Shinobi (NES) Playthrough
250A playthrough of Tengen's unlicensed 1989 action game for the NES, Shinobi.
Tengen's Shinobi is an adaptation of Sega's 1987 arcade classic, sold only in North America and without a license from Nintendo. It is based on the Sega Master System version that had been released worldwide eighteen months prior.
In the NES game, you are "Master Ninja," and the government has requested your help. World leaders' children have been kidnapped by a terrorist group known as The Ring of Fire, and you've been called upon to take down the ringleaders and bring those kids home.
I have no idea why they changed the story, but the manual makes no mention of Joe Musashi or Zeed. I do, however, like how it describes ninja magic as a tool "to help you break the 'fingers' of the 'hand' that grips the world in terror."
This version of Shinobi still has you flipping between levels, flinging shuriken at guards and rescuing hostages, but several things have been changed from the arcade game. The stage layouts have been heavily altered. Instead of one-hit deaths, you now get a life bar. You no longer have to save every kid to finish a stage, and saving them no longer rewards you with access to swords.
The rest of the game has likewise seen harsh cutbacks. The graphics and sound are - even by NES standards - crude approximations of the arcade's, and the controls are super ropey. The game drops inputs left and right whenever the screen gets too busy, which leaves the boss fights feeling unreasonably difficult and unfair. You really have to hammer the button to have any reasonable chance of your attacks going through when you need them.
Shinobi isn't totally lacking in fun, but you'd be much better served by playing it on the Master System or the PC Engine. Better yet, just play the original arcade game.
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