Sengoku 3 (W) / Sengoku Densyo 2001 (J)

[Source]
Sengoku Denshou 2001 Original Soundtrack
Scitron Discs          SCDC-00102  Jul 18, 2001
[Generator]
MAME 0.248 (modded by Valley Bell)

The prophetic arrival of the "Timeless Soul"
with a red moon has brought horrible monsters
to the Earth. Now the "Ninjas of Peace" must
purify the "Timeless Soul" and save the world.

As you can imagine, the third and final game in
the "Sengoku" series has nothing to do with the
previous titles, beyond the premise of fighting
yokai in the present day. Not only does it have
a completely different storyline, it also has a
gameplay loop more resembling a traditional
"Final Fight"-style beat-em-up, but with an
expanded combat system that features separate
buttons for weapon attacks and bare-handed
strikes, a dedicated projectile button, special
and super attacks, and the ability to combine
all of these to perform extensive juggle combos
on your opponents. In contrast to the previous
games where you wouild kill enemies in just a
few hits and there were no combos at all, this
game is effectively a spiritual successor to
Noise Factory's beat-em-up "Gaia Crusaders",
with gameplay just as tight and fully-featured.

This is, of course, because development of the
game itself was outsourced to Noise Factory.
At this point, the old SNK was in its last
throes, unable to adapt to a changing video
game market that was beginning to drift away
from arcades, and acquired by a pachinko
company that proceeded to liquidate everything
that was left. "Sengoku 3" wound up becoming
the very last game published by the old SNK
before the company collapsed, with the home
cartridge version in particular coming out mere
days before it filed for bankruptcy.

"Sengoku 3" is also one of a few Neo Geo titles
that eschew any use of FM, PSG, or sample-based
instruments, and instead use streamed ADPCM
audio for all of the music. The fact that this
is even possible shows how ahead of its time
the Neo Geo hardware was. However, all of it is
piped through a single channel (the Delta-T
channel to be precise), and thus it is mono
sound only. The fact that this is done by
playing up to two long ADPCM samples in
succession (one for the intro if applicable,
and one for the loop) also means that seeking
through the VGM files to play from another spot
will not work correctly, and you'll need to
record them to a streamed audio format to
listen to them in that fashion. Finally, some
of the loops in this pack will sound slightly
off, because their timing is imprecise even in
the actual game.

All this for a mix of techno and traditional
Japanese instruments to make a soundtrack that
sounds great, but isn't all that memorable. At
least it's still a great listen, and it goes
well with the fast-paced action.

— The Golden Horse

Source: VGMRips