Sengoku Ace (1993) - Vertical shooter with simple weapon power-ups.

Choose from six heroes and launch into aerial warfare against a host of flitting enemies and bosses. Select from characters such as:

Jane: Red headed amazon
Tengai: The shiny pated Turbo Monk
Gen: Old dude who pilots an X-Wing Fighter
Genius: A canine of fierce temperament
Sparks: Wild-eyed samurai of the skies
Miko: Fondly nicknamed "Bosoms" at NCS. She rocks a red biplane.

In the first scene, one battles river wading creatures which poke their heads out and fire. Quick triggered marksmen will dispatch these easily while picking up their first powerup from the ornate blimps which appear from time to time. One thing one may notice at the outset of the game are the unpredictable bounces that power ups take when one attempts to collect them. Just as you're homing in on the power-up, it bounces upwards while henchmen press the attack and force a retreat. One way to accommodate for this is to get close to the blimp, destroy it, and allow the momentum of the powerup meet your ship in smooth fashion. The bosses are fairly well designed but utterly defenseless against the shmup elite. The first boss is a multi-segmented mollusk creature of some type which is adorned with human faces which spout firepower. It's all about the crossfire in Sengoku Ace and bosses will mix it up with slow moving bullets and faster moving ones in quick succession. They're predictable and one may map out the fast walkers while avoiding the slower ones with twitchy control.

Sengoku Blade (1996) - Horizontal shooter

Only five characters are available in Sengoku II with Miko and Tengai as the sole returnees. Joining them are a ninja girl named Kunis, a warrior named Sho and a mighty robot known only as Katana. The vertical shooting action is gone, replaced by a frantic horizontal format which is highly polished and glistening with metal parts and special effects. New to the Sengoku shooting series is a power-up familiar or attachment which adds to your overall firepower. For example, Kunis is accompanied by a ring-tailed lemur sidekick named Socrates once she picks up her first power-up. The lemur provides additional firepower and quite possibly emotional support during the game. Sho gets an inanimate disk object of some sort which gathers in numbers of up to 4 behind him and also lends firepower. A special attack of sorts may be triggered by pressing and holding down the shoot button to build up a charge. Release and a intensified blast will fire forth from your avatar's being.

In Kunis' case, her lemur takes charge and bellows out a lasting blast of fire which incinerates bosses and henchmen alike. The most fearsome special attack comes courtesy of Katana. Level him up to the highest gauge (4 spears) and he will be able to destroy most bosses with two close-range spear attacks. Some take only one blow to erupt into flames. The problem however is that Katana has to get up close in order to execute his special attack. Bosses fire out a lot of buckshot so it's dicey to mosey up close and power up a precious second waiting for the spears to lock and load while the boss is attacking with all of its power. Interesting enemies in Sengoku Blade include caped supermen who throw their hats as weapons and disembodied hands which do a grasp-attack and shoot laserfire from their fingertips.

Both games are fine examples of Psikyo's shooting history and are a nice addition to any diehard shooter fan's library.

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