Sengoku Ace, fully titled Sengoku Ace: Tengai Episode I and also known as Samurai Aces in the English version, is a vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up video game originally released in the arcades by Psikyo in 1993. The first game by Psikyo, Sengoku Ace was designed by Shin Nakamura, the creator of Aero Fighters (Sonic Wings) and the company's founder. The game features 21 endings, different for various characters and 2-player pairings.
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cute shmup that has that weird edo/sengoku futuristic clockwork style aesthetics that Goemon loves to drink from, just dirtier (affectionate)
pretty fun we did 2 loops with infinite lives cuz we're bad but we still enjoyed ourselves anyway. the steam version has your character appear on the border which is cute. also was surprised to learn there's an ending for each pair so that's also really cool, we played as the miko and ninja!
pretty fun we did 2 loops with infinite lives cuz we're bad but we still enjoyed ourselves anyway. the steam version has your character appear on the border which is cute. also was surprised to learn there's an ending for each pair so that's also really cool, we played as the miko and ninja!
Most of the game you have to speedkill and point-blank a lot of the enemies including bosses, which are creative and fun, the first 3 stages are in a randomized order which is also a cool idea to keep it fresh. They give you enough bombs to not make it a hard 1cc. It doesn't have outstanding design or anything that special besides the charge-shot and its annoying when you insta-die because of not point-blanking correctly but its a good game overall.
Pretty shabby in the aesthetics department -- some sprites are cool but most are pretty meh, and the OST is functionally tense and thematic but otherwise forgettable.
However -- the gameplay here is meat-and-potatoes shmup goodness, solidly-constructed and gimmick-free. Choose one of six fighters, all of whom feel compellingly different, and then shoot stuff before it shoots you. [Pro tip: choose Aine and point-blank-bomb the everloving shit out of basically every boss for a (relatively) straightforward 1-ALL, especially if you play on a port where you can keep the stage order consistent (in the arcade version, the first three are always random, something that makes for compelling casual repetition, but makes repetition for learning's sake rather frustrating ).]
This was my first Psikyo game, and if nothing else it made me excited to try their other stuff to see just how this formula--fast bullets + emphasis on speedkills + plentiful resources--evolves.
However -- the gameplay here is meat-and-potatoes shmup goodness, solidly-constructed and gimmick-free. Choose one of six fighters, all of whom feel compellingly different, and then shoot stuff before it shoots you. [Pro tip: choose Aine and point-blank-bomb the everloving shit out of basically every boss for a (relatively) straightforward 1-ALL, especially if you play on a port where you can keep the stage order consistent (in the arcade version, the first three are always random, something that makes for compelling casual repetition, but makes repetition for learning's sake rather frustrating ).]
This was my first Psikyo game, and if nothing else it made me excited to try their other stuff to see just how this formula--fast bullets + emphasis on speedkills + plentiful resources--evolves.
Shmup aprovado da psikyo e ainda com temática Japão feudal, bom demais
Psikyo isn't really what I look for in shmups but I still play them anyway bc they're easily digestible. Always good on spritework and simple mechanics, but always felt that their stock presentation value made them feel... bootlegged, just a little bit. Gameplay tends to vary by game for me; I dislike how large and fast the bullets get, and poor shot telegraphing makes it a bitch to memorize them like some other routing-heavy games.
Anyway, Sengoku Ace was their first release under the Psikyo label, though staff worked on Aero Fighters with Video System before that. The spritework is killer: It reminded me of MUSHA with its similar techno-demon samurai motifs. But every problem I have with how these games play feels exacerbated most heavily here. Felt like the cheap shots were coming as soon as stage 2. I expected something a little smoother, given that Aero Fighters had a cleaner slope from reactable beginning stages to violently-oppressive endgame.
Anyway, Sengoku Ace was their first release under the Psikyo label, though staff worked on Aero Fighters with Video System before that. The spritework is killer: It reminded me of MUSHA with its similar techno-demon samurai motifs. But every problem I have with how these games play feels exacerbated most heavily here. Felt like the cheap shots were coming as soon as stage 2. I expected something a little smoother, given that Aero Fighters had a cleaner slope from reactable beginning stages to violently-oppressive endgame.