Leveling up is usually the big pull from this style of game, but Rengoku is so lost, it fails miserably here. Even if you can get past the unnecessarily cluttered and far too complicated menus, you can only equip items at a terminal. There's one at the beginning of the stage. Want to use that new Gatling gun? You'd better start moving in the opposite direction, following the same path you just came from. It's obvious this adds even more backtracking, none of which should be necessary if the game were designed with care.

It does offer up a few ideas to make it unique, especially since weapons can be added to various body parts. This allows long and short-range weapons to be equipped at the same time. You can rarely use them together in a combo unless you've matched them properly, and there's nothing to tell you if you've done so. Mismatching will cause problems, more specifically like overheating.

There's not much to look at here, as the already mentioned level design is beyond ugly. The walking animation of the main character is unintentionally hilarious, while the attacks are stiff and make it even harder to control. Blood splatters freely, earning the game an "M" rating. However, even that can be hard to see against the dark, under-lit backgrounds early on.

While the music could be taken from any generic action game, the sound effects attempt to be a little bit different. There's an odd mix of metallic grinding and flesh ripping when a hit lands as it's supposed to. Unfortunately, it doesn't really convey impact like it needs to (or should). When your life is drained to near death, there's an aggravating, frustrating chime that simply doesn't go away until you're powered-up again or die. It overwhelms everything, including the soundtrack.

Even with local ad hoc play, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about this title. It is undoubtedly the worst and most unplayable game for the console to date, and a company is going to have to try hard to strip of its title. It seems to have no direction, and though there are some ideas that at least show some effort was made, all of that is lost in quickly crumbling experience that fails to draw you in.