Sega’s early years as a video game developer were definitely some of their most interesting. They were one of the most innovative in the medium. Their games were highly imaginative and paved the way for the entire medium moving forward. With that said they did have their duds. There are several Sega arcade hits that were pretty bad, and I’m honestly not quite sure how these became hits. Sega games were either amazing or terrible. Rarely was there an in between. Shinobi is one of these rare ‘seldom’ average titles out of the developer. Today we’re going to take a look at the Sega Master System version in our review. Let’s take a look!
Joe Musashi may never have been a household name, but he’s the star character in Shinobi. He’s out to rescue a boatload of hostages while fighting off numerous other ninjas and gun toting strongmen. The crime syndicate you’re facing off against is called the Ring of Five, and they’re not messing around. Five represents the number of bosses, and thus, the amount of ‘worlds’ in the game. Each of these contains within it a few levels. It’s a pretty generic setup even for its time. The lack of story is something you come to expect from arcade games of this era so I’m not going to hold it against the game. It does get extra points for introducing the world to Joe Musashi however.
Shinobi is a 2D side scrolling action platformer game. Your goal is to make it from one side of a level to the next (how original). Your primary attack is throwing stars, but your projectile can be upgraded when you reach certain point thresholds. Joe does have a melee attack, but it can only be performed when enemies are right up on you. Basically you’re in trouble if he starts slashing with his sword. In the arcades Joe goes down with a single hit. The game wanted to eat your quarters, that’s for sure. Sega scaled back on this a bit for the Sega Master System. Now he has a life bar, and it’s actually pretty forgiving. Despite both being about ninjas, Shinobi is no Ninja Gaiden when it comes to difficulty.
And that’s a good thing. Ninja Gaiden is too hard. It, along with Shinobi, represent a significant amount of the totality of ninja games from the time. Unfortunately this showed me that difficulty isn’t everything. Shinobi just isn’t as good as Ninja Gaiden. This is largely because Joe Musashi doesn’t move like you would generally expect a ninja to. He jumps super high, but so do all other platformer characters. He also moves very slow, and doesn’t have any cool abilities like a wall grab for example. It’s just slowly walk from one area of the stage, throw shurikens, and jump to avoid enemies or overcome pits. There’s nothing ‘ninja’ (or shinobi, if we’re staying true to the name) about this title.
The level designs are also pretty boring, and that’s putting it nicely. You would think Sega, with all the talent they have under their wing, could have come up with some inventive obstacles or fun gameplay scenarios. Instead we’re left with simple platforming and just enemies. Shinobi does have one gimmick going for it, but even that isn’t particularly interesting. Basically, in some sections of each stage you can hold up while jumping to reach higher platforms. I guess that technically counts as a ‘ninja skill’ but it still fails to make me feel like I’m playing as an actual ninja. It’s not all bad though.
While most of the time this is straightforward and required, other times you’ll have to jump to higher areas to rescue additional out-of-the-way hostages or to avoid enemies. I downplayed the mechanic previously but it’s actually slightly interesting. My only complaint is that this mechanic isn’t implemented enough. It’s presence is only occasional. Sometimes you can only jump to a higher (or lower in some cases) plane if you’re standing in just the right spot. This wouldn’t be so bad except sometimes it makes little sense to me. It’s not a mechanic that benefits from trial and error, yet here we are, holding up and jumping repetitively trying to figure out where we need to stand.
Shinobi is also a bit clunky, but in ways we come to expect from the 8-bit era. For example you can only throw so many projectiles at once. When you’re at the limit Joe still does the throwing animation, but nothing comes out of it. There’s also knockback after taking damage. Normally this isn’t a huge problem but when you’re dealing with endless pits it’s frustrating. This seems to be par for the course with ninja games of this era, but this fact doesn’t soften the blow. It’s just extremely difficult to survive when you are trying to jump over something and enemies are throwing things at you. Or worse yet jumping in all directions.
Sega tried to interject a little variety into the experience. Honestly it’s not quite enough for me. If you rescue enough hostages in any stage you can play a brief mini-game after completion. This is a first person view where enemy ninjas are running back and forth and can jump between three planes as they make their way to the player. When one ninja makes it to you it’s the end. To stop them you have the ability to throw shurikens. This is best considered as a shooting gallery type attraction. It’s overly difficult, and not very good honestly. Should you succeed you get ninja magic to use in the main stages, but even this is underwhelming.
Something has to be said for the boss fights. They just aren’t very good. This is one of those rare cases where the big baddies are easier than the main stages. In one you’re dealing with very basic foes jumping out of a helicopter. Another pits you against a giant samurai blocking your projectiles with a katana. Then there’s the mask moving up and down the wall, but to even get to him you have to destroy a series of statues moving toward old Joe. These just aren’t very interesting. I found them to be a nice change of pace, but largely all of these bosses are pushovers.
Shinobi isn’t overly difficult. The life bar is pretty forgiving, and even the platforming (though less polite) can be overcome with some memorization. It’s not cheapness that holds Shinobi back. It’s just how basic it is. Sega obviously wanted to make a ninja game, but didn’t understand what we wanted from such a title. As it stands Shinobi is just a basic action side scrolling game. The level design is uninspired (even by the standards of the time in which it was released). There’s literally nothing here that developers weren’t doing bigger and better even back then.
Graphically the game is pretty good actually. It’s a fair adaptation of the arcade version, and one of the better looking games on the Sega Master System. Joe (as well as the enemies he faces) animate decently and always stand apart enough from the environments. The backgrounds are pretty good. Shinobi has that pastel look to it that so many other Sega Master System games do, but in some areas I think it works to this game’s favor. I just wish there was more variety in enemy designs as well as the hostages. The music is decent but not amazing. At least there’s none of the high pitched bleeps we come to expect from the 8-bit Sega hardware. It’s a shame it doesn’t take advantage of the FM chip.
