Sengoku Anthology Review [PC]

Posted November 20, 2009 by Danny Moore.

The Neo Geo was an interesting console, too expensive for many but with some incredible games that could fetch thousands of pounds now a days, it certainly represents a unique time for the industry.

Now, the system was either an arcade cabinet, or a home console, at no point was it a PC. It didn’t have a keyboard and mouse setup and certainly none of the games were setup for such things. This begs the question as to why Sengoku Anthology even exists as a PC game, as the controls are functional but end up hurting your hands and just don’t feel right.

It presents three games from the Sengoku side scrolling beat em up series: Sengoku 1, 2 and 3. All three are Neo Geo games that were never released outside of Japan during their initial outing and so are combined into one handy package here complete with translation.

The most interesting thing about Sengoku Anthology is being able to see the progression from the first game to the third. Mostly because the first game completely sucks, but also because you can easily see the change in graphics and design as the teams behind each title became more skilled.

As I say the first game is terrible, with its poor sound, clunky fighting and bad controls. There isn’t even a music track that plays in the background during levels, which from my recollection was a stable of the genre back in the day. Sengoku 2 is similar to the first in that you control one character and fight through hordes of enemies, but it is vastly superior in every way.

The graphics are better, the sound is better, you constantly have a sword, the move set has been increased and the ability to change into a completely ineffective wolf has been removed. Yes, Sengoku 2 improves upon the original in every way, but at its core, the game remains repetitive, even though the mechanic of being able to change into different characters does give you different abilities, it is not enough to make the game more interesting.

The most radical departure is Sengoku 3, which introduces combos and multiple characters to play as, each having a different feel than the last. There are even ranged attacks in this game that don’t come from picking up the orbs dropped by enemies (which at no point are explained). So, of the three titles, Sengoku 3 is the best and as it’s a completely separate story you don’t even have to play through the other two to understand what is going, but then the story makes no sense anyway so it’s not really an issue.

The graphics get better with each game and easily the best looking is the third title and that is also the best sounding too. If you like your old school beat em up’s then this is the collection for you, but it’s the stuff outside of the games that causes this title the most harm.

When you boot up the game, you are presented with a menu screen that has the three titles at the top, and then some other options at the bottom such as ‘new game’ or ‘load game’, standard menu stuff. However, the developer has taken the unwise decision of making a very bland, generic menu for this, which, while it is decked out in bright yellow and blue, looks terrible and is a complete departure from the visuals in any of the games.

I appreciate that bringing up the out-of-game menu as a negative point is more than a little harsh, but it represents the fact that the port has been half-assed massively, and it makes it seem like the developers were trying to make a quick buck rather than make a loving port of a game they enjoyed when it was first released.

A little more effort would have produced a menu that is slick and looks like the games in question and would have made the whole package much more solid and have less of an ‘I don’t care’ feel. Though the actual games are playable, they will probably not hold attention of more than a few minutes.

Sengoku Anthology’s two biggest issues are that terrible menu screen and the shoddy controls. Side scrolling beat em up’s have never really worked on anything other a joypad, and using the arrow keys and z, x, c and v to control your character here doesn’t change that in the slightest. After a few minutes of mashing keys trying to kill the bad guys, your own hand becomes your enemy as pain lances through it with each press.

Having never played the games in their original form, I honestly couldn’t tell you if the ports were good or not, but even if they are perfect ports, the underlying games are pretty terrible and hugely repetitive retrospectively, so they already started on a downhill slope. Sengoku Anthology smacks of being phoned in by the developers, simply isn’t worth the asking price and would be tough to recommend.

Tagged as Bluestone Games, BlueStone Interactive, Review, Sengoku Anthology