Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood

Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood (Japanese: Samurai Spirits Zankuro Musouken) is a weapon-based fighting game developed by SNK, released for Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware on November 15, 1995. Its timeline takes place between the first Samurai Shodown and Samurai Shodown II. The demon swordsman Minazuki Zankuro roams the land and slaughters countless warriors. The amnesiac boy Shizumaru Hisame, the new protagonist of this installment, joins other swordsmen to hunt down Zankuro. Its landmark new feature is the **Shura / Rasetsu sword alignment system**. Every character has two move sets. Shura excels in aerial combat while Rasetsu focuses on ground fighting. With only 12 selectable fighters, the dual styles effectively create 24 unique fighting profiles. Players also pick one of three combat ranks at the start: Kenshi (Swordsman) with limited auto-guard but slower rage gain; Kengo (Master Swordsman), the balanced default mode; Kensei (Sword Saint) with permanently maxed rage but **no ability to block**, for advanced players. The combat system is heavily revised. Rolls are removed and replaced with quick evasive sidesteps and back-turning attacks. New mechanics include parry counters, guard breakers and weapon-knockoff specials. The classic Rage Gauge remains; players can build rage by taking hits or manually charging it. At full rage, attack power surges. The roster shrinks to 12 characters. New fighters include Shizumaru, Rimururu, Basara, Gaira and final boss Zankuro. Returning veterans such as Haohmaru, Nakoruru, Hanzo Hattori and Ukyo Tachibana get fully redrawn animations and new moves. The art shifts to atmospheric ink-wash visuals paired with somber, ethereal soundtrack. Matches follow best-of-three rules, with random meat for HP recovery and bombs falling into the battlefield. This title drastically reworked the franchise formula and received mixed reception. It was less popular in Chinese arcades than Samurai Shodown II, but its dual-alignment and three-rank systems laid an important foundation for later entries, making it a pivotal experimental chapter in the Samurai Shodown saga.

These are the default keys. Every arcade board has a different number of buttons and means different things by them. The rows above are buttons 1–6 on the board: on Neo Geo boards (The King of Fighters and friends) A/B/C/D are buttons 1–4, Metal Slug uses only 1, 2 and 4 (shoot / jump / grenade), and Pac-Man uses none at all. Six-button fighters with three punches and three kicks (Street Fighter II and the like) get a different layout from the core: light punch U, medium punch I, heavy punch Q, light kick J, medium kick K, heavy kick E. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player toolbar, then “Remap keys” to open the emulator’s own control settings (keyboard and gamepad, saved automatically). Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.