Sengoku 3

Sengoku 3 (戦国伝承2001, Sengoku Denshō 2001) is a side-scrolling beat up game developed by Noise Factory and published by SNK. The game is the third and final title of the Sengoku series. It was released in arcades on October 25, 2001. The main illustrations were done by Shiroi Eiji, making it one of her final jobs for SNK before she left the company.

Development & Release
Sengoku 3 was developed by Noise Factory and was first released for arcades on July 18, 2001. The soundtrack was composed by Toshikazu Tanaka, who was previously employed at SNK and worked on project such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. Tanaka stated in an interview that his biggest challenge when composing for the project was getting the music quality nearly up to levels of other games at the time. Tanaka decided on using streaming playback for the music, as he felt he could not guarantee the high quality he desired with previous methods. The sound driver used was not designed with streaming in mind, proving difficult for Tanaka to do so and he considered modify the sound driver himself but could not make it so due to time schedule. However, Tanaka was able to do the work by himself.

Sengoku 3 was later released for the Neo Geo AES system in October 2001. The North American AES release has since become one of the more expensive titles on the platform, with copies fetching over US$2200 on the secondary video game collecting market. In 2013, Sengoku 3 was digitally re-released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console service, courtesy of D4 Enterprise. Sengoku 3 is included in the Neo Geo 25th Anniversary Humble Bundle, released in 2015. Hamster Corporation re-released Sengoku 3 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in 2018 under their Arcade Archives series.

Overview
The game takes a greater departure from its predecessors in both story and presentation. The heroes are now members of a ninja clan who have to dispatch an evil emperor before he is released. Players can choose which character they want for the first time, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. Two bosses that confront the player can also be playable after a certain chapter of the game, allowing players to re-select their character if they wish.

The controls are more set as a fighting game than a standard beat up. (A) is for light attacks, (B) for heavy, (C) for jumps, and (D) for long ranged attacks chosen from a variety of projectiles that are found while playing. Each character also has their unique special attacks (performed by pressing down twice and one of the attack buttons) and an ultimate magic technique that can wipe a clear a screen of enemies in one shot. Dodging and blocking have been taken out and replaced in favor of a "dummy attack", which causes explosion damage to the enemy at a small cost of life. Gameplay also allows longer combo chains -some ranking up to 20-30 hits, making it one of the more complex entries of the series.

The alternate dimension transitions and transformation from the first two games have been omitted. Stages can now be selected and completed at the player's whim, the climax being the fight against the major villain. Overall, Sengoku 3 is seen as a great game and is generally regarded as the best of the series.

The music for the Italy stage and USA Stage can be heard in a bonus stage in KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation "A". It re-creates the last stage of the game.

Gameplay
As with previous Sengoku titles, Sengoku 3 is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game where players take control of one of the four initial playable characters with two more characters being unlocked during gameplay across various stages filled with an assortment of undead evil spirits.

Characters

 * Kagetsura
 * Falcon
 * Kongoh
 * Kurenai
 * Okuni
 * Byakki
 * Evil

Critical Reception
Sengoku 3 has been met with positive reception from critics and reviewers alike since its release. Both Kyo and Ben of French magazine HardCore Gamers noted the improved visuals over its predecessors and regarded it to be an "excellent" beat 'em up game.