One of my biggest gaming regrets is that when I got my Super Nintendo back in August of 1991 when it first came out, I kind of abandoned my old NES.  Sure I might’ve brought it out again if I rented a new Mega Man game or something, but for the most part, I was just focused on the 16-bit stuff after that.  Which is a shame because a lot of really good NES games came out after that, and I either didn’t play them until much, much later or missed out on them entirely.  Shadow of the Ninja was one such game.  I’m not sure if I would’ve played it much myself, but I might’ve rented it to play with my best friend at the time, since we both enjoyed playing other titles like Ninja Gaiden together.  But now you can play a remake of the game with improved graphics and such, and it’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.  It’s also made by the same team who did remakes of other Natsume and Taito titles like The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors and Pocky and Rocky Reshrined.

The game has a story, but all you need to know is that you play as a male or female ninja and you beat up the bad guys in 2D side scrolling fashion.  The arcade mode is the main game where you can choose to play Normal or Hard modes and you can continue where you left off, thankfully.  Once you beat a stage, you can play it again in Time Attack mode.  Two can play at the same time, too, so that’s cool.  Your ninja can run and jump, as well as climb on certain ledges and swing up to the top of them when needed.  You can swing a katana or toss a long chain which has better reach and strength, but is slower.  When you break open these little boxes that look like trash cans, you can get a power-up.  Some make your sword reach longer or make your chain more powerful.  But some you can hold onto and use by pressing the R2 button.  You can use different limited weapons or healing items.  With the coins you collect from defeating enemies, you can even buy power-ups, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that.  I only know you can do that because the game comes with a virtual instruction manual, which I’m always happy for because it’s very helpful to me when playing and reviewing these games.

My main problem with this game is that it’s just too dang hard.  It was an ordeal just for me getting past the first stage.  I’m not a super big gaming expert or anything, but I’m not BAD at games.  Even though I’ve never played the original, I’ve watched videos of it and it didn’t look near as hard as this one, unless the people playing in the video were just making it look easy.  I think this remake really could’ve benefitted from an Easy mode.  Also would’ve been nice if they included the original NES version as well, that way you can see what they changed, what they improved upon, and what stayed the same.  Also, it could’ve just been me, but it felt like the play control input was slightly delayed if they wanted to finish a sword swinging or other action animation before you could jump.  It’s a shame I had all these problems because the rest of the game is awesome.  The 2D graphics and sprite work are especially amazing, and there are a lot of inventive enemies and obstacles in the stages.

Kid Factor:

Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood.  I didn’t really notice any blood, but you do hit all sorts of bad guys with weapons and defeated characters get knocked back and disappear with an explosion or scream.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, and younger gamers may find this one too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews