Game of the Day 4/2/2016: Sengoku
Sengoku was one of three games I purchased alongside my Neo Geo AES the day I got it. I've always been a fan of co-op beat 'em ups, and the Sengoku series has enthralled me for years with its wild, mystical settings, tough stages, and, in the first two games, the cool transformations. SNK might not be best known for its brawlers, but this franchise might have been one of the best shots they took at it.
The original Sengoku is a beat 'em up that was a bit behind the times in terms of gameplay, especially on the heels of Konami's licensed games and Capcom's tight Final Fight template. Its hit detection isn't so much bad as much as it lacks a satisfying impact, and combos aren't really a part of the game. You don't pick up weapons the traditional way of grabbing them from the ground, but rather through three different methods. First, you can collect a red, blue, purple, or gold orb, which will give you a different sword or martial arts projectile attack based on color. Secondly, you can rescue the hostage souls of old sages or priestesses, who will grant you projectile attacks for a limited time... and then, lastly, there are the transformations.
By rescuing the souls of noble warriors, they will agree to fight alongside you by allowing you to transform into them for approximately one minute. You can become a dog with a spin attack, a ninja who turns any other weapon into projectiles, and and a samurai with red hair that realls recalls Namco's Genpei Toumaden games, who weilds a katana whether you have a weapon or not, and grabbing an orb adds a projectile to his katana attacks. These transformations are the real hook of the first Sengoku, and they add a neat twist to the gameplay along with the shifting backgrounds, in which you'll periodically switch planes to a spirit world reminiscent of japanese watercolor paintings. These look wonderful, and really add to the feel of ancient mysticism.
Sengoku is long for a beat 'em up, and its stages go on for quite some time. The bosses have cool, otherworldly appearances and big sprites to look at, but the animation is a bit lacking for a Neo Geo title. Still, the music fits the setting perfectly, and the overall enemy art direction is very cool. You do have a few neat moves, like timing you punches to catch a rival's katana in your hands and snapping the blade, which adds a nice flavor to proceedings that can at times wear out their welcome.
Perhaps most importantly, Sengoku paved the way for two superior sequels, each of which is a tremendous improvement over the original. However, in spite of its gameplay shortcomings, Sengoku still has a wonderfully imaginitive world and some good concepts that were worth building on, and it was eventually included in SNK Arcade Classics vol. 1 for PS2, Wii, and PSP, as well as a European exclusive Sengoku Anthology compilation disc on PS2, so it's become much more accessible. There are also ports to Super Famicom and Sega CD, which I haven't played. It's rough around the edges, but a good look at what would come for SNK's most prominent brawler franchise.
Played this one? Played either of the other home ports?
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