Introduction

During this last holiday season we have seen so many classic updates that your bound to get all warm and nostalgic on us. Nintendo has given us Metriod; Tecmo is onboard with Ninja Gaiden, Konami with Contra, and Sega with Toe Jam and Earl, Panzer Dragoon, and the much-anticipated Shinobi. It has been nearly thirteen years since we have seen Shinobi in action, and boy was it worth the wait.

Presentation

One part of Shinobi did sadden me, that is the story, It has absolutely nothing to do with the old Shinobi, In fact gone is good old Joe Musashi, Replaced with Hotsuma, leader of the Oboro Clan. The story is pretty simple, and perhaps a bit cliché. Hotsuma must fight hoards of demons and zombies in order to avenge the city from mass trickery and murder of a rogue wizard. While the story was not what I had expected it does keep my attention, and should be more than enough to satisfy any fan of the series.

The menus are well done also, retaining the retro feel as well as giving you that nice graphical edge. The status screen at the end of every level is likely to bring back some very fond memories. I have only one major complaint about Shinobi that I feel should be mentioned. The game does NOT support PSone controllers. There is actually a funny story behind how I found this out. I loaned my ps2 along with Shinobi to a friend telling him “just take the console and memory card you have everything else it’s the same as your PSone.” I just thought this tidbit would be useful to anyone who might be in the same situation. It’s not the game or your ps2; it’s the controller causing the problems.

Gameplay

Much like the original games Shinobi features and insane learning curve or difficulty, as some would call it. For some people this will be an instant turn off, for others this will keep them glued in their seat forever trying to reach that forbidden place at the end of the level. For me the game fell naturally easy, while I must admit there was some controller throwing and random cursing along the way, nothing discouraged me from finishing. One of the annoying aspects is the cursed sword. After the first level your blade becomes cursed and must feed on the souls of those you kill, that or it will feed on your soul, a bad thing indeed. Thus forcing you to kill your way through the game. Don’t worry this goes away your 2nd time through. Another thing I liked is the total lack of loading times, or annoying “key quests.” Just make your way through the game slicing and dicing. The Tate move is pretty cool also. Simply kill four or more enemies in a short amount of time, and they will all fall apart at one time. Mastering this move is probably key to your survival. There is however some downfalls. The game has a major lack of moves/combo’s this didn’t bother me so much, as I expected about what I got. This is not a fighter after all. The most annoying thing is probably the lack of animations. After seeing the Tate move 200 times, it makes you wonder if it would have been all that hard to give you a few more animations. Overall the game is one of the more fast paced games around and will amaze you with its blistering frame rate.