Developed and published by Sega in 1991.
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Shinobi was a big franchise for Sega during the 1980s and early 90s and it's no surprise that Sega's hand held platform received this extremely well-crafted, first party title for the system.
The game is similar to the Shinobi games that featured on the Mega Drive/Genesis consoles, but added different characters with different weapons and magic. The first part of the game requires the player to rescue the other four ninja, all of whom are required to complete the fifth and final stage.
A break down of the different ninja:
* Red (earthquake: destroys enemies and scenery)
* Pink (Walk on ceilings/flash of light: stuns enemies and illuminates dark areas)
* Yellow (water walking/shield)
* Blue (Grappling hook/tornado)
* Green (Double-jump/self-destruct)
This was a great game on the Game Gear and I remember it keeping me entertained through many a rainy day. The game is simple to play, yet the final level took some thought as to how each of the puzzle rooms should be completed and which ninja to use.
The only issue with the game is the slightly picky controls when trying to perform the Green ninja's double jump. It's impossible to perform once the animation has passed the peak of the original jump; the only reliable way is to perform the jump whilst still rising. This is a minor complaint, however.
The game is quite accomplished for an 8-bit hand-held machine, even going as far to include some parallax scrolling and fairly detailed sprites.
Yuzo Koshiro composed some fantastic music for the game, including 8-bit renditions of Terrible Beat and Long Distance.
The Game Gear version of Shinobi was great fun to play back then and is still fun to play now. Happy memories...
#retrogaming
6 сен 2024