Now, okay, I'm going to be honest here and say I was never a huge fan of the Samurai Shodown series, though admittedly it was just something you can't get past, being a fighting game buff like myself. The fighting system in all the iterations of the series was a bit Marmite to say the least, but since so many people seem to adore it, I guess it deserves its fair kudos and a pat on the shoulder from me as well. More likely so because it was one of the only series, even surpassing Street Fighter in that aspect, that had never really made the jump to 3D, h which had proven the death sentence for many a franchise before. Admittedly, there was one dysmally failed experiment on the PSX which I had never played, so I guess I couldn't be all too biased when news of Samurai Shodown Sen hit me. Though I was fully aware the game most probably didn't stand a chance against all the next-gen goodness, I decided to give it a red-hot go, and oh boy did I ever.

With a total of 26 playable characters on the roster (24 + 2 unlockable bosses), I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that a sizeable roster doesn't necessarily make for a better game. Among others, BlazBlue has proven that without questioning. However, numbers like this tend to get people's hopes up. So far up in fact, that they come crashing down once you get past the menu screens.

From start-up the game looks fairly well-presented. Seeing how we're dealing with SNK, the average newcomer would probably have to get past the pidgeon English, but navigating the menus is not an unpleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination. The game seems to have everything going for it that a next-gen fighter should: Arcade, Survival, Versus, Practice and Xbox Live doodads. So far, so good, aye? Pick yourself a character from the nicely designed character roster, watch the little cutscene with some delightful Japanese dribble about warrior's destiny and blah blah blah and let's get to chopping each other up. No... it can't be... oh dear God, no!

Yes, every illusion of this game being decent is eliminated before your very eyes once you behold the game's ghastly aweful looking graphics. I don't think I overexaggerate one bit when I claim that Sen is positively one of the ugliest games I've seen on the 360. And the romp down Misery Lane doesn't stop there. The fighting system basically disencourages you to try and become good at it, as mastering combos doesn't do a lick of good because of the ridiculous damage scaling. You find yourself training, only to discover that matches against the CPU turn into blockfests where you wait for openings to administer two or three slashes that drain your opponent of their health.