Samurai Showdown VI (PS4)

Samurai Showdown for me was a series that not only captured my attention as a fighting game enthusiast, but also held a special place in my gaming history as one of the few arcade experiences that I had as a teenager. I remember playing the original arcade cabinet of SamSho at the local bowling alley as my family did their routine bowling. I also played on a rare 'Samurai Showdown III: Blades of Blood" arcade cabinet at the local Kmart department store back in the day when department stores had those special arcade rooms set aside for the children of customers. Of course I also bought SamShoIII when it was finally ported to the PSOne in the late 90's, because I loved it that much. The Treachery, and Chivalry finishers in SamShoIII were, in my opinion one of the series' finer points. A feature which was lost along the way as SamSho became an all inclusive, and censored shell of it's former glory. Don't get me wrong though. I did love the new character additions, and mechanics that came into play years down the road. The different "Spirits' meters opened up new opportunities in-game, as they tend to do. When the final 3D SamSho dropped, and flopped on the Xbox 360 years after the final 2D entry I was fairly certain we'd no longer see or hear from it again. Imagine my surprise earlier this week when I found out on Twitter that a PS2 port of "SamShoVI" was actually coming to the PS4. If for nothing else I personally wanted it for a trip down memory lane, and for what it's worth I think it provided exactly that.

OtakuDante: "My Gaming History"

Since I've got some extra time between reviews I thought I'd share my gaming history with you guys. It's quite complex, so sit back, relax and enjoy the tale of how I became the gamer I am today ...

The earliest gaming memories of mine actually came from playing on the Atari 2600. While I can't recall vivid details of my gaming then I do remember the two games my family owned/shared. I recall playing a simple game called 'Face Maker'. I honestly wouldn't call it a true video game, but more of a PC type of application. The case to it was huge, and had a vinyl case. The cartridges were small, square, and black. I remember that very well. The game that really kept my attention though was the 'Yars Revenge'. The game was nothing but a bunch of scattered pixels, but the image on the cartridge was very cool. Looking back at the screenshots of those games makes me wonder what I thought was so great about it. I guess it was due to the fact it was a new thing in technology/entertainment. Somewhere in my house I still have that Yar's Revenge cartridge, but my Atari is long gone.