When I first saw Samurai Shodown (way back in the days...) in an arcade here in Germany, I was stunned. Dunno why, but when I saw the calm action on the screen, I didn't knew what I should think of it. Two Samurais, one dressed in white with lots of hair and another with blue hair and the sword kept in the sheath fighting each other in front of seashore. Just like in the legend of Musashi. Being hopelessly possessed by Mortal Kombat, I couldn't understand why the combatants didn't attack each other in the hectic way they did in MK. Because me and my friends were in a hurry, I had no time to give it a try. Leaving the arcade, I still didn't understand why the scenes in the demo-game attracted me that much. Month later, at my favorite videogame-retailer's place, I saw a copy of Samurai Shodown for the SNes, just released. I decided to buy it. My first Samurai Shodown Game! At home, I was very disappointed, because of the tiny sprites and the slow gameplay. But, since I spent a lot of money on it, I played it often. At least, there was this feeling again. After weeks of training and countless rounds of battles, I finally got it: the way to play Samurai Shodown! I realized that you could control the speed of the game with your fighting-style. Because of MK and Street Fighter, dashing and running was totally new to me. I used it to kept my character (Tachibana Ukyo) as close as possible to the enemy. I delivered mid-air-kicks followed up by ground-attacks... Hell, I was reborn! MK and Street Fighter introduced me to the special-move-issue, but this little baby showed me the real way to fight in a videogame! Later on, with the release of King of Fighters 94 and Shin Samurai Spirits, I decided to get myself a NeoGeoCD. It was the highest price; I ever paid for a videogame-console and from then on, me and my friends fingers bled from playing Samurai Shodown 2. With the release of SS3, I took the chance to get my hands on a neogeo-cartridge-system. And boy, I was hyped even more! Furious samurai action without loading-times and with bombastic Shodown-Screens pumped my heartbeat to the maximum. Needless to say that I got Samurai Shodown 4 as well. I love the fourth installment of SS so much, I bought every existing form of it: the CD-version, the Cartridge, the MVS-Cart, the one for the PSX and the NeoGeoPocket Version. And even today, there isn't even one game that can offer me the type of gaming-action, Samurai Shodown (especially SS 4) gave (and still give) me. Thank you, SNK!