first console game. They also had a bunch of computer games before that.

- Wow, I had no idea Mega Man X3 (I think that's the Mega Man game you meant) was planned for 3DO!

- Your game of Samurai Shodown reminded me of the wonderful story that the button-mashing minigame used to resolve sword locks is actually totally random. Maybe you've mentioned this in a previous video? I remember hearing that Crystal Dynamics found out about this when they were porting the game, and were flabbergasted. BTW the Neo Geo controls are 4-button, not 6-button, no?

- Also, I think the "SNK ripped off Street Fighter II" meme is now known to be somewhat incorrect. In particular, Fatal Fury and Street Fighter II were actually in development at the same time, and some of the people that worked on the original Street Fighter were also behind Fatal Fury.

- Finally, I'd love to see an Alfred Hitchcock Presents...well, not a "Let's Play", but perhaps an interlude in one of your videos. Any more information on the backstory of this bizarre game (which may be one of the worst things ever released on any console)? I suspect the Concentration minigame may be impossible to beat on Hard, since the timer still ticks during FMV and disk access.

Great stuff. Looking forward to the rest of the Monster Manor playthrough as well!

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 3:22 pm
by Martin III
Huh, not only did I somehow overlook this on the forums, but the video never popped up in my YouTube subscriptions. Well, I'm going to check it out now!

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:48 am
by T2KFreeker
Nice write up. The only real things I can add to any of this is, am I the only person on the planet that actually really enjoys Way of the Warrior? Also, am I the only person that recognizes how much more deep the fighting engine is in Samurai Shodown over Street Fighter II? I love both games for different reasons, but the Samurai Shodown games have always been much deeper than the Capcom fare. You need more startegy in the SS games, and that even is true for the first game. Anyway, with some of the other points brought up above, that will be all. Oh, want to make WotW more playable? Try it with one of the awesome Soldier Pads. It makes a huge difference. Wont make the game play like it's a masterpiece, but it does make a difference. :wink: Nice video though. I really enjioyed that it seemed much more true to form with information that some of the other guys I have seen on Youtube.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:23 pm
by goldenband
Another question to add to my earlier ones: was there any scuttlebutt that Crystal Dynamics actually did get in trouble with SNK for making the game too good and keeping the scaling effects? There was a claim over on Jaguar Sector to that effect, and IIRC the poster said that a planned 3DO port of Fatal Fury 2 was canceled because of it.

I also posted about this here.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:57 pm
by T2KFreeker
goldenband wrote:Another question to add to my earlier ones: was there any scuttlebutt that Crystal Dynamics actually did get in trouble with SNK for making the game too good and keeping the scaling effects? There was a claim over on Jaguar Sector to that effect, and IIRC the poster said that a planned 3DO port of Fatal Fury 2 was canceled because of it.

I also posted about this here.
That would have been me that posted that, just so you know. :wink: I remember reading a blurb about it in an old Video game Magazine in the letters column when a fan asked why the 3DO Street Fighter II didn't have the background scrolling. This was supposedly the reason given as to why Super Street Fighter II Turbo didn't have the background Parallax going on as Capcom didn't want an arcade perfect port of SSFIIT. Just what I read. Then again, some of the game mags of the time were known to be full of crap too, so yeah, would be nice to get a confirmation on this one really.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:03 pm
by goldenband
T2KFreeker wrote:That would have been me that posted that, just so you know. :wink:
To make sure we're talking about the same post, this post under the username Darque is yours? I think that's the place I originally read about this.
T2KFreeker wrote:I remember reading a blurb about it in an old Video game Magazine in the letters column when a fan asked why the 3DO Street Fighter II didn't have the background scrolling. This was supposedly the reason given as to why Super Street Fighter II Turbo didn't have the background Parallax going on as Capcom didn't want an arcade perfect port of SSFIIT. Just what I read. Then again, some of the game mags of the time were known to be full of crap too, so yeah, would be nice to get a confirmation on this one really.
At 50:30 in the video, Gammadev comments that "I think this is the only SNK game they -- and probably SNK didn't allow any more after this, for the simple reason of, you know, it makes us look bad. You know, they're trying to sell their home system at the same time, so..." If that's not just speculation (not that there's anything wrong with that </seinfeld>), and gammadev did hear chatter at the time about SNK being mad at Crystal Dynamics, that'd be helpful confirmation.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 2:23 am
by NeoGeoNinja
I watched the whole WOTW/SS video a while back now (1hr long??!) and, from what I heard, quite a bit of what was said fell into speculation territory for me vs some of the comments that were made (WOTW plays more life SF and unlike MK, IIRC??!?!?!).

I'd have to go through the WHOLE video again to pick up on quite a bit of the stuff I was mentally disagreeable to, but SNK have put out ports of their titles across all manner of platforms for years, of which many have managed near arcade perfection (usually via Takara) but with ZERO repercussions. Such as Fatal Fury Special on the SegaCD, PCE CD, X68000 and Samurai Shodown on Sega CD too etc and, of course, not forgetting the stonking ports SNK put out themselves for the Saturn in 95/96 etc. To suggest that Samurai Shodown on 3DO was "so good" it made SNK look bad(?!) made zero sense, especially as the 3DO was a $700 markup console in it's own right to begin with. If anything, the reverse (if you want to spin negatively) can be also true, in that a $700 32-bit console cannot perform a 16-bit 2D title as well as a previous gen console - on cart or CD.

SS on 3DO was a great port. And that's all. It's NOT arcade perfect. But as a port of a NeoGeo arcade title at the time, it was the best home port ( > SEGA CD version) outside of the NeoGeo's themselves (AES/MVS & CD included). Alas, it was good, but not as good as is being suggested. The NeoGeo versions were still superior - in gameplay, gfx and animation.

-

As for SSFIIX on 3DO, I can only presume the same is true here as well. There is no way in hell Capcom 'sabotaged' the 3DO port so that the port wouldn't be Arcade Perfect. The obvious truth is that the game no doubt suffered from slight performance issues drawing all the objects in parallax whilst dealing with the speed and fluidity of the character animation and, at the end of the day, they made the smartest sacrifice, as the gameplay remained truly excellent. T H E best port of SF2 to home consoles for years and years, bar none.

Similarly, Capcom 'sabotaged' their ports of Xmen Vs Street Fighter to the Saturn home console by releasing a 4MB RAM Cart upgrade to ensure the game was arcade perfect. :roll:

Such is the the overly sensitive and subjective mentality of those who have a "passion" for failed or underdog consoles.

-

Also, thought whoever is reading all this would enjoy these:

This shows that the NeoGeo CD version is superior (load times are arguable between 3DO & NGCD, as I'm sure T2KF will attest, as he has an NGCD himself!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwrO9uJy5sk

&

Shows comparisons of the majority of common ports, 3DO being the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4ENYmSzxZY

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 5:41 pm
by Trev
Hmmm ... I've never heard the SEGA cd port described as 'near arcade perfection' - it's missing some effects, not to mention an entire character!

I don't know enough about the behind the scenes of the 3DO port, but I'd certainly prefer it in terms of loading times when compared to the s-l-o-w Neo Geo cd port. Is the Neo Geo port censored?

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 6:20 pm
by NeoGeoNinja
Trev wrote:Hmmm ... I've never heard the SEGA cd port described as 'near arcade perfection' - it's missing some effects, not to mention an entire character!
Fair enough Trev.

But I feel that aside from the 3DO port, SS on SegaCD (aside the character omission/inclusion of Amakusa as playable) was the next best port tbh. The 3DO being the best port.
Trev wrote:I don't know enough about the behind the scenes of the 3DO port, but I'd certainly prefer it in terms of loading times when compared to the s-l-o-w Neo Geo cd port. Is the Neo Geo port censored?
The loading times aren't THAT dissimilar. I'd certainly take the initial longer boot up time of the NGCD version (if I ONLY owned the NGCD & 3DO versions) for the more faithful to the AES/MVS version > the 3DO version myself, as in game loading between games is 12 of one and a dozen of the other :)

Also, the games are only censored per region/bios you play the game through, just like the carts systems. You can fit a multi-region switch which (like other consoles) allows you to switch between the 3 differing regions: Euro, US & JP...

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:40 pm
by Austin
The Neo CD version is easily the best if you have access to playing it on a CDZ system. Load times are at least twice as fast. But, that's kind of a pricey investment.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:08 pm
by Trev
I've wanted a CDZ for years - don't have the willpower to save up for one though.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 12:19 am
by NeoGeoNinja
Trev wrote:I've wanted a CDZ for years - don't have the willpower to save up for one though.
Yeah, they're in Home Cart System pricing territory nowadays, huh?

Just doesn't seem worth it tbh :|

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:01 pm
by Austin
NeoGeoNinja wrote:
Trev wrote:I've wanted a CDZ for years - don't have the willpower to save up for one though.
Yeah, they're in Home Cart System pricing territory nowadays, huh?

Just doesn't seem worth it tbh :|
$400 or so after shipping from Japan, for a boxed one. Less for a bare system with hookups.

Re: Let's Play/Drown Out - Way of The Warrior, Samurai Shodo

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:00 pm
by Alberto 2K
Don't buy SNK CD systems, the games are mostly the same than the AES/MVS but several of them have missing animation frames, smaller characters and infamous loading times. I sold the CDZ but I own all the other SNK systems, cart is the way to go!

3DO port of Samurai Shodown is very good, I don't like the loading just before starting the fight (like with the KOFs on the NeoCD) but the rest is excellent.

Way of the Warrior... well, it reminds me to Kasumi Ninja, it's good to have a laugh with friends but not for much more. I remember seeing pics on the magazines and I though it looked great but watching the vids the animation is really bad and the gameplay doesn't look too fun, I'll need to try it to truly talk about it but it looks like another MK try with awful results...