Samurai Shodown IV is a premium arcade title for mobile developed by SNK Corporation. It's a 2D fighting game and official mobile port of the classic Samurai Shodown IV game released back in 1996 for arcade systems and home gaming consoles.

Joining ACA NEOGEO THE KING OF FIGHTERS '97 and ACA NEOGEO ART OF FIGHTING 2, Samurai Shodown IV is part of the ACA NEOGEO, a collection of games that have been ported to mobile to let players experience the classics on their smartphones, anytime and anywhere while on the go.

Samurai bout

Samurai Shodown is one of SNK Corporation's popular fighting game franchises during the 1990s. This series stood out for its portrayal of the Samurai and showcase of Japanese culture to a broad audience, both local and international. Its first five mainline releases remain favorites to this day, so it's no wonder they have been ported over to the mobile space, with Samurai Shodown IV being one of them.

The ACA NEOGEO collection has been known to port classic games from its library to modern devices, and offer an experience that is the same as the originals. You can expect the same with this game whether you're new to the series or a returning fan. The unique Anger Gauge mechanic has also made the cut and will make for deadly attacks and combos during fights.

The game comes with a few modern features like quick save/load functions and d-pad customization options, both of which will be greatly appreciated by a lot of players. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for its performance, though. It suffers from severe lag or worse, complete freeze-ups and crashes. There's a lot of work to be done to make it a lot more playable.

Samurai Slowdown

Samurai Shodown IV is a part of a great fighting game series that has made its way to modern devices. Compared to its brethren in the ACA NEOGEO collection, though, it stands as one of the poorly optimized ones. It's hard to recommend until its glaring issues get addressed first. You're better off waiting or trying something else from the list.