Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood[a] is an arcade game developed by SNK and released on November 15, 1995.

Along with the aesthetic overhaul came significant changes in the gameplay with introduction of two selectable versions of each character: "Slash" (chivalry) and "Bust" (treachery).

The pace of the game shifted somewhat, as many basic attacks can be canceled into special moves, something which is extremely rare in the first two installments.

Most of Samurai Shodown 2's movement options were removed, in favor of the ability to dodge attacks by pressing the A and B buttons simultaneously.

New warriors added to the series included the following: The Game Boy version omits Kyoshiro and Gaira, but adds Jubei Yagyu as a special boss and secret character.

Reviewing the Neo Geo AES version, Electronic Gaming Monthly remarked that the graphics are not as good as the first two games in the series and that the Neo Geo controller makes it difficult to pull off some moves, but they greatly praised the large number of characters and the two different personas for each character, and in general rated the gameplay as superior to the first two Samurai Shodowns.

"[9] A brief review in Next Generation similarly said that "Fans of the first two won't be let down by III, but there should be a much larger jump in quality in the sequel.

"[5] Maximum assessed the Neo Geo CD version as "an excellently detailed and extremely playable beat 'em up, maintaining SNK's usual high standards."

[4] Scary Larry of GamePro described the PlayStation version as "a lousy port of an equally bad NeoGeo game", citing missing frames of animation, slowdown, and overly drawn-out fights.