Sweeeeet.
In what is basically the antithesis of last week, this time around we’ll be looking at The Revenge of Shinobi, an excellent action platformer. Somewhat surprisingly, this is also Retro Roulette’s first foray into 16-bit consoles.
Sega’s largely unheralded Shinobi series is frequently centered on the ninja Joe Musashi, who rivals a criminal organization called the Zeed. The series has always been consistently solid (even the Game Gear versions are unique and interesting), but for whatever reason, the series never quite reached the upper echelon of retro franchises.
In The Revenge of Shinobi, the re-formed “Neo Zeed” kills Joe’s master and kidnaps his wife, setting him on another course for vengeance. The game is separated into eight worlds, each with a boss at its end. The boss fights are a lot of fun – this first one requires deftly forcing this big fella to let his guard down long enough to hit him with a kunai.
Other levels are a mix of platforming and hack-and-slash gameplay. This is a lot of fun as well, though it’s prone to Ninja Gaiden-esque moments where a projectile knocks you into harm’s way (or off a cliff). Joe also has access to a powerful ninjutsu technique about once per level/life. There are a few of these to choose from, including a lightning ‘shield,’ an enhanced jump, and a super cool fire attack that harms all enemies on-screen.
For some reason, the ostensibly human enemies in The Revenge of Shinobi explode upon being defeated. A lot of old games do this, and I’ve never understood why. I guess explosions are just cool.
Amusingly, early versions of the game are filled with enemies that don’t even try to avoid copyright infringement (image courtesy of Wikipedia):
Rambo, Godzilla, and Spider-Man all appear in certain versions of The Revenge of Shinobi, the latter of which was legally licensed to be in the game for a few years. That licensed is expired, so downloadable re-releases of the game have Spider-Man and the other infringe-y characters replaced with more generic enemies.
The Revenge of Shinobi is a great challenge and ton of fun. More recent games in the series (including a side-scrolling entry for the 3DS) have been moderately well-received, but the classic games remain the gold standard. The Genesis release Shinobi III may be the best, though this one is right up there as well.
Next week, I’ll be checking out a video game adaptation of one of my favorite movies from my teenage years. We’ll see if either stood the test of time.