Samurai Shodown III

Samurai Shodown III should be the beginning of a bold new direction for the franchise. The most obvious difference between this game and the others in the series is the much more somber aesthetic. The cheerful characters (Earthquake, Cham Cham and Gen-an, to name a few) from the previous games were dropped, and even the kabuki master Kyoshiro Senryo was redesigned and transformed from a flamboyant stage artist into a grim, muscular man. All the characters have been completely redrawn. The animations are very fluid for all characters, another difference from the graphic style of the second game.