Samurai Shodown Genesis Rundown

I know it's a rare category but if anyone's interested in my findings, I've put together this guide of sorts on how to effectively run this game on genesis specifically. 

First thing to note is this guide assumes you're using Charlotte. She is kind of the best character to use for most of the categories here due to her frame data and her jumping Heavy Slash attack being one of the hardest hitting moves in the game, plus it can confuse the AI reliably enough even on the hardest difficulty. This is great since that's the only difficulty allowed for these runs to be valid! You're free to run the game with whoever you feel comfortable using, though this guide won't help with them nearly as much sadly :( 

Secondly, I like to turn items off even though they aren't specified in the rules anywhere. Mainly the items that I've seen drop are: Coin that gives points (useless in runs), Potion that heals (can be a detriment if enemy happens to get it) and a Bomb that damages after a set time (could be useful? but also can hurt you and doesn't seem great).

Thirdly, this game has a stun mechanic that you might be able to take advantage of sometimes, but max difficulty enemies will only be vulnerable for a brief window so be quick! It's worth noting that you can also be stunned by multiple or sometimes even a single strong hit, but stun is mitigated if you're in the middle of jumping which is handy since you'll be jumping frequently.

So now for my official findings from all the speed running attempts I've done for this game. Hope the fruits of my labor help someone out! 

Character Rundowns and AI Behaviors

I'll be sort of ranking all 12 characters you will fight against on how difficult they are to beat, what moves they like to use, what the moves can do, and most importantly how to get around anti-airs since you'll mainly be jumping to land those crucial Triangle Slash attacks (aka heavy sword button). All the characters can pose a serious threat if underestimated, even ones I'll claim as "free" so don't assume they're always a cakewalk: I've lost to every character on the roster at least a couple times due to some shenanigans or misinputs. Not to mention on this difficulty it seems most characters have the potential to either do insane damage in one or two moves, or do some stupid attack with Invincibility frames that just ruin your day. If there's ever a character you really struggle against, find them in arcade mode and make a save state before the match begins and just keep loading until you get a better feel for what you need to do.

1. Gen-An
This green fellow reminds me of Valdo from Soul Caliber if he were a cave-dwelling goblin man. He attacks with heavy slashes from his claw and even poison clouds but the main thing that makes him a threat in runs are his spinning rush attack (Nikuten Tsuki) and his grabs, one in particular. Gen-An is one of the characters with grabs that you are supposed to mash out of, but the AI is so good that you can't really do that so you mostly just take hella damage from these. In Gen-An's rare case, one of his grabs does anywhere between 50-80% of the health bar so if he gets you with it it's almost a round loss regardless of health. You'll have to time your slashes right without getting into grab territory, so be wary. His spin move is fast and sometimes hard to react to, specifically his Heavy variant, but thankfully you can hit him out of it! The timing can be weird but if you jump over the spin and he starts coming back down from the ceiling, a well timed jump slash COULD work, but that's risky since he can hit you with it on the way down. I found that using standing heavy kick attack when he comes down works well safely. 
Overall, the forward moving JTS (Jumping Triangle Slash) works well as he only jumps sometimes. Usually he will try a standing or crouching M or H Slash which will miss you when jumping at him. He SEEMS to roll attack more when his Rage builds but I can't technically confirm this. 
5/10 No real anti-air issues besides jump attacks, just watch for grabs and annoying moveset.

2. Galford
The USA character rep, this guy thinks he's cool like Guile or Strider Hiryu. His gimmick includes a dog using disjointed attacks, projectiles, and even a teleport move, though this fight is usually against lag from hitting the barrels on the ends of the stage. Jokes aside, you'll need to watch for when he uses projectiles or dog moves, they aren't too strong but the AI seems to time them as you jump if you're careless about positioning and you will get caught off-guard. When using his dog, he has a couple frames of invincibility as well so you might miss him and take a hit from the dog though thankfully this attack isn't spammed usually. He also has an air grab, one of the few in the game, so be sure to time your hits if he jumps so you don't get a good chunk of health taken away. If he stands upright and puts his hands together he's about to do his teleport move where he makes after images of himself. He can be hit right before the move starts and he won't be able to block, but once it starts it's a RNG roll on which image he will become. I find simply standing in place and jumping right before he reappears allows for the JTS to hit him safely if he's close enough, though he sometimes blocks this but will mostly go for a slash attack instead. 
6.5/10 he's sometimes a run killer but mostly not too bad.

3. Haohmaru
This guy has plot armor, I swear. As the titular main character it makes sense though, so don't think he'll be easy (well, most of the time...) To be honest, most times fighting him he doesn't seem too hard but there's a few things that push his difficulty up. First, he has a shoryuken-style rising sword attack that has some I frames so it's harder to punish than some other moves. Second, some of his slash moves move him forward or shift his hurt box around slightly so he can be trickier to land hits on sometimes. That being said, if you fight him enough you should learn his tricks and be able to avoid disaster. He has a slow-moving tornado projectile that he can time as you jump towards him or are getting up from a knock-down, so be sure to utilize blocking or really be careful with your jumps to avoid this. 
7/10 I've lost to him enough before, his attacks hit like a truck sometimes and that uppercut slash really gets frustrating if you don't get the timing to hit him out of it juuuust right. 

4. Ukyo
This blue-haired anime man is all shy and mysterious, but he's kind of a pushover. There are only a couple things he does and learning about how to handle them really lowers his threat level, but he can still throw a wrench into your run sometimes. The main things he does are a backwards jump with a firebird slash projectile (Hiken Tsubame Gaeshi), which can be punished if you're quick enough with your jump attacks, a sliding kick or slash attack that propels him forward, crouching heavy slash which actually can anti-air pretty well if you are caught in a jump and lastly a 'flurry' slash attack similar to E Honda's Hundred Slaps from Street Fighter. He tends to start the rounds off in the same way most every time, so learning his patterns or learning to react to when he jumps can be crucial to making his fight more trivial.
5/10 he can be beaten fairly quickly but he can turn the tides if you let him

5. Charlotte
Mirror match time! Charlotte herself as an opponent can be irritating, but she almost always starts Round 1 with a forward jump, and Round 2 with a quick standing poke slash attack so you can start the rounds well enough regardless. She will use her Power Gradation uppercut slash as well as her flurry Splash Fount move more than you probably will, but they aren't usually too bad. Her rising slash attack is decent with some I frames but not the best in the game and isn't too strong, and can sometimes be hit anyway. She also likes to jump fairly often or use her kick buttons to throw you off.
6/10 Try to throw out JTS as she jumps into it for max damage, otherwise avoid uppercuts and you should be okay.

6. Tamtam
This dude is probably the least threatening here despite how strong he looks. He has a few decent attacks and a rarely used projectile, but other than that his main problem is how often he can block attacks. I've noticed he has high start up frames for his moves so you can hit him out of moves pretty regularly, but he has a rising flame attack that lingers for a moment after the move and some spin attacks that either go across the whole floor or stay in place. One other note is he does have a mash-out grab but you usually don't have to worry about it. If he's blocking your attacks too much, try delaying your jump for just a moment so he goes for an attack.
2/10 just keep jumping and slashing at him and avoid big sword hit boxes. 

7. Nakoruru
This is one of the big two that give me the most trouble so buckle up for this one. Nakoruru has some interesting attacks and her AI makes her tough to handle, though she almost always starts round 1 with a regular jump so take advantage of that. I noticed if you time your jumps in a specific way the AI tries to jump with you so be sure to practice punishes. Avoid using standing HS as she will almost always be able to punish with her slide slash attack (Annu Mutsube). Her slash attacks hit really hard for some reason, even her jumping HS is good against you so be sure to really find that timing for her. She jumps more than most characters so having to time the strikes for when she inevitably jumps will be the key to winning. She also has a variant of Annu Mutsube that takes her into the air and makes her go to the other side of the stage. It's hard to punish this but sometimes you can move towards her and start a JTS to catch her. She's pretty good at getting grabs as well, though thankfully none are the dreaded mash-out kind. Two other kinda rare moves she can do are her pet bird can swoop down sometimes, or she can have the bird lift her into the air before she comes crashing down really fast. Both of these aren't too bad but the second of these can be real damaging. Lastly she sometimes likes to just... stand there and do Heavy Slash attack a couple times? This leaves her open for JTS a bit, but watch that hitbox because she can really hurt you with it.
9/10 If you don't find a rhythm to take her out quickly, she can be a real pain in the butt to fight. Ended many a run even when I thought I had it in the bag.

8. Wan-Fu
This is the biggest hurdle in the game for most runs, by a good margin. He will test your reactions, patience and timing. And he will end your world record pace run more often than you will care to admit. Practice is key to learning about all he does, but as of writing this I haven't found any real consistency with beating him without losing at least one round. Though I have done runs where I beat him really quickly, I usually lose to someone else and lose the run regardless. ANYWAY so here's what I know:
He likes to start Round 1 by moving towards you before waiting to see what you're doing, which might be a JTS attempt. He will most likely do his highly ridiculous sword uppercut move, which has so many I frames I don't even think it's possible to punish once he starts the move. You just take the hit or hit him right before the move starts/ get lucky if he misses you and hit him as he descends. This move comes out quite often if you jump, but trying strategies that jump less can be bad as well. His light and medium slash attacks come out fast and have pretty good range, and can be harder to punish if you aren't already attempting a JTS (though he can finish the move and do his uppercut super quickly so don't bet on getting a hit just because he is doing a move.) The one exception here is Heavy Slash, which has HUGE horizontal range and hits twice, but if he tries it while you're already jumping it isn't a good anti-air and has super long cool-down so you should be able to hit him pretty reliably. If this move hits you while grounded though it's an automatic stun for you and he will probably run up to grab you and deal tons of damage since he has mashing grabs. He also has a special attack that looks like a downward stabbing motion with a surprising amount of anti-air potential and hits really hard, but if you are jumping when he does the move and you're above his head or behind him it should miss you for an opening. Another special move can be helpful to you if it doesn't hit you: his jumping weapon throw attack. This attack deals tons of damage and has a lasting hit box after it strikes the floor so you can't be near it without blocking or it'll still knock you down. If his throw somehow misses you entirely and it's far enough away from him that he can't run right up to it to retrieve it, he cant anti-air you nearly as much anymore so get in some mostly free JTS on him.
Basically this guy has multiple anti-air options, some with ridiculous hit boxes or I frames, mash out grabs, big range potential, heavy damage output AND even has strong couching kick moves that will stop you from simply walking forward. 
The true final boss of runs most times, The only 10/10 on the list for me. Good luck and practice hard!

9. Jubei
This is another one of those guys that's usually free, but will randomly have AI clarity and wreck you when he has no business being that good. 9 out of 10 times he will be easy to beat with simply spamming JTS. His notable moves are a flurry attack called Sabre Thrash that lets him stand still and spam stabbing attacks, though a JTS works well on him and the start up doesn't have hurt boxes right away. Aside from a regular grab or random jump attack, his other moves aren't really all that special, though getting hit by them can be trouble. 
4/10 Just keep spamming those JTS moves to win in most cases.

10. Hanzo
Hanzo kind of feels like an echo fighter of Galford, they even share animations for a lot of their moves. There are some key differences though, and he's not usually a pushover. His movements can make him hard to catch, as he does forward and backwards dashes frequently to get out of range of your attacks. Notable moves Hanzo  has that can be annoying are a fast shuriken attack, though this is not very damaging, a slower fireball that travels along the ground in jumping motions, air grab, command grabs and surprise from above attacks. The fireball has a pretty large hitbox and jumping over it can actually be tougher than it seems, so it's best to block this one unless he throws it out when you're in the middle of a jump, in which case you have to take the hit most times. His air grab is annoying but your JTS has slightly better range so with good timing you can avoid it. His command grab is reminiscent of Rock Lee's primary lotus aka Izuna Drop in that he will grab you, jump up with spinning movements, and crash your head down to the floor. This attack has light, medium and heavy variants but if Hanzo has rage and does heavy grab, it'll take 40-55% of your health bar so def avoid it if you can help it. Another attack: he will suddenly be off screen before coming down with a stab attack, which can be blocked or countered with a JTS if you're timing is good. Lastly, he seems vulnerable in the corner since he will try to back dash into the edge and be free for taking hits, but he can just as easily dash forwards out of danger or do a jump attack of his own. 
7/10 he can be tough but with good timing and avoidance of his more dangerous moves you can make the fight work.

11. Kyoshiro
This eccentric fighter has the potential to be tough, but more often than not can be dispatched pretty handily. He has a fan projectile, a fire breath attack similar to Yoga Flame by Dhalsim, long range slash attacks, and a quick anti-air attack albeit a rarely used one. His Heavy Slash will instantly stun you just like Wan-Fu's but it has a little less range than his and less cooldown. You can jump over it and get a JTS on him safely enough, but spacing here is key as he can hit you out of the jump if you're too close. His projectile is lame, and fire breath takes forever to start working so both of these attacks will be beaten by basic JTS tactics. Lastly he does have an uppercut attack that will catch you off guard sometimes, but he uses it so rarely that you can get away with JTS strategies much more often than I feel you should, considering how much Wan-Fu spams his. 
3/10 not much of a threat but his long range can be tricky to jump over at first.

12. Amakusa
He's finally here, performing for you.. it's the last member of the SamSho crew! As far as final bosses go he's not all that hard actually, but the stress of having a good run ruined by the last guy is real. Round 1 is innocent enough, he mostly jumps around, uses slap attacks with more range than you'd think, Akuma style teleports and the most dreaded attack of all: Taunting. Yeah he sometimes just gives you a free hit in Round 1 by laughing at you, though it's only about a second long so he could hit you before you hit him if you're slow. Also sometimes hitting him results in him disintegrating into a pile of his clothes before reappearing behind you while laughing. He's invincible during the laughing animation but you can time a JTS after this to hit him again, though he sometimes teleports away. The more challenging bit comes after you beat him once and the stage changes. Besides the flashing demon in the background and the horribly crunchy boss music that plays here, his attacks get more aggressive and he starts using his orb a lot more. The same strategies can apply to him as before, you just need to watch out for his normals more and deal with more than just slaps and teleports. He very rarely uses a projectile from his orb, but if it hits its about >50% I believe? I've only really been hit by it once or twice but it did a lot of damage. 
7.5/10 the real fight is with the stress of a long run coming to an end, and listening to that awful Round 2 music. Oh and I suppose some of his attacks can be tricky, personally I don't lose to him that often but he may give you a run for your money every so often if you aren't super aggressive with your JTS.

And that's the cast! Sorry if this is long-winded but you'll get an idea of what I mean in here as you attempt runs yourself. Feel free to study my speedrun or any other runs available in the category, and you'll probably see an example of what I mention here somewhere. Remember, the strategy may seem simple with jumping slash attacks over and over, but getting spacing, timing and luck just right are very important for success. Also throwing in a few heavy Splash Fount attacks when the opponent is stunned or low on health can be a fun mix-up if you do it properly. Good luck with runs, hope this helps!

CocoaBean

Samurai Shodown

Super Nintendo

Sega Genesis

Arcade

Sega Game Gear

Aszaxa

CesarD

bosscatFGC

Haohmaru

Gen An

Charlotte

Hattori Hanzo

Galford

Wan-Fu

Jubei

Tachibana Ukyo

Earthquake

Nakoruru

TamTam

Senryo Kyoshiro

Character

Hola

board needs work

Jesse_Lee

janglestorm

zakaryah

DBcade

Fox-omegasurfer