The Revenge of Shinobi Review

Intense ninja action, awesome platforming, an amazing soundtrack and mind-blowing bosses make this classic a must-have.

Speaking of challenging and cool, one of the absolutely greatest things about The Revenge of Shinobi is the bosses. The BOSSES! You will find yourself fighting against some huge, colorful, and wonderfully bizarre enemies. On one level you go toe-to-toe against another ninja inside a dance club, where he uses the swirling colors to disorient you and mask his attacks. You fight a sentient brain attached to a machine, where you only have tiny windows to attack his exposed cerebellum before his lasers zoom in. You fight a very familiar-looking cyborg with a flattop and sunglasses who throws cars at you. A huge Godzilla-like monster fries you with flame and tries to stomp you into paste (later changed to a dinosaur skeleton to avoid copyright issues). And my favorite: you actually fight Spider-man and Batman as villains! Eventually the Batman enemy was modified to a bat-like demon for future releases of the game, but the bizarreness adds so much to the cool factor. And these bosses are tough to boot! As before, the use of your shuriken must be carefully monitored; having plenty on hand can make short work of a boss, but running out will completely change your strategy and make things way harder.

As I mentioned before, ninjas are pretty much the coolest thing ever, and this game brings that feeling out in spades. You simultaneously feel like the deadliest thing on two legs, while still being put to the ultimate test in every way. You will have to use every formidable skill in your repertoire to make it through this relentlessly challenging but extremely fun adventure. Only as a true master will you be able to beat the game, but even then there’s more. You can actually get two endings, depending on your ability to both destroy Neo Zeed’s demonic leader and save Naoko. This is easier said than done, as during the battle she is trapped in a cage where a rock slab drops steadily down to crush her. Only breaking from the fight to repeatedly jam shuriken into the death trap’s workings may slow her doom long enough to save her. Even after years of playing this game, this part is still a mighty challenge.
 
All in all, The Revenge of Shinobi is one of the definitive must-have Genesis games. With beautiful visuals, a gorgeous soundtrack, incredible ninja action and creative enemies and platforming, it is quite simply one of my favorite video games of all time. The game can now be downloaded on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console, or grab a copy of the original cartridge online for your old school console. You’ll be glad you did! And it will keep me from slaying your master as he sleeps.