Level Up: Shinobi

So far in this 8-Bit ninja month *GONG*, I have looked at 3 NES games with the word Ninja in the title. So I’m guessing some of you may have started wondering why I didn’t just call it “NES Ninja’” month, or maybe started looking up games with the word “Ninja” in the title. Well, like a Ninja, I wanted to be unpredictable: I started with the most obvious game, then went for something less known, then a slightly obscure game. So now, I’ll review a Ninja game on a console I haven’t even talked about yet. Let’s now look at Shinobi for the Sega Master System.

Beyond the system, the gameplay also makes this game different from the others I reviewed this month. While most of them went for a chaotic, action feel, Shinobi goes for the feel of a slow, intimidating assassin. The animation looks like the player character is just taking baby steps forward (which is why I jokingly give him the nick name “The world’s slowest ninja”). This game is all about planning things out, as you’re damaged easily making it hard to advance if there is an enemy in front of you, so just wait for your moment to strike.

Of course, at its heart, Shinobi is still a platforming game and has a few interesting elements. By pressing up or down and the jump button in the right spots, you jump up to another level, floor, platform or whatever you want to call it. Not only is this necessary to advance but it’s useful to manoeuvre around enemies. As you play, you will also spot kidnapped kids. By walking up to them, they will give you certain bonus items. This could be a weapon upgrade, they might heal you, extend your health bar, let you play bonus games for some extra skills or maybe just give you points. Not every weapon is an upgrade though, so you may want to skip a kid here or there (they always have the same item, so just remember where they are).

As for the controls, I have to say they work really well. Considering how slow Shinobi moves, I was surprised to find I could react quickly if I needed to.  You can also be surprisingly accurate with your thrown weapons while jumping. All around, this game has pretty decent game play.

The story of Shinobi takes place in modern times, when the criminal organisation “Zeed” kidnaps the children of Joe Musashi’s ninja clan. He takes it upon himself to rescue them and take down the Zeed.

Now, do you know how I know all of this? I looked it up on Wikipedia. Seriously, everything I just said could have been made up by someone who edited the page and I wouldn’t know. The game never gave any hint that it has a plot, especially since there are no cut scenes. This wouldn’t be so bad, but one thing really pushed me over the limit: when you finish the game (and this is so pathetic, I’m not even going to activate a spoiler alarm) all you get is the Game Over screen. There’s no extra image, no “Thank You”, “The End” or even a credit roll. This game is actually kind of hard, so to put all that effort for a screen that I could have just seen if I failed really made my blood boil. Now, apparently the arcade version had images and messages between stages, but that’s not the version I’m talking about. The fact that they didn’t even put the effort to change the words to an appropriate end message shows an incredible laziness and might as well have been a picture of the producer flipping us the bird.

I wanted to like Shinobi more than I do. Honestly, the game play is fun and different enough from most games (especially most Ninja games) that it makes it somewhat unique. Unfortunately a few things stop me from raving about this game: there is no cut scenes, the ending really made me mad (called the worst video game ending ever by a few people) and (as much as I hate to nit-pick) there is a jump on level 4-2 that is practically impossible. That doesn’t sound so bad, but this is the type of game where a single death makes you lose all your power-ups, it is hard to beat the game without them and a single pit-fall means a death. If you’re the type of gamer who gets really invested in finishing something, this might just disappoint you: the pay-off is not worth the effort. Still, Shinobi is fun as it has many great elements and approaches its subject in a good way. I give Shinobi for the Sega Master System 7 levels out of 10.