Sega Ages Shinobi

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Shinobi is a classic Action-Platformer originally released to arcades in 1987, with players controlling a ninja infiltrating a gang, rescuing their hostages, and taking down their leaders.

I must admit, I had the rose-colored nostalgia goggles in full-nostalgia mode for this one, and playing the game now over thirty years after its original release was something of a bittersweet experience.

On the one hand, even for a game as old as this is, the action-packed gameplay did a very good job of making players feel like a bad-ass ninja, chucking countless ninja stars (or inexplicably in some stages wielding a gun) and kicking or slicing anyone who dared to get close, with some inventive and formidable boss characters that truly made for some memorable fights.

On the other hand, wow is it easier to see now how this game was designed to suck up quarters. Enemies could easily one-hit kill you, with many of those enemies appearing out of nowhere with barely any warning. The final few bosses seem particularly nasty, virtually guaranteeing the player will have to spend their cash to continue multiple times.

This release takes the sting out of things a little, with the ability to use an easy rewind function, as well as a new Ages mode that enables players to take multiple hits and dish out more damage. However, using these helpful features reveals the game’s other major flaw – it is extremely short, clocking in around 30-45 minutes to beat, tops.

In addition to the features I already mentioned, this release of Shinobi also offers save states, online leaderboards, multiple display modes, and the ability to switch between the Japanese and international versions.

Overall, Shinobi is still a decent Action-Platformer with some iconic moments throughout it, but time has made it a lot easier to see the game’s flaws. If you’re feeling nostalgic for the good ol’ days, or just wondering what gamers were enjoying in arcades over three decades ago, Shinobi is still a decent experience, but those just looking for a solid Action-Platformer may prefer to just skip this trip down memory lane.

tl;dr – Shinobi is a classic Action-Platformer originally released to arcades in 1987. While there’s still some fun gameplay here and multiple iconic moments, the game is still extremely short and filled with unfair gameplay designed to stretch out play time and sap quarters from players. This version’s helpful features soften the blow of some of that, and what remains is a decent but flawed game.

Grade: C+

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