Samurai Shodown II, known in Japan as Shin Samurai Spirits: Haōmaru Jigokuhen (真サムライスピリッツ覇王丸地獄変).
0Samurai Shodown II, known in Japan as Shin Samurai Spirits: Haōmaru Jigokuhen, is a 1994 fighting game released as the second entry in SNK's Samurai Shodown series. Like the original Samurai Shodown, the sequel was initially released for the Neo Geo arcade and home system.
Following up on the extremely enthusiastic fan reception of the first Samurai Shodown game, SNK rebuilt the sequel from the ground up, including almost all of its predecessor's cast, adding several new characters, and refining the overall gameplay with more responsive control, more moves (particularly the use of the POW meter as a super special move meter; these moves not only cause severe damage to the opponents but also break their weapons, forcing them to fight unarmed for a short interval before a replacement weapon is issued), and a substantial number of Easter eggs.
The overall gameplay was expanded to include several movement options, such as being able to roll forward and backward, ducking to avoid high attacks, or doing small hops to avoid low strikes. This game was also the first game to incorporate an offensive blocking technique or "parry", via a command issued at the last second, a player would be able to deflect the incoming attack and leave their adversary open to attack by a split second. Such a technique was later also used in Namco's Weaponlord and later popularized by Capcom's Street Fighter III. There are also cameo appearances from other SNK characters, a hidden boss who would occasionally come out to challenge players, and several other treats for fans to uncover.
Samurai Shodown II was originally released for the Neo Geo arcades and home consoles in 1994. In spite of its considerable popularity, the game went for several years without being released on any other system in the west except for PC. In 1996, a port of the Neo Geo CD version for Windows-based PCs was released in Japan. The North American version of this was released in 1999. It was ported to the PlayStation only for the Japanese market in 1998, in the form of the Samurai Spirits Kenkaku Shinan Pack (combines the first two games into one package).
However later, an official Xbox Live Arcade port and a PlayStation 2/Wii anthology containing every Samurai Shodown game was announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2007. It was released on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 on September 10, 2008, and on the Wii's Virtual Console in Europe on August 8, 2008 and in North America on August 25, 2008. On December 18, 2012, SNK Playmore released the game on the onboard memory of the Neo Geo X portable console. It was also ported for iOS and Android platforms and released on iOS App Store and Google Play in June 2013.
A digital PC version of Samurai Shodown II with Neo Geo emulation was bundled with many other SNK Playmore Neo Geo emulated ports and released on the Humble Bundle store on December 8, 2015. Though the browser version of some of these games including this one played a bit too fast in the emulated software window, they had Steam client versions available. This game and many others in the Neo Geo 25th Anniversary bundle that were on Humble Bundle were later released for DRM-free download on GOG.com on May 31, 2017.
As with the original Samurai Shodown, the Neo Geo AES version censors all blood in the game. However, Samurai Shodown II also includes a "blood code" to enable all blood; SNK provided this code to gaming magazines for publication and to those who called their customer service department.
『真SAMURAI SPIRITS 覇王丸地獄変』（しん・サムライスピリッツ はおうまるじごくへん、欧題：Samurai Shodown II）は、SNKが1994年10月28日に稼働した対戦型格闘ゲーム。『サムライスピリッツ』シリーズの第二作目である。
前作『SAMURAI SPIRITS』のヒットを受けて開発部が急遽製作した純粋な続編。
主な登場キャラクターは最初に選択出来るプレイアブルキャラクター15人、隠しキャラクター1人、ボスキャラクター1人の合計17人。
アーケードモードでは、プレイヤーは世界の異変を感じ取った15人のプレイアブルキャラクターを操り、この事態を解決していくこととなる。
隠しキャラクターとして、初代から背景にて判定を行っていた黒子が敵キャラクターとして参戦。デモや必殺技、挑発などアクションが他キャラクター（『サムライスピリッツ』以外のSNK格闘ゲーム作品も含む）のパロディとなっている。ストーリー上のサブキャラクターで演出のみだが、前作のボスキャラクターである天草四郎時貞も登場している。
メディア同士のタイアップとして、ゲーマーアイドルとして有名な千葉麗子がチャムチャムの声優役で参加している。またマネージャーもチャムチャムの相棒、パクパク役で参加している。
この作品のみ本編内での言語を選択できる。設定を「英語」か「スペイン語」のどちらかにすると、タイトルロゴはそのままだが、血の色が緑色になり、黒子による試合終了後の死体搬送がカットされるなど演出が欧米仕様になる。また、翻訳の関係上、一部の会話が異なる。
韓国では『眞SAULABI SPIRITS ᄊᆞ울ᄋᆞ비투혼』（サウラビ闘魂）のタイトルでリリースされた。