Shogun Warriors (video game)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Shogun Warriors is an arcade fighting game from 1992. In Japan it’s titled Fujiyama Buster. It was developed by Atop and released in Japan by Sammy, with Kaneko handling North American and European release.

It was the first modern fighting game based on ancient Japanese mythology, coming after Street Fighter II. A 1994 follow-up called Blood Warrior was released.

Gameplay is a 2D versus fighting style for up to two players. Matches are best two-out-of-three. In single-player mode, you pick a character and the computer randomly selects opponents. The order of opponents is random, but the last four bosses appear in a fixed order. The game uses an 8-way joystick and four buttons for weak and strong punches and kicks. Some fighters with swords can cause blood to spurt, a graphic feature that appeared around the same time as Mortal Kombat.

A unique feature is the grabbing system. If you grab an opponent, the grabber must move the joystick left and right to make escaping harder, while the grabbed player must press buttons quickly to escape.

There are twelve characters, each with its own fighting style inspired by Japanese culture.

Regional differences include a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” screen in the North American version. The Japanese Fujiyama Buster had original voice samples, while the international versions were dubbed in English for some characters.

In Japan, Shogun Warriors was listed as the fifteenth most-successful table arcade unit in November 1992.