While the likes of Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombat, among many others, enjoy a mainstreamish spotlight, other fighting games continue to wait for a new challenger. This year we get the charming, yet demanding SNK classic, Samurai Shodown with updated visuals new faces and the same old depth waiting for those with character drive.

Here's a snippet from our review:

The game’s unique mechanics rely heavily on a construct of risk-reward, where heavies deal major damage, while light attacks chip away, but also add to an admittedly superfluous combo meter. Essentially what this means is you need to strike the right balance between the two. And animations count in this series -- heavy attacks take longer to play out, while lighter attacks are quicker, obviously. One can, however, interrupt the other though getting the timing right for each is the tricky part. Moreover, failure to get that timing right essentially leaves you open to a smart, reactive player capable of truly reading the play.

Click here for our full Samurai Shodown review.