Shadow of the Ninja Reborn

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Shadow of the Ninja is an Action-Platformer released on Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 about ninjas sent to take down an evil dictator. It’s fondly remembered for its action-packed gameplay and its 2-player co-op, with gameplay vaguely similar to the Ninja Gaiden series (a planned Game Boy sequel was actually reworked into the game Ninja Gaiden Shadow). In 2024, we’ve received a full remake of the game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, reworking the graphics, sound, and gameplay while aiming to retain everything that made the original game great.

The most noticeable change right from the start will be the presentation, which looks absolutely gorgeous in this game, using 2D pixel art visuals with extremely fluid animation and some really nice visual effects. This does a great job of highlighting not only how acrobatic your two ninja characters are, but how they differ from each other (at least visually), combined with visually reimagined stages and enemies. This is backed by a completely remade soundtrack that combines synthesized music with a lot of electric guitar, with the standard Boss Theme standing out as especially catchy.

There have been quite a lot of changes to the gameplay as well. Players no longer need to choose between their sword and aimable chain weapon – they can use either at any time at the press of a button. What’s more, they now have a store of numerous items and sub-weapons that they can cycle through, though the method of doing so seems unnecessarily cumbersome, holding down to a button and tapping left and right rather than selecting it from a menu or tapping shoulder buttons to cycle through them. Some enemies are now much larger, and stages have been reworked a bit as well.

Overall, these changes are mostly positive, but in addition to the item selection awkwardness, there’s also a bit of an input lag when jumping that can make the game seem less responsive at times you need an immediate response. What’s more, your momentum when running seems to stop when jumping, making horizontal distance on jumps far less than it seems like it should be.

The game that results out of all of this is still a really fun and action-packed reimagining of the original game, but one that has flaws that make this far less of a successful remake than it could have been. I think fans of the genre will still enjoy Shadow of the Ninja Reborn, but expect to die quite a lot, and expect a good number of those deaths to be due to the issues I mention here. If that still sounds good to you, definitely give this game a look.

tl;dr – Shadow of the Ninja Reborn is an Action-Platformer and a remake of a classic Nintendo Entertainment System game about ninjas sent to take down an evil dictator. This remake introduces a huge number of changes, some good (like the beautiful new presentation and the ability to use both weapon types without having to swap them out) and some bad (awkward jumping and item selection). The result is still an enjoyable re-imagining of the original game, but this feels like it could have been much better if these flaws had been addressed.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Port/Remake

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