| Shogun Warriors | |
| Developer: | Kaneko Atop |
| Publisher: | Sammy (JPN) Kaneko (NA and EUR) |
| Composer: | Tatsuya Watanabe Yasushi Wada Phil Nicholas Andrew Miller N. Shlton Aaron Briggs Dane Jefferies |
| Released: | April 15, 1992 |
| Genre: | 2D versus fighting |
| Modes: | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Platforms: | Arcade |
Shogun Warriors, known in Japan as, is a 1992 fighting arcade game developed by Atop and Kaneko and published in Japan by Sammy Corporation and published in North America and Europe by Kaneko. It was the first modern-fighting game based on ancient Japanese mythology (later popularized by SNK's Samurai Shodown and The Last Blade series), and was created during the fighting game trend of the 1990s that began with Capcom's Street Fighter II. Shogun Warriors was followed by a 1994 sequel titled Blood Warrior.
Shogun Warriors plays similarly to some other 2D versus fighting games during its release, which the player's character fights against his or her opponent in best two-out-of-three matches in a single player tournament mode with the computer or against another human player. It is controlled with an 8-way joystick and 4 buttons that perform weak and strong versions of punches and kicks. In one player mode, after selecting a character, the arcade randomly selects an opponent. The opponent order goes randomly and always leaves the last four bosses in a certain order. Some characters stabbed by ones armed with katanas or other sharp weapons can cause blood to spurt out, which became popularized a few months later by Midway's Mortal Kombat. The main unique feature of Shogun Warriors is its "grabbing system". When the player is grabbed by the opponent, the grabber must move the joystick left and right to make it more difficult for his opponent to escape, while the one being grabbed must rapidly press any or all buttons to make it easier to escape.
There are twelve characters, each with their own fighting style and special techniques based on the ones in Japanese culture. Besides the well-known "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen being added to the North American version, another regional difference is that the Japanese version Fujiyama Buster contains original voice samples, while the North American and worldwide versions were dubbed in English for some characters.
In Japan, Game Machine listed Shogun Warriors on their November 1, 1992 issue as being the fifteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.[1]