SNK made many great games for the Neo Geo, and while they were known for fighting game, they also made other genres such as beat em ups. One of their best beat em ups was the Sengoku series, which was a series about brawlers taking on specters of the warriors of japans past along with ghosts and demons. In the first game, you could get various weapons and summon others to swap places with, for extra abilities, and the series only got better in the 2nd entry, with more abilities, more attack options and more specters to take on the form of. The series provided a great departure from what was the norm in beat em up gameplay at the time and is well remembered for it.
Sengoku 3 was a very different game, but was no less fun. It was more of a traditional beat em up game, but had a sense of polish to it that was lacking in many other games in the genre. Looking back on these games now, I wonder what a fourth game would be like. Especially if a hypothetical fourth game would combine the style seen in Sengoku 1 and 2, with the style seen in Sengoku 3.
SNK has returned to video game making after their pachinko era, and King of Fighters XIV and what we have seen of the new Samurai Spirits have shown that they have what it takes to still make great games. SNK could very well make a great open ended brawler for modern systems and PC, or if they want, make a throwback retro style 2D beat em up. They could even let indie developers do it, as was the case with Double Dragon Neon and the upcoming Streets of Rage 4.
The simple matter is, that the Sengoku series offered a great twist on the beat em up genre and this is greatly missed today. A proper return would be welcome and a sign that SNK has more than just fighting games up their sleeves.