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Review:

15th June 2003:
Shinobi
An old classic is reborn for the 3D age but does it still hold the same ninja magic like its 2D predecessor?
Posted by John Wasabi - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

Once upon a time in the golden age of gaming lived two rival 16-bit consoles, one of them was The Sega Megadrive and it brought about an age of gaming bliss with the never to be forgotten Shinobi. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Shinobi was a 2D side scrolling platform ninja game that was rock hard. In fact, anyone in the playground that said they finished it was praised as the ultimate games master and the highlight for all game nerds to praise and look upon as if they were a higher being.

Plenty has changed for one of the industry's most fondly-remembered franchises. The player controls an all-new character, a badass revenge-fueled Oboro clan survivor Hotsuma. The characters performs three-dimensional actions never before seen in the series as he slashes and hacks his way toward epic boss battles against the Hellspawn Lords.

Unlike the fantasy realms of its predecessors, 'Shinobi' truly seems to unfold in a hellish netherworld. Bosses range from a snake with the head of a fox and nine tails to a giant tarantula spider with an eight-eyed tiger head in front. Running on walls, fending off undead dogs, slashing hordes of ninja zombies to bits, clearing tricky jumps and memorizing Boss patterns are all part of a day's work.

The story is well told and done rather frequently by the game's excellent movies, but regardless of which the objective always remains the same: get through each level alive and in one piece or its back to start of the level. It's here that the most notable tradition of 'Shinobi' shows itself, the damn difficulty of the game. Until you have memorized everything, it's a freakishly hard game to complete and one that doesn't offer alternatives or leniency whatsoever. It took me weeks and endless falls to my doom before I completed this which is why it took us quite a while to write this review. We pride ourselves on finishing the games we get (or very close to finishing) before we review them. We may not be the fastest but we can give good representations of the finished product. Heck I am playing through now with the new playable characters and finding It even more difficult this time round quite simply because they respond differently. At least it keeps things fresh though and builds on the replay value for all you masochistic gamers out there. Be warned, the rewards at the end of the experience are even harder and tougher to overcome than the first time round.

Controls are excellent and commands respond as you would expect from a Sega game, tight responsive and near perfect. 'Shinobi's' controls are so good, that they leave the fault for repeatedly dying against a particular boss or difficult chasm jump entirely at the player's hands. Those of you who don't agree are likely to be in denial of your own skills and blame dodgy collision or poor level design. 'Shinobi' is in fact, neither.

Graphically, 'Shinobi' looks great but sacrifices are noticeable from endlessly-repeated textures applied over the endlessly-repeated hallways and corridors to what looks like lowered polygon counts on our Heroes and enemies. Maybe it's to keep the game from slowing down as 'Shinobi' is very fast paced and action packed. Your enemies are very agile often performing crazy stunts that keep you very focused on the battles around you. Personally I like the 3D transition but can't help ask the question of what a 2D version would be like and often wonder if it would have been better for such an old school classic.

Music wise, 'Shinobi' fuses high tempo and energetic beats with a good collection of well sampled tunes. If there was a soundtrack I'd definitely be in queue to buy it as it truly is new-age and electrifying. Sound effects too are clear and crisp with bone breaking effects to metal cutting through flesh effects conjuring just what a violent game this truly is. As a bonus, I really liked the fact that Sega gives us the option to choose the language in which you want to hear the voice-overs. Being a big manga fan, I chose the Japanese voice-overs with English subtitles as it just felt right.

'Shinobi' is not for the light hearted, impatient gamer who hates dying and memorizing areas or patterns. 'Shinobi' is hard, harder than rock and completely unforgiving. Die anywhere in a level and its back to the start, the only thing that stopped me ripping my hair out and breaking the joypad was the fact that I always knew I would eventually get through. Sega did do one thing nice though, die fighting a boss and you have the option to at least start from there. Some of you might not like the 3D transition of this old classic, but we felt it was spot on and just what it needed. Think you are the master of games that can beat anything? Then give this a go for only the very best will ever finish this and that's no joke.

John Wasabi

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Review Summary:

'Shinobi' is not for the light hearted, impatient gamer who hates dying and memorizing areas or patterns. 'Shinobi' is hard, harder than rock and completely unforgiving. Some of you might not like the 3D transition of this old classic, but we felt it was spot on and just what it needed. Think you are the master of games that can beat anything? Then give this a go for only the very best will ever finish this and that's no joke.

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