Basically like R-Type, but also its own thing. Made by some of the same people. It's a great game, I've played it a lot and different versions. Unfortunately this is a bare bones port. I'm not rating this game a 3 star based on the game it is, but on the merits of the type of port it is. There's an audio glitch after the end of each stage in which the celebration music after beating a boss cuts of abrubtly in mid play. There's no visual or graphics options, only full screen or windowed. You can't remap the buttons. You can use a controller and it works, but it's also kind of wonky and with my Xbox One controller, it doesn't always register a coin insert unless I fidget with it and restart the game. Other than that, it's Pulstar. I love the graphics and gameplay. It's a good shooter that will keep you challenged. The music is absolutely fantastic throughout the game.
A really good shooter with solid mechanics, excellent graphics, good music and controls. You can choose between 3 different fighter ships, built for speed, power or balance. Your Ironclad is the little robot guy that attaches to the front of your ship and the cover model of the game. There's not an extremely wide variety of power ups available, but you are able to power up your ship's main shot, power up the Ironclad to have one of three different lethal shot attacks that activate by launching it forward, and finally, one of three power ups to the Ironclad's standard shot when it's detached from your ship. Stages are manually selected from the map as you progress, which is nice, but the best part in my opinion are the multiple endings to the game. Each final stage has it's own boss and own ending. The stage design itself is decent, you get a moderate variety of land, air and seascapes. The city's probably have the most personality and overall I think the entire theme of the game's world is immersive and entertaining. Difficulty seems to ramp up considerably on certain stages and boss fights can be challenging as well, however I never felt the game was all that unfair. Even among the library of quality shooters it has to compete against within the Neo Geo space and elsewhere, Ironclad is unique and fun enough to hold its own. My only real complaint is lack of care that went into the port for options like screen filters. The game itself is fantastic and highly recommended.
I love Sengoku 3. I really do. As an an objective reviewer, however, I can very clearly see where this game shines and where it falls short. Visually, the first thing that will capture you is the great animation all playable characters display. It's similar to other high-quality sprite work found in SNK games like Garou, Metal Slug or Last Blade. Combine that with an excellent combo system and decent hit detection and all of a sudden you're having a good time. It always feels like something is missing though. While the characters and enemies display pretty good personality, the stages lack any sort of imagination. Lots of generic, empty backgrounds. While they are adequate and certainly serviceable, it's a contrast to the superior detail you'll find on the main characters. Bosses/enemies aren't too tough, it's mainly a matter of managing the additional attackers that show up to bother you, cheap and effective AI or moves that give them invunerability. It's especially annoying when enemies or bosses hang off the side of the screen and continue to attack when you have little to zero chance or hitting them back and you're forced to realign yourself closer to the center of the screen, which happens rather often. You will routinely get your combo attacks interrupted by certain bosses without any real way to recover other than using your escape move, which depletes a portion of your health along with it. Music and sound is overall solid and a positive point for Sengoku 3. Punches and attacks sound meaty and aggressive, swords can clang against each other if you get an enemy to throw a parry or counter at you. I feel like Sengoku 3 has a lot of potential that wasn't fully realized, but there's a solid foundation underneath it, which carries it across as a good game just not a great one. Worth a play and worth the $5.99? Absolutely. That's why it gets four star rating from me. It's still a fun game despite its flaws.
