Where Sengoku 3 truly triumphs over the previous Sengoku games, and most other beat-em-ups period, is its highly complex and incredibly enjoyable combat system. Her ultimate attack is a tornado of flower petals. Her second is an electric attack using her fan. Her first move is a simple projectile wind burst. She mainly focuses on long range attacks and her combos are fairly lacking. Okuni is a Jovian-breasted sorceress who also joins you after the third mission. Each is unique, brings something different to the table, and amazingly, almost all are useful in their own way.Įven Mai Shiranui can’t quite compare with Okuni in the bust department. Sengoku 3 has really well-designed characters. The sprite animation is extremely smooth, the sprites themselves are well designed and appealing (especially Okuni’s… heheh), and some of the effects are really pretty. Just try to imagine if Garou: Mark of the Wolves was made into a beat’em up and you’d have an idea of how amazing this game looks. Sengoku 3 is one of the best looking games on Neo Geo. The look of the game is also very distinctive. The standard archetypes and conventions of the beat’em up genre are completely discarded in favor of characters and motifs more like something out of Samurai Showdown. The first thing one notices about Sengoku 3 compared to its unworthy predecessors are its production values.

Sengoku 3 basically runs off of the same engine, and that’s a very good thing. Sengoku 3 was produced by a small company called Noise Factory (whom also worked on Metal Slug 4, Rage of the Dragons, Matrimelee, and King of Fighters: Maximum Impact), which had previously developed another awesome and eerily similar arcade beat’em up called Gaia Crusaders. In 2000, SNK filed for bankruptcy, and most of its more prestigious properties, like Samurai Showdown and even The King of Fighters for a short stint, were passed on to various small developers like Eolith and Yuki Enterprises. Sengoku 3 was developed after the “demise” of SNK in the late 90s.

The third, final, and very unexpected installment of the Sengoku series is superior to the first two games on a logarithmic scale. So after two interesting but ultimately sub-standard beat-em-ups, the Sengoku series finally delivers.

Sengoku 3 gameplay