Samurai Shodown (1993 video game)

Samurai Shodown, known in Japan as Samurai Spirits, is a fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. Released in 1993, it is the first installment in the Samurai Shodown series. In contrast to most fighting games at the time, which were set in the modern age and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown takes place in feudal-era Japan (similar to Kaneko's Shogun Warriors that was released the year prior). It was SNK's first arcade fighting game to focus primarily on weapon-based combat.

Samurai Shodown was a commercial success, becoming Japan's sixth highest-grossing arcade game of 1993 and one of America's top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1994. It won several Game of the Year awards from Gamest, Electronic Gaming Monthly and the European Computer Trade Show. Samurai Showdown then appeared on other platforms, including the Takara-published Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear versions in 1994. It has since been re-released for various modern platforms as part of the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (2008), Samurai Shodown Anthology (2008) and Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection (2020) compilations, the ACA Neo Geo series, and on the Wii Virtual Console.