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The Sega CD version retains the arcade introduction and is only missing portions of some characters' endings. The announcer no longer says the names of the characters before a fight or after winning a fight. Also, the character artwork shown after beating an opponent is missing, and portions of some characters' endings are missing. The Mega Drive/Genesis version lacks the arcade introduction, instead displaying the arcade version's text with no background graphics or speech. The final boss is playable in two-player mode without the use of a code. In addition, some attacks were altered or removed entirely from the Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game. This gives better detail to the characters, but the fighting area is smaller.
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Both versions lack the camera zoom, and the camera is locked in a close zoom. The Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega CD versions omit the character Earthquake and his stage. All of the cartridge versions were handled by Takara, while Crystal Dynamics ported the 3DO version, and Funcom handled the Sega CD port. In addition to the Neo Geo system, the AES, Samurai Shodown was ported to multiple other platforms, including the Super NES, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Gear, Sega CD, Sega Saturn, 3DO, FM Towns, PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Neo Geo console modifications would enable users to set the system's region to Japan, or play in arcade mode, either of which would cause the game to be played with all of the blood and death animations intact, even on a North American/PAL console. For instance, a North American cartridge running on a North American Neo Geo would display white sweat, but the same cartridge, when plugged into a Japanese Neo Geo, would run the uncensored game with blood. The censoring of the Neo Geo console version was unusual in that it was tied to the specific system. As a result, some retailers didn't carry this edition of the game. The 3DO version was released in 1994 with all blood and fatality graphics intact. In the Super NES version, the blood was recolored orange and the fatal attacks were removed. The win quotes were also censored, and references to death or blood were altered. As a result, it was decided to censor the game for most platforms by changing the blood from red to white and disabling the fatal attack animations.
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Mostly due to the negative publicity surrounding the use of violence in video games, the game was edited when it was first released for the AES as it featured blood and graphic fatal attacks that kill opponents by slicing them in half. However, before the Virtual Console version was released in the North America, the game was released as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. The Neo Geo AES version of the game was released for the Wii Virtual Console on October 16, 2007, in Japan May 30, 2008, in Europe and June 16, 2008, in North America. distributor: They felt the Japanese title "Samurai Spirits" did not adequately explain the game, and felt the spelling could be a play on the word shogun, based on the lingering popularity of the Shogun miniseries. The idea to spell the English title "Shodown" rather than "Showdown" came from SNK's U.S.
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The programming team for Samurai Shodown consisted of a combination of veteran SNK programmers and former Capcom employees. The only hold-over from the original concept was Genan Shiranui, the hunchbacked claw-handed creature who was inspired by Adachi's fascination with Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. What became Samurai Shodown evolved from was originally planned as traditional side-scrolling beat 'em up featuring monsters as the dark heroes (similar to Data East's Night Slashers) however, after considering what would sell to a global audience, series-creator and director Yasushi Adachi decided a fighting game with distinctly Japanese characters such as samurai and ninjas would do better. A variety of warriors - some historic, some fictional - converge upon the source of the chaos, each driven by their own reasons. Driven by hatred for the Shogunate and having a nihilistic streak towards the world, he unleashes his dark powers to bring chaos to all of existence in 1788. Shiro Tokisada Amakusa, slain in Japan of 1638 by the forces of the Tokugawa Shogunate for his part in the Shimabara Rebellion, was resurrected in 1787 as an akuma from making a deal with the dark god Ambrosia by bringing the evil entity into the world by using the Palenke stone and its energy.