Tam Tam

Tam Tam (タムタム, Tamu Tamu) is a character in the Samurai Shodown series. He was introduced in the original Samurai Shodown game. He was dropped from the series after his appearance in Samurai Shodown but, like Jubei and Charlotte, he returns in Samurai Shodown IV.

In the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website, he was voted as the eleventh favorite character with a total of 1,007 votes. One of the illustrators, Hiroaki, stated that Tam Tam is his favorite character from the series.

Story
He is the greatest warrior and hero of his village, Green Hell. Hearing from the village elders that their sacred artifact is missing, he takes the responsibility of retrieving their stolen treasure, the mysterious jewel called the "Palenke Stone" (named after Palenque). He retrieves it and returns peace to his village. He also protects his village from Amakusa a second time, but fails to prevent the thievery of the village's second artifact, the "Tangiers Stone". As divine punishment, he is transformed into a chimpanzee, Paku Paku. In this form, he helps his younger sister Cham Cham recover both stones for his village. In Warriors Rage, he becomes the chief of his village.

Personality
Tam Tam is a brave and revered warrior of his village, who truly loves his home and countrymen. He walks in his father's footsteps and hopes to make him proud. He enjoys peace and spends the time with his sister. Like other Green Hell residents, he worships the gods as his savior, knowing full well that failure to protect his people will bring their wrath. Since his mask is also considered a mask of the gods, he will only don it during a time of crisis.

Powers

 * Fire Breathing - Tam Tam can shoot a fire projectile from his mouth.
 * Multiple Attacks - Tam Tam can spin his sword or himself for multiple hits.

Fighting Style
Tam Tam rarely stands at his full height during fights, staying in a crouched position nearly the entire fight. He can use the length of his limbs and scimitar to stop opponents in their tracks with his light attacks being some of the quickest and longest ranged attacks in the game. He can also protect himself by throwing skulls, spitting out anti-air fireballs, and spinning in a split-kick move. His trademark skill is his defensive crouching stance, which can switch between either a low sweeping slash or unique jumping slash. Tam Tam's greatest flaw is slow speed, most apparent to players when he jumps, along with his lengthy animations, as they easily telegraph most of his special moves. Players who play Tam Tam should have a firm grasp of their opponent's moveset and use its flaws to their greatest advantage.

His moves are written in Nahuatl that was never officially translated by SNK.

Music

 * Outsider - Samurai Shodown
 * Indigenous No. 2 - Samurai Shodown (2019)
 * S_N (Signal Per Noise) - Samurai Remix VA

Voice Actors

 * Kazuhiro Inage - Samurai Shodown
 * Toshikazu Nishimura - Samurai Shodown IV~V Special, Samurai Shodown VI (re-dub voice)
 * Kazuki Ishii - Samurai Shodown VI
 * Ryōsuke Morita - Samurai Shodown (2019)
 * Takehito Koyasu - Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture
 * Drew Scroggins - Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture (English voice)
 * Hideo Ishikawa - Samurai Shodown Dengeki drama CD series

Game Appearances

 * Samurai Shodown
 * Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushidou Retsuden - briefly as a human
 * Samurai Shodown IV
 * Samurai Shodown!
 * Samurai Shodown V Special
 * Samurai Shodown V Perfect
 * Samurai Shodown VI
 * Samurai Shodown (2019)

Mobile Appearances

 * SNK Dream Battle
 * Samurai Shodown: Online
 * Samurai Shodown: Oborozuki Densetsu
 * Puzzle & Dragons

Cameo Appearances

 * Samurai Shodown II - cameo in Cham Cham's ending
 * Samurai Shodown III - in the staff roll; cosplays as Nakoruru
 * Samurai Shodown V - in the other Tam Tam's ending
 * Samurai Shodown 64 - cameo in background of San Francisco arena, together with Cham Cham and Sieger
 * Samurai Spirits Gaiden: Cham Cham
 * Samurai Spirits Oni

Anime Appearances

 * Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture

Similar Characters

 * Tam Tam (SSV)

Trivia

 * When asked "The path of the sword is?", Tam Tam's response is "The sword that protects my village? Precious."
 * His favourite type of mate is "A woman with a thin waste."
 * Tam Tam's origin is slightly muddled. In the debut game, he's labelled as an Inca and his village is shown to be located in South America, but in the 2019 game there appears to have been a corrective retcon and his village is now shown to be in Mesoamerica on the world map, where the land is also labelled "Maya".