What a shame it got shit on by the press back in the day.
from wikipedia:
"Samurai Shodown III received moderately positive reviews. Reviewing the Neo Geo AES version, Electronic Gaming Monthly remarked that the graphics are not as good as the first two games in the series and that the Neo Geo controller makes it difficult to pull off some moves, but they greatly praised the large number of characters and the two different personas for each character, and in general rated the gameplay as superior to the first two Samurai Shodowns. They scored the game a 7.25/10.[1] Major Mike of GamePro commented that impressive innovations such as the multiple personas and the sidestep ability are to an extent countered by the omission on some of the best characters from the previous games and the less impressive backgrounds. He concluded that "While Shodown III won't disappoint fans of the series, it isn't the jump that Shodown II was over I."[2] Maximum assessed the Neo Geo CD version as "an excellently detailed and extremely playable beat 'em up, maintaining SNK's usual high standards." They particularly praised the fact that character alignment affects the gameplay instead of just cosmetic differences, the much improved balance of the characters, the constantly moving backgrounds, and the highly experimental soundtrack. Remarking that the game's one major problem is that it is irritatingly difficult, they gave it 4 out of 5 stars.[3]
Gamepro described the PlayStation version as "a lousy port of an equally bad NeoGeo game", citing missing frames of animation, slowdown, and overly drawn-out fights.[4] GameSpot also commented on the missing frames of animation and slowdown in the PlayStation version, and additionally criticized the "excruciatingly long" loading times, but nonetheless concluded that "Those who loved the arcade game version of Samurai Shodown III will be happy with this conversion." and gave it a 6.7/10.[5]
At Game Rankings, it holds a rating of 51% for the PS port[6] and 72% for the Neo Geo port.[7]"
I always liked it though. Even the PS1 port I had to put up with until I got it on MVS. What a cool game.
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