Staff Blog: Please, Think of the Children! - Shinobi

Please, Think of the Children! - Shinobi

On 09/28/2020 at 10:34 AM by Matt Snee

Shinobi was a sidescrolling arcade game released by Sega in 1987. It featured ninja Joe Musashi as he rescued kidnapped children from the ruthless, evil organization Zeed, throwing shurikens and kicking and punching various enemies. The game was later ported to the Sega Master System, the NES, and the PC Engine, and in more recent years to the Wii, Xbox 360, and the Switch.

Ninjas were a pretty big deal in the 1980s, and every arcade I went to had this game. I, of course, put quarters into it and played it, thinking it looked cool, but I never got very far. I eventually decided I didn't very much like the game.

I was a much bigger fan of its Sega Genesis sequels, like Revenge of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer, where the movement and combat was much more fluid and graceful, including the double jump shuriken spray which destroyed enemies. And while the original Shinobi did feature some magic ninja powers, they were much more fun in the sequels.

The best part of Shinobi though was the minigame between levels where you cast shurikens at ninjas leaping at you in a pseudo-3D space. That was intense.

KnightDriver

09/28/2020 at 06:46 PM

I never saw the arcade game, but I played the Genesis' Revenge of Shinobi. I love the graphics in that game, but I never get very far in it.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/01/2020 at 04:36 AM

yeah I love Revenge of Shinobi too. I played that game endlessly as a kid, but I never beat it. The last labyrinth level was just too much.

10/01/2020 at 03:05 PM

That's pretty good. I haven't gotten anywhere near that level yet.

10/01/2020 at 03:08 PM

It's a pretty long game, actually.

Cary Woodham

09/29/2020 at 08:03 AM

I never got into Shinobi in the arcade, but it was popular. It played a lot like Rolling Thunder, which makes me wonder who copied who? I like that Yuzo Koshiro did the music for one of the Genesis games. I reviewed a 3DS Shinobi game that was all right, but it did have some neat secrets and cameos. I never played the 3D Shinobi games because I heard they were very hard, but I think it's cool that one of them stars a female ninja. I also heard that Alex Kidd in Shinobi World is a very good game, but I've never played it.

Did Koshiro do the music for Revenge of Shinobi? I love the music in that game.

10/01/2020 at 08:01 AM

Yes. I had to look it up, though.

goaztecs

09/29/2020 at 12:55 PM

This game used to kick my butt on the NES. Eventually I got the hang of it, and it was a lot of fun.

Man Ninjas were the thing. I was a Ninja for Halloween a couple of times and then whenever we went to swapmeet or Chinatown I would get what I called Bruce Lee shoes which were the black slip-ons so I could match my Ninja toys.

10/01/2020 at 04:37 AM

yeah, ninjas were definitely hip in the 80s. They need a comeback.

Ranger1

10/01/2020 at 10:43 AM

We had this game in the Student Center at my college. I totally sucked at it and stuck to pinball, but my friend Kenichi was really good at it and I used to like to watch him play.

10/03/2020 at 08:09 PM

Yeah, I totally sucked at it too. But I always thought it was cool.

SanAndreas

10/02/2020 at 02:51 AM

I remember seeing the minigame in the demo mode, whuch would run until the player missed and got killed. Reminded me a bit of the opening cinematic in Ninja Gaiden where Joe Hayabusa gets killed.

10/03/2020 at 08:10 PM

yeah, that demo made this game really enticing.

PixlBit