Released in the same month as Super Street Fighter 4 and anticipated by pretty much no one, Samurai Shodown Sen is a fighting game so relentlessly difficult it often feels like the creators were setting out to punish anyone failing to take it seriously enough.
The Shodown series originated with a fondly remembered 1993 arcade outing that was steeped in Japanese tradition. Set in the late 18th century, the cast was heavy on dispossessed ronin, the soundtrack aimed for authentically Japanese music, and the weaponry was reasonably believable. These aspects are present and correct this time around – so don't go expecting any sci-fi weapons or guests dropping in from, say, the Star Wars universe. Instead, there's a couple of dozen fairly vanilla characters to choose from (muscular samurai types, big-eyed manga girls, beardy monks, etc), separated into four categories – "skill", "speed", "power" and "tricky."
For those who feel at home with the Soul Calibur series, to which this bears a passing resemblance, SSS is likely to seem infuriatingly inaccessible, wholly lesser experience. There's a basic palette of kicks, slashes and throws which can be combined and/or modified with the D pad to a certain extent – but you can forget about perfecting an array of pleasing, spectacular combos. Instead, this is all about the hard slog – chipping away at your enemy's life bar, furiously blocking and countering attacks, and trying (and most likely failing) to land the occasional more substantial attack, without leaving yourself open to a barrage of blows that'll make you want to sling your controller across the room in disgust at the bloody-minded unfairness of it all.
It's certainly breaking no new ground in terms of theme, game play or visuals — its make-do approach to graphics won't win any prizes, although there are some beautifully illustrated menu screens that draw from traditional Japanese caligraphy, bringing to mind Okami's elegant visuals.
SSS is certainly not for the habitual button basher, or even anyone who'd like to have a decent grasp of a fighting game within a couple of hours of picking it up. However, for connoisseurs of the genre it's still worth a look. It's awkward, infuriating and it does not want to be your friend, but these aren't necessarily the worst things in the world. If you think of Dead or Alive as a Mini Babybel, this'd be some sort of smelly cheese that is actually surprisingly tasty once you get over the whiff.
