It is official. SNK is dead and so is Samurai Shodown as a result. The news did not arrive as a shock for me, but rather a mere confirmation that the dreaded day has come. There was no big bang, no major mourning. The heyday of Samurai Shodown is long over and SS is no more than a distant memory for most. People have “moved on” to other games or other phases of their lives.

Samurai Shodown may be dead, but it will always be in my heart. It was once such an integral part of my life. Or even, my life. I have “moved on” to other things, but I will always cherish the fond memories of Samurai Shodown.

It all began with my group of friends whom I frequented the video arcades with. A game with characters dressed in elaborate Japanese costumes, nice graphics, wonderful sound and unique gameplay (they had weapons!). That was Samurai Spirits 1.

Samurai Spirits 2, with its wide selection of characters, really got me hooked. The wide range of characters not only proved to be eye-candy, but they had their own costumes, their own moves, their own weapons, and above all, their own hometowns, stories and characters. Never once before did I feel such an engaging video game. It was the very first time I saw conscious effort to develop the storylines of the characters. I was, obviously, impressed. Not to say, addicted to the game. I played it so often that when I was walking, I pictured myself as Hanzo teleporting. Kind of hilarious, come to think of it now.

The third installment saw the introduction of my favourite character – Shizumaru. His very interesting weapon, the umbrella, really caught my attention. And of course it helped that he was like the main character of SS3. It was really his tragic story of being an orphan and octrasized in his society that I felt for him. The pain, the hate and stuff. I actually felt for some “virtual” character.

Things really heated up and hit fever pitch for me with Samurai Shodown 4. The gameplay had a marked improvement with the combos being improved. Of course, Kazuki and Sogetsu were very welcomed by me. And it was that game that prompted me to set up a webpage for Samurai Shodown (it’s called Mitsui’s Inn of Samurai Shodown).

Building a webpage, learning from scratch really made me feel even more attached to Samurai Shodown. Not to mention I made many friends who also loved Samurai Shodown in the process.

I have to admit I can’t do an editorial representative of the entire SS series. I did not follow Samurai Shodown to the 3D era. I tried the 3D games, but somehow, didn’t like them. Still, I tried finding out a bit about the new games. A hectic life caused the interest in the new games to fizzle. I became too busy for Samurai Shodown.

Yes, I am guilty of giving Samurai Shodown up, but SNK is even more guilty of giving up on Samurai Shodown. But as a line in Samurai Shodown went “All things in nature come to an end.”

When I was thinking of what calendars to buy for 2002, I had a lot of things on my mind, amongst them, my latest favourites (some mangas like Hikaru No GO, Shaman King, Naruto etc). Since they were rather expensive (1600 yen per calendar), I ended up buying two. One of them is on Samurai Shodown.

Samurai Shodown may have ended, but it will forever hold this spot in my heart. Farewell, dear friend.