Here we are: 2010, the year following what was arguably the greatest for fighting games in history. Tekken 6, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and the soon-to-be-upgraded modern masterpiece Street Fighter IV all launched last year. Now, here comes Samurai Shodown Sen to make a complete ass of itself. It takes a collaborative effort between a number of fatal design flaws to bring a game down this far. Why did this have to happen to a franchise that I have fond memories of? This game is not even remotely worthy of the Samurai Shodown name, and it belongs in the bargain bin.

Sen would have looked right at home on the PlayStation 2. Textures and environments are dull and uninteresting, and the characters move with a stiffness that is uncharacteristic of the genre. However, I do like the menu screens; the hand-drawn vibe resonates with me the same way that Okami (a far, far better game) did. No Japanese game is complete without a torrential downpour of cherry blossoms. Consider Sen complete, if only in that regard.

I wouldn't say that Samurai Shodown Sen sounds bad, and I definitely wouldn't say that it sounds good. It's kind of in the middle of the road. The distinctly Japanese soundtrack blends well with the rest of the game, and the clashing of weapons sounds alright. Voice acting is exclusively Japanese. Since a lot of the story and character-based content doesn't read well, that's probably for the better.

Samurai Shodown Sen is a love letter to the fans of fighting games that never do what you tell them to do. You choose from an impressive roster of unbalanced fighters and duke it out with a CPU or player-controlled opponent. Sans the "unbalanced" part, this sounds like the formula for a solid fighting game. It's a shame the game isn't any fun at all.

One part of the game that is actually kind of fun has nothing to do with the gameplay. Rather, it has to do with the awful translations. Sometimes names like Genjuro, Draco, and Galford simply don't convey the sense of power so many of these walking talking stereotypes strive for. Therefore, it's only natural that they assume legendary nicknames such as "The Crimson Murderousness," "Wild Beast in the Wilds," and "The Impact Blue of Justice." This kind of stuff spawns memes.

Fighting games are supposed to move with a fluidity that isn't necessarily dependent on player skill. Street Fighter IV's brawls look natural even when two newbies are throwing down. I know that many of these characters fight with weapons, but that shouldn't mean they should look like fools while doing it. By "they," I mean "you" -- which brings me to my next problem with the game.

Samurai Shodown Sen is painfully difficult. There is no tutorial and the command lists are borderline useless. Your opponents will whale on you with impunity, and you will eventually start to believe that a whole new command list was written just for your opponent. Conversely, your own windows of opportunity are fleeting at best; if you want to make your combo last longer than one swing, you've got to be right on the dot. The enemy A.I. can all but read your mind and is very good at defending itself. Too bad the controls aren't responsive enough to allow you to defend yourself properly. It doesn't ever feel fair, and it gets especially ridiculous when Draco (the legendary "Wild Beast in the Wilds") decides that he's too good for blades -- opting for his gun, instead. I've called several boss fights cheap, but Draco gets the gold. Congratulations, I think...

If you want to survive, you'll have to make heavy use of what I call "Bitch Tactics." Fight from a distance and only use one or two standard attacks at sporadic intervals. When you're not attacking, wrestle with the controls for a while in an effort to defend yourself. After five minutes of chipping away at your opponent's health bar, you'll finally see him/her go down. Does this sound fun to you? Of course not, but that's how the average gamer wins at Samurai Shodown Sen.

Samurai Shodown Sen does almost nothing to set itself apart from other fighting games. It's not innovative, but it does feature a few tricks that fighting fans have already seen several times before. Of course, every fighting game has weak, medium, and fierce attacks; in Sen landing your most powerful single attack on a weak opponent will actually trigger a brutal death animation. The mechanic that stands out the most is ripped off time and time again. It's just one of those stock "Rage" mechanics that allow special attacks and boost your attacking power. Overall, there's really nothing new or interesting to report.

Sen features a multiplayer component, but good luck finding a match. Everyone out there seems to know that there are better fighting games, and perhaps Sen is just receiving the commercial reception it deserves. Still, like everything else in this game, multiplayer is simply not worth your time.

The framework is there. This should have been a decent fighting game. However, a number of questionable design decisions hobble the game, leaving the shoddy mechanics to break the rest of it. Samurai Shodown Sen is simply buried in its own failures.