distributor: They felt the Japanese title 'Samurai Spirits' did not adequately explain the game, and felt the spelling could be a play on the word shogun, based on the lingering popularity of the Shogun miniseries. The idea to spell the English title 'Shodown' rather than 'Showdown' came from SNK's U.S. The programming team for Samurai Shodown consisted of a combination of veteran SNK programmers and former Capcom employees. The only hold-over from the original concept was Genan Shiranui, the hunchbacked claw-handed creature who was inspired by Adachi's fascination with Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. What became Samurai Shodown evolved from was originally planned as traditional side-scrolling beat 'em up featuring monsters as the dark heroes (similar to Data East's Night Slashers) however, after considering what would sell to a global audience, series-creator and director Yasushi Adachi decided a fighting game with distinctly Japanese characters such as samurai and ninjas would do better. A variety of warriors - some historic, some fictional - converge upon the source of the chaos, each driven by their own reasons. Driven by hatred for the Shogunate and having a nihilistic streak towards the world, he unleashes his dark powers to bring chaos to all of existence in 1788.

Shiro Tokisada Amakusa, slain in Japan of 1638 by the forces of the Tokugawa Shogunate for his part in the Shimabara Rebellion, was resurrected in 1787 as an akuma from making a deal with the dark god Ambrosia by bringing the evil entity into the world by using the Palenke stone and its energy.

Samurai shodown anthology trade