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First of all, let it be known that Sengoku Blade is actually a sequel to the very obscure Japan-only arcade shooter known as Sengoku Aces. Produced by the same company, that game was an overhead shooter; Sengoku Blade, on the other hand, is a side scroller, and a very good one at that.

The game is set in a very atmospherically ancient-Japanese world, but not like anything you might imagine; the characters are costumed in ancient Japanese-style garbs, but they can fly on their own. Even weirder are the enemies they face; huge automatons clearly fashioned after objects that would be found in that time period. In other words, it's like they took an Akira Kurosawa movie and turned it into a sci-fi shooter (only in color, of course). On that note, graphics are excellent, with almost no slowdown (only when there screen is literally full of enemies/bosses). Bosses are huge, and explosions are huge and very pleasing; there's nothing like destroying a boss and watching as its remains are scattered by screen-rocking explosions. Sound is okay, with soft music that fits the beautiful oriental scenery. When bosses show up, the music gets pumped up a bit, but it's more soothing than inspiring.

Graphics and sound aside, what really rocks about his game is the gameplay, with tight controls and challenging enemies. Unlike the typical shooter, a huge portion of each level is spent battling a boss creature of some kind, and these boss creatures each have several steps to them. Hardcore shooter fans know what I mean--you blow off the outer shell only to reveal an even more powerful creature inside. Usually, such multi-step monsters are reserved for the last boss of a game, but in Sengoku Blade EVERY boss does this to some extent. There are plenty of multi-step mid-bosses as well, making for a very challenging gaming experience. Often the screen is filled with projectiles, but these "bullets" are neither too fast to dodge nor too slow to ignore--it takes some fancy maneuvering to survive each boss encounter, and that just makes completing a level all the more satisfying. There is even a simultaneous two-player mode, though gameplay gets slightly confusing--it is kind of easy for your character to get lost in all the projectiles (both yours and your enemies').

Not only are there plenty of bosses, there are also plenty of characters (up to eight) to choose from, and each really does feel different from the other. Of course, each character has a different weapon to power up as well as a different "smart bomb" to use when there are too many projectiles on screen to deal with. Character design is very well done, and here is where an understanding of the Japanese language is really important: between each level is a dialogue-filled intermission, with each of the eight characters having a few things of their own to say. Play the game in two-player mode, and they will actually talk to each other with different lines of dialogue depending on the characters used. There is unbelievable character depth in this game, and it's only a shooter!

Finally, there is a second disk that comes with this game (it's a separate disk that loads independently, so don't worry if you have a cartridge convertor). It's a bonus disk with a bunch of hi-res scanned artwork, both professional and fan art. It's nothing much, but it is interesting to see the art for Koyoniri. Oh, I didn't mention her before? She's the "star" of this game, mostly because of her size (think "Dead or Alive," but much, much bigger). It's amazing to see the hundreds of fan-art showing Koyoniri in various positions, all of which giving an ample view of her ample you-know-what. Nothing is really revealed, but you'd be amazed at how close this second disk is to a collection of hentai material. ;)

Graphics: 80--Excellent character portraits, but otherwise your standard 2-D side-scroller with huge bosses and some parallax to spice up the backgrounds. Very colourful, I must say.

Sound: 70--Good explosions, but the music doesn't really fit in a shooter. Excellent, crisp dialogue between characters, but there is some annoying static sounds, especially when using Koyoniri.

Control: 95--Simple, with rapid firing offered. It's your standard two-button stuff (A for shots, B for bombs), but the control is very tight--if you die, it's because you need to work your thumbs more.

Gameplay: 90--Boss battles are much more fun than fighting plain-old enemies, and multi-step bosses are even better. More shooters should emphasize bosses like this. There could have been more levels, though, and thus the game is artificially short. There are only nine levels, but you play through only seven of them each game. Two player mode is good but slightly confusing.

Replay: 85--Plenty of replay value because multiple characters=multiple endings, plus there are two endings per character depending on the levels played. Plus there is a different ending for two players depending on the characters used! That makes 8 X 2 X 8 factorial endings! Okay, maybe not that much, but you get the picture I'm sure.

Overall: 90--Worth a purchase if you can import it for less than $60.