Just when this month was predicting a "Namco > Taito > Namco > Taito" sequence with Galaga on January 5th, Tank Force on 19th and The Newzealand Story on 26th, more than one person would think Taito would be releasing something on 12th, but no. Hamster surprised us with a Tecmo game release, and it's no other than Senjyo.
Take that ESPN satellite down.
NBC paid us a lot of money for that.
Created during the company's days as Tehkan, Senjyo is an obvious competitor to Atari's Battlezone. As its gameplay puts you in the controls of an AA Artillery turret to destroy ground and air-based enemies. Sounds simple, right? Well, the first thing you have to do and ALWAYS REMEMBER is to avoid the suicidal plane that appears at the beginning of each stage and every time you respawn after losing a life. Get it? Now let's go with the gameplay. The main objective is to clear the combat zone of the 32 ground based enemies that will try to take you down as they make an approach to the closer range perimeter. You can get rid of them while they're as far away as possible, but believe it or not, if they're on the closer range area, they worth more points, but also that will mean you'll have to act much faster than the previous distances as they will increase their fire rate. You can either evade their arching fireballs or try to shoot them down. Yeah, this game gives you the option of taking down their attacks and give you a few points for doing it so. You are also given a radar like in Battlezone, but much more functional as it indicates the distance ranges that I've mentioned you. Another thing well executed was the use of the geography of the area as the mountains provide a defense for your enemies and you have to wait until one leaves that safety zone where they're confined. On your HUD there's also the indicator of enemies which are 32 small blue panels that turn red as you take an enemy down. The most important feature is the flying satellite-like enemy that occasionally appears. If you take it out, it will duplicate your score. You can take it down four times for a maximum of "x5", making all your enemies worth even more points.
The game is fun and challenging enough on Stage 1, but things take down a turn from fun to unfair in Stage 2. ¿Remember the arching projectiles?, They'll suddenly change their trajectory from left to right in mid-fall and viceversa making them unpredictable and the frequency of changing paths increases on each stage effectively ruling out the chances of taking it down and HEAVILY increasing those of hitting you. If you can reach stage 5 you're lucky 'cos that's gonna be as far as you can reach due to the unpredictable projectiles. Keep in mind, you're granted 3 lives and no continues. The standard rule of early 80's arcade games.
With the insane spike on difficulty, you'll probably think you're playing the game or Hard or something, but according to the Arcade Archives port, the game's default difficulty is "EASY". Looks like someone at Tehkan was definitely out of his mind. The game wasn't ported like most coin-op conversions which made their way to our homes on any console and computer. Senjyo only saw the light in 1984 on the MSX computer but only in Japan, the rest of the world would had to wait until 2005 as part of Tecmo Classic Arcade on the XBOX. It was until this 2023 when Hamster re-released the game on the Arcade Archives lineup where due to its Japan only exclusivity it only has one Original Mode, but to complete this release, it includes the Hi-Score Mode which is the mix of the "No continues" Survival Mode and Leaderboards and the time trial like Caravan Mode with its 5 minutes limited gameplay where the objective is to reach the highest score possible within the time limit. While Original and Hi-Score modes have trophies, Caravan Mode still lacks of it. ¿Could Hamster try to learn from the achievement progression of the XBOX ACA Neogeo releases? That would definitely help all the PS4 releases on that aspect.
You've reached Round 4?
You're braver than we've thought!
Time to talk about the graphics. For 1983, Tehkan made a great job with the scrolling and giving the impression of a 3D world with 2D graphics because the parallax effects not just gives in-depth impression for horizontal scrolling, but also for the height as the cannon's aim goes up. The HUD has a very fancy and well made color cycling which adds a psychedelic-technological look to the game's interface to make it look like a functional computer. The sky uses a gradient color, which was an innovation for 1983 as it breaks with the flat colors of most games and adds realism and depth to the scenery. The theme of the game is science fiction as the game has flying saucer like objects, satellites and tanks that look like compact cars. "Futurism on its finest" if you ask me.
As for the music, we have a repetitive tune of high pitches that sound like if the game ripped of an excerpt of the Battle of Hoth theme from The Empire Strikes Back. (Check 5:03 on this video and compare it with Senjyo at 2:58, you'll notice the influence on the tune).
Time for a little playlist for Senjyo
Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Metallica - Damage Inc.
Manowar - Blow Your Speakers
Van Halen - Jump
SENJY-UROSITIES
- The name Senjyo (also written as Senjo, Senjoh, Senjyou or Senjou) means "Battlefield" or "Battle Zone".
- The Arcade Archives release is the third console port of the game.
- It is also the second Arcade-Perfect console release.
- The color cycling effect in the HUD and ranking text was reused by Tecmo on the HUD of Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom.
Just doing what it takes to survive against all odds.
Senjyo is an interesting experiment that breaks with the vector graphics in favor of pixel art that works very well, even for a 1983 game, but the high spike on difficulty keeps away most players from the turret shooting fun. If unfair bullet changes are your way to have fun, then pick it.
Despite the unfairness on difficulty, this sudden release of a Tehkan/Tecmo/Koei Tecmo game means a lot because this could mean Hamster still has interest to keep releasing more games from "The House that Ryu Hayabusa Built". Ganbare Ginkun is still on stand-by from a long time, and who knows we might end up seeing Tecmo Knight/Wild Fang, Raiga: Strato Fighter and Final Star Force on Hamster's library 'cos I'm sure they're not gonna say "NO FUTURE!" to them.
AND there's my ongoing Assault campaign. Crikey m8! Throw in TANK, and consider the certain release of Grobda, and you're quite sorted for arcade tank actions! 
). The same bad boi who's at #2 in Caravan is at #1 with 400k+ in HS mode, so the Senjou clearly holds further mysteries... 
