Now that I finally have this disc – this deceptively exciting review build – taunting me as I dare to press the start button, I found myself in a rather peculiar position from which I write this review.Īs I sat there, navigating the flashy, space-aged honeycombed menu system that SNK Playmore has made to greet players, I realized that the nostalgia I have for this franchise might seem insurmountable. Fifteen years is also a very, very long time to allow nostalgia to accumulate. Over a period of time this long, many things have come and gone: going through high school, college, a few jobs and an MA program, two pairs of Clinton and Bush presidencies, the birth and neglect of the Oslo Accords, the Geo/Chevy Prism and Crystal Pepsi. “Has it really been 15 years since the first Shodown title was released?” Indeed it has. When I first turned on Samurai Shodown Anthology (henceforth abbreviated as SSA) – something I’ve been enthusiastically waiting to do since it was announced – I noticed a rather delightful caricature of Haomaru that read, “Samurai Shodown: 15th Anniversary.” After a gut reaction of,”Aww, that’s synthetically sentimental.” I then sat there, jaw half agape, reflecting on what I had just seen. Opening sequence and navigation shell by SNK Playmore. Developer: SNK (Parts 1 through 4), Yuki Enterprise (5) and SNK Playmore (6).