Samurai Shodown Sen is the 360 generation's release of the beloved fighting game series. While I haven't spent much time with the previous games, Sen is seen as a departure from most of the previous games in terms of how it plays and this change has been attributed to making it more accessible to the general consumer. Sen attempts the transition to a modern 3D fighting game, but fails spectacularly. You have a fairly large roster of interesting characters with different fighting styles. The menus also have some nice music and decent artwork too giving a very feudal Japan feeling. In terms of positives that's about it. With it's lack of features, clunky controls, ugly graphics and total lack of a tutorial, Sen fails in some of the most basic aspects of game design. The most aggravating way however is the gameplay itself. Fights are slow and sluggish and the characters move extremely awkwardly. At no point in my time with the game was I able to feel any type of flow with the combat, I would either win with some cheap attacks or get totally dominated. The move list doesn't really help and the tutorial is even more useless. I'm not sure if this was a cash grab or they just absolutely botched the game but it's difficult to understand how such a poor entry in an otherwise highly regarded series could be released.

What serves as an attempt to modernize Samurai Shodown for the Xbox 360 era ends up feeling more like a lukewarm Soul Calibur reskin. While certain maneuvers and stylistic choices still ensure this feels like a samurai shodown game (rage arts, brutal finishers and gore, and quick matches decided by very few strikes) the overall product ends up echoing the general malaise of generic 3D fighters that was becoming common around this time before Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and other genre revitalizers released.

Overall the game isn't bad but more repeatedly informs the player that it doesn't care that it exists. Even reading the character detailing for sub-boss character Draco makes this evident, with his every answer to questions like "what do you like" and "what is your weapon" being some non-committal answer in the vein of "wouldn't you like to know weather-boy"?

I can't recommend or condemn this title. So I'll simply say this. It's a game. You can play it. If you do so, I hope you find something that really makes it connect with you. But you're much better off playing 2019's attempt at renewing the series if you want something that feels fresh and rewarding.