Quinny Reviews

Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture (1994 TV Movie)

This could have been so much more...

[1/10 · 7 January 1999]

Considering the facts that the character designer for this film was also heavily involved in Ninja Scroll and that the game itself, while perhaps not as balanced or polished as the Street Fighter series, had a far better sense of plot and the characters more established personalities, I assumed, when I saw this video on sale for a comparatively mere $20 (compared to $50 for an Evangelion) that there had been some sort of mistake. In hindsight, of course, I realise that the store was offloading it as fast as they could. Gone is the game's plot and the individual character backgrounds; the characters have been lumped together haphazardly in 'teams' (Haohmaru, Charlotte, Tam-Tam, Nakoruru and Wan-Fu are the 'good', Earthquake, Gen-an and Amakusa, who is inexplicably female, are the 'bad' and Hanzo and Jubei are basically neutrally good) and their backgrounds completely forgotten (an Ainu fighting alongside the Japanese and Chinese? A native American and a French woman tagging along? WTF?). If, for some reason, you can't guess that the good guys triumph in the end, feel free to email me and request my copy; I'll be happy to get rid of it. Then again, you could repeatedly drag a cheesegrater across your forehead and have a better time for a fraction of the cost.