After last week’s release of Super Star Wars, as difficult as it is FREAKIN’ AWESOME, expectations were high for this week’s release. This week’s release is The Revenge of Shinobi from the Genesis. Well, it’s certainly no Star Wars, but still awesome. Here’s what the rest of DHGF thinks!
The Revenge of Shinobi
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Original Release Date: 1989
Cost: 800 Wii Points.
>Alex Lucard: I told Mark this was coming out before the end of the month…
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Mark B.: I’m sorry, I can’t hear your bragging over the sound of how awesome this release is.
Okay, so. Revenge of Shinobi is one of those games that never pops up in compilations because of copyright issues; as Chris noted, Spider-Man (or a reasonable approximation thereof) is in the game, but there’s also a mock-up of Godzilla and Batman in the game that tends to make the game a bit of a copyright nightmare as well. The fact that it’s on the VC is a fabulous thing, and it’s worth downloading for the severe rarity if nothing else.
But it also happens that Revenge of Shinobi is, without a doubt, the best Shinobi game of the entire series.
The game is incredibly challenging and lots of fun to play. There’s a decent amount of variety to the stages and enemies. The bosses are challenging and lots of fun to fight. The graphics, though dated at this point, still look pretty solid for a sixteen-bit game. The controls are solid and responsive. Ninja Magic is no longer limited to one move, but to multiple different types that are useful in different situations. And the soundtrack is composed by one Yuzo Koshiro, maker of pretty much every awesome soundtrack from the 90’s ever. Basically, if you like side-scrolling action games or ninjas (and who doesn’t like ninjas?), you should really own this as soon as possible.
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ML Kennedy: If memory serves, Shinobi has a lot of trouble staying alive when I tell him what to do. I’m going to leave this task up to you guys; I can’t stand it when ninjas suffer.
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Guy Desmarais: The only thing I remember about Shinobi is that one game from the series was name-dropped in that Surf Ninjas movie with Leslie Nielsen and Rob Schneider.
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Christopher Bowen: I’ve had an exceptionally low opinion of SegaSammy, to the point where I have to point out that it’s SegaSammy; Sammy kidnapped our beloved Sega and held it hostage, using it as it pleased, but the tale ends sadly in that Sega developed Stockholm Syndrome, and went on to live with Sammy unhappily ever after. The point of this tangent is that SegaSammy has done little of note other than continually puke out their best properties everywhere they can. For the most part, these releases have been forgettable, having been found on other compilations, or just not being good games.
This is not one of those times. Revenge of Shinobi is an amazing game, and probably the best overall Shinobi game of all time. It’s got some dated concepts – sometimes, the graphics blend together which makes it hard to see things sometimes, and cheap hits abound – but the quality in the product – tight controls, amazing graphics for it’s time, well designed stages – is obvious. Remember that this was one of the Genesis’s first titles and probably their biggest name game, pre-Sonic, and that makes it all the more amazing.
This is not available on any other notable compilation due to copyright issues with the Spiderman boss, so this is the best way to play this game. Easy recommendation for $8.
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And on Wii Ware, we’re getting PictureBook Games: Pop-Up Pursuit, which sounds an awful lot like Mario Party, for 800 points, and Family Slot Car Racing for 500. On DSiWare, we get Guitar Rock Tour, which looks like American Popstar: Road to Celebrity without the plot, as well as Brain Age Express: Sudoku, which looks like Sudoku.
Until next week…more Star Wars please.
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