Sengoku Denshou (SNES) review "The poor man's Final Fight"

Sengoku was ported to the Super Famicom and never released in the US. The 16 bit port features a few changes from the Neo Geo arcade original and offers very little other than an adaptation for the home console. You have the option to fight as either character but their differences are cosmetic and do not offer any significant difference in gameplay. I choose Bill since I like his attire more than the other character. Unlike the original game you are able to grapple enemies tossing them around or perform a mean pile driver which Mike Haggar would be proud of.

Do I really have to choose?

Anything else like using weapons, power-ups, and changing into different avatars is present and make the game a lot easier to go through than with your bare fists. However the shift is so grand that its practically a cakewalk until your power fades and you resume gameplay as your starting character. Simply put, the game is at most difficult when you are a bare bones character without any significant help from it. Enemies aren't shy of surrounding you and pummeling you when your character is cornered. Sengoku does not provide a special move to clear out enemies like Final Fight so it increases the chances of losing a life during such situations.


Watcha gonna do when Sengoku pile drives you?!

The game runs through 5 stages plus one final setting against the final boss. Quite short but not short enough to make it feel long and boring. Other than the power-ups Sengoku doesn't offer much than punching your way through countless enemies who cycle over and over with the same characters until getting to the end of a stage. Bonus stages are present to break said monotony, but they are so blatant that it is quite a pain to even bother with them. After defeating a boss you are treated to a few orbs that recover some of your health bar. Sengoku does not replenish your hit points after advancing to a new stage which is quite ridiculous in my opinion.


Tiring bonus stages

Other features include playing with two characters, and selecting between A and B modes of play, which I really saw no difference after testing them out. The music and sound are quite forgettable and uninspiring. The more you play through Sengoku the more you feel like leaving it for something else. Even the final confrontation is quite dull here.


With character transformations combined with power-ups you can become quite broken in this game.


Unlike other titles that did not made it into the US market I am quite content in keeping Sengoku away from it. The game is just too bland in terms of entertainment and replay value and its quite an easy playtrough without offering much of a challenge to bother with after a few times that you would had play it.

Community review by CptRetroBlue (February 13, 2020) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.