![]() ![]() There’s plenty of fodder for scoreaholics and speedrunners here, but be prepared to practice a lot if you want to ace these levels.įortunately, Jiro has a bunch of skills at his disposal: a massive variety of sword slashing attacks, wall climbs and dives, a ninja grappling hook, projectile attacks, and limited-use but amazingly powerful arcane ninja magicks. Each enemy you slay skillfully yields points, and doing a string of awesome ninja activities gives you score multipliers, but taking damage actually subtracts points from your total, making the art of mastery into an interesting tug-of-war. ![]() That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you shouldn’t don your cowl expecting a lenient ride – your foes are utterly merciless from the very get-go, standing watch in sneaky locations and laying all manner of nasty traps around the landscape. The laziest is the MSX “port“ though, which is just a conversion from the Spectrum with the same yellow-dominated four-color graphics.The first thing you’ll realize about Shinobi is that it is tough. The same goes for the IBM PC version, which seems to be based on the C64 release, but is a rather shoddy port altogether, with terrible controls and broken enemy patterns. ![]() The C64 also loses the music, as well as some Spider-Man look-a-like enemies in the second level. Because of the not-so-smooth controls, they’re also a bit harder than the original. All the 8-bit computers have to live with even more compromises: the graphics are redrawn for all, and they lose the boss title-cards that used to be shown before each stage. Since most of these computers only support 1-button joysticks, Joe now jumps by pressing up, while holding the attack button and tapping either up or down switches between the planes. The Amiga and Atari ST deliver the most faithful ports, which only differ from the arcade version in resolution, colors and HUD, as well as some different mechanics. There are also a couple of home computer versions, mostly for European markets. It’s also missing the second stage from the original, and the bonus levels are completely gone. However, all of the close-up melee attacks are gone, severely altering the way the game is played. The PC Engine version, converted by Asmik, is closer to the arcade game, with decent (if somewhat darker) graphics and similar gameplay. The ninja on the title screen is also amusingly cross-eyed. The additional close-ranged weapons are gone, the vertically scrolling stages have been redesigned into horizontal stages, and Joe can only toss a single projectile at a time. Tengen’s Nintendo Entertainment System port is based on the Sega Master System game, although it suffers from terrible graphics and shaky gameplay, like all of their conversions. Despite being a very different game, it’s still one of the Sega Master System’s better action titles, even if they cut the ending: upon beating Nakahara you get the same “Game Over“ as you would if you’d run out of lives. Much of the music is gone and replaced with a single tune, but the huge bosses still remain, although they don’t taunt you during the stages anymore. This is actually one of the finer strategies of the game, as it allows you to stun enemies and deliver a quick killing blow. Joe’s a fragile ninja and one bullet or stab wound will kill him, sending him back to the beginning of the level, but he can still ram into enemies as long as no weapons touch him. While your primary weapon is an unlimited supply of throwing shurikens, getting close to an enemy and attacking will unleash a melee attack – either a karate punch or a sword slash, depending on your power-up – that will usually break through their defenses. Sure, you’ll be hammering that fire button to toss out as many shurikens as possible, but you’ll also have to properly time your assault, hopping on enemies while they’ve dropped their defenses. Even more deadly are the ninjas, who appear out of nowhere in large numbers and will surround Joe if they’re not dealt with quickly. Of course, the relentless stream of bad guys makes the trek difficult – some of them mindlessly charge at you, but others hide behind boxes or block your attacks with shields. ![]()
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