Revenge of Shinobi - Sega Genesis Review


Revenge of Shinobi review


by Fausto Chavez


Somehow, I never played Revenge of Shinobi back when I was a teen (played of most the hit games but not this one). So in my late 30s, I finally tried this game out. It started out well, but then hit a double-jump bottleneck in the second stage. At first I thought it impossible to hit the jump, but with practice I was able to land it. Venturing deeper into the game, the same thing kept happening: encountering a difficult spot, but with practice was able the master the spot and continue. This is not a game that you can blast your way through; you have to master the skills, memorize, and be patient. The controls are tight. The varied attacks, power ups, including magic, mean you can strategize your way through. The graphics are great for its era and have aged well. The music is unbelievably great, a mix of funk, hip-hop and rock, and is my favorite part of the game (Sound Select is included in the options menu--spent a lot of time just listening to the music). Each stage is unique, having it's own theme, and well designed. The enemies and bosses are based on movie characters adding an extra layer of pop-culture. The high challenge level meant that I was able to go deep into the game, but each time would hit a section that cost many, many lives to figure out, giving it high replay value. I'm short on time nowadays, so used Game Genie to unlock the deeper levels, and was able to beat the game using a walkthrough for the final boss and the stage before the boss (which is a maze, difficult to figure out--but no problem with the walkthrough). I'm very impressed with this game and how it responds to your skill / learning curve. A great launch title for 1989. If it were easier it probably would made a bigger impact back when it was released and during the life of the Genesis. Revenge of Shinobi has stood the test of time and is a phenomenal game.

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