"The Shinobi series just isn't worthy of my time," I'd always tell myself.
That's the opinion I formed after playing the arcade original only a single time and for however many minutes a mere two or three quarters bought me. I came away from it completely unimpressed. I saw it as nothing more than a poor man's version of Rolling Thunder. It was Namco's action classic without the eye-popping visuals, the funky tunes, the cool weapons, and the interesting enemy characters.
"Why would anyone bother playing this game when the exponentially superior Rolling Thunder is probably somewhere in that same arcade?" I'd wonder.
That, sadly, was all too often the case with me: I'd pass on an entire series simply because I had an underwhelming experience with or couldn't grasp the formula of just one of its games. And because I refused to give all games a fair chance, I wound up missing out on amazing series like The Adventures of Lolo, Metal Gear and Bionic Commando at a time in life when they would have had the greatest impact on me.
What a shame.
But that's how it went with the Shinobi series: For the longest time, I simply avoided it. Save for my quick samplings of its NES and Master System ports, I never again gave the arcade original the time of day. And I refused to go anywhere near any of its sequels. There was no reason to, I thought. "If I don't care for the original," I'd ask myself, "then why would I bother with other games in the series?"
I was justified in dismissing them, I thought, because they all looked visually similar to the original, and that had to mean that they all played identically to it. For that reason, I didn't need to play any of them. I already knew that I wouldn't like them!
It was simple "logic," you see.
Though, thankfully, that's no longer how my brain works. I'm happy to tell you, my friends, that the dopey kid who was all too quick to come to such silly, stupid conclusions has long since evolved into a more-open-minded, more-adventurous sort. Things have changed in a big way.
Where the Shinobi series is concerned, I've made a complete 180-degree turn. As a result of certain events (my discovery of The G.G. Shinobi, which has become one of my favorite portable games of all time, and subsequently my eye-opening experiences with the Genesis titles), I've become quite a fan of the Shinobi series. I've learned that its games are much more than I imagined them to be. Almost all of them have shown themselves to be terrific action games--some of the genre's finest, I'd say.
In fact, one entry in particular stands among the greatest action games I've ever played: Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master. I discovered it about a year ago, and since then it's become not only one of my favorite Genesis games but also one of my favorite 16-bit action games in general.
And I'm excited to tell you why that is!
First I have to tell you about protagonist, Joe Musashi, and what makes this incarnation of the Shinobi master so special. In short: This boy is absolutely stacked. His repertoire of moves is much large than those provided to other incarnations of the character, and each move is highly useful. And because he's so versatile, you, the player, are made to feel as though you have a ton of options available to you--many ways in which you can skillfully slice through enemies and their instruments of destruction.Joe uses the established Shinobi abilities, yeah: He can deftly leap about and reach even greater heights using a double-jump; toss different types of kunai (the standard type and the more-powerful flame variant to which it's upgraded when you obtain a POW symbol); use his sword to slash away at in-close enemies; and use ninjitsu magic to either enhance his abilities or put a major hurtin' on surrounding foes.
But he also comes to the party with a whole host of cool new abilities. He can dash (double-tap forward on the d-pad) and while in motion execute long jumps and far-ranging sword slashes; wall-jump (push up against the adjacent wall and press the jump button); grab onto ceilings and overhead structures and climb across them; block attacks (hold down the attack button); jump kick (down plus attack while in the air); and unleash an 8-kunai spread shot by attacking while at the peak of his jump (this, I'm happy to note, is borrowed from The G.G. Shinobi, which consequently is given strong acknowledgement and therein credit for helping for to evolve the series; it sends the much-appreciated message that portable entries are as important as any).
The result is that this version of Joe feels like a destroyer! And he'll certainly function as such after you learn how to properly execute these maneuvers and skillfully string them together. You'll be speeding across stage sections, slicing through multiple enemies in sequence, boosting off enemy noggins, bouncing between walls, and having great fun as you perform like a ninja master!
Though, there's one particular problem I have to mention: The double jump, as has become series tradition, feels very much unreliable. I get that there's a specific timing to it (you have to press the jump button immediately after a jump has reached its apex), but still there are times when your timing is spot on and Joe simply refuses to perform the second jump. And the issue is exacerbated during dash jumps because the timing suddenly becomes downright inconstant; sometimes it's after a jump's apex, and other times it's at the exact moment the jump reaches its apex. It's so inconsistent that I find myself overcome with stress any time the game demands that I execute a double jump.
Early on, this isn't too big a problem, no, but in the final stages, oh boy--the double jump's frequent unresponsiveness can become a major headache. I'll talk more about this later on.
Oh, and Joe is also stacked in terms of ninjitsu powers. As could his The Revenge of Shinobi incarnation, Joe can switch between and utilize four such ninjitsu powers: (1) Ikazuch (lightning symbol), which provides him temporary invincibility (he can absorb 3-5 hits, depending upon the attack type, before it wears off). (2) Kariue (flame symbol), which calls forth four flames dragons that fly in vertically--at four separate locations--converge at the screen's center, and then violently break apart, exploding outward in both directions; this attack kills all weaker enemies and severely damages stronger enemy types. (3) Fushin, which greatly enhances Joe's jumping ability to where his standard jump now extends as high and as far as a double jump. And (4) Mijin, which allows Joe to execute a screen-clearing move--one in which all minor enemies, regardless of their power-levels, are destroyed after Joe blows himself up and discharges a deadly blast that spreads to all four corners of the screen; it's an extremely powerful move, yes, but it comes at the cost of a single life, so it should be used sparingly--only during the most desperate of moments.
And if you can figure out how to use all of these powers and abilities advantageously, you'll be unstoppable. Neo Zeed's goons won't stand a chance!
That's how you design a hero.
I have to say, though, that I object to the developers locking the 6-button controller option behind a secret code that can only be input on a second controller. For a while there, I didn't even know that there was such a code, and consequently--for at least my first two play-throughs of the game--I had no idea that Joe had a blocking move; so I fared without it and wound up struggling more than I should have, so much so that at times I had to stop and wonder if the game's projectile-happy bosses were the work of the most sadistic designers in the business. Turns out I was just an idiot.
Still, it's annoying that (a) I'm not able to use the 6-button controller option because I don't have access to a second controller and that (b) I'm forced to instead use the dual-button scheme, which makes blocking way less intuitive. Pressing a single button to block is much more convenient than holding down one that has already been assigned an action, especially when it results in there being 0.2-second delay. Having to do so made the game's final battle a particularly unpleasant experience. At a time when I needed for actions to register instantly, the delay proved to be killer, so I was in a position where I had to predict an attack and start holding down the attack button in advance. And even that approach proved to completely ineffective. I got destroyed repeatedly, often in seconds. It was a total nightmare, and the nature of the losses almost soured me on the entire game.
Thankfully I was eventually able to figure out a way to successfully engage with and defeat the final boss without needing to utilize the blocking move. It's not nearly as tough a battle as I thought. Still, though, that doesn't forgive the developers' not allowing me to access the 6-button controller option by default. Really, such a thing is out of character for Sega, which has always been an exemplar when it comes to providing players as many options as possible.
For as long as I've been gaming, I've had a thing for backgrounds that are formed from multiple scrolling layers and particularly those whose separate layers flow in such a way that they create what appear to be living, breathing three-dimensional spaces--those whose environments have an incredible sense of depth to them. Shinobi III is rich with these types of backgrounds--with awesome-looking multi-layer displays that have the power to absorb you whole as you observe them; with those whose wonderfully conveyed extensity inspires you to believe that the spaces beyond are alive and teeming with activity, even if it's not visible to you.
The background work was what instantly drew me to the game. I was taken with Shinobi III from the very moment I observed on the opening stage's mesmerizing background display--the mysterious woods whose four alluringly rendered parallax layers worked in concert to capture all of my attention and therein fill me with the sense that I was somewhere deep within a vast, encompassing forest and completely surrounded by trees and foliage behind which many stealthy assassins were likely lurking. The trees that populated the scrolling foreground layer helped to complete the effect as did the smaller details: the foliage that blew in the wind and the loose leaves that continued to fly across the screen. The forest's was a beautiful setting--one of the most engrossing I'd ever seen in a game.
Right away, before I could even finish advancing more than two screens into its opening stage, I could tell that Shinobi III was going to be something special. That's what the quality of its visual design told me. And it wasn't lying.
And indeed the successive stage areas follow the first's lead. Each new setting is eager to display its finely rendered, wonderfully immersive visuals--the multiple scrolling layers and cool foreground imagery that work together to create the sense that you're situated deep within an environment whose every surface is actively functioning and consequently expressing to you that you're in its grasp.
The game is packed with instantly memorable settings: There's Round 1's cave area, whose wondrously rendered environmental elements--its craggy surfaces, rocky pillars, stalactite-filled ceiling, and subterranean lake--enwrap and entrance you and in doing so evoke feelings of dampness and oppression. What's cool is that the lake is formed from three separate layers, each of which scrolls along at a faster pace than the one directly behind it; this effect provides the lake some great visual depth and insofar makes it appear as though the cave structures in the background--particularly the fissures from which the water is cascading in--are much farther away than they appear. The water dripping from the ceiling provides spatial context, confirming that the cave is indeed underground, probably below a large body of water.
That's how it continues: The first area of Round 2, through which you ride a horse, is an open plain whose enchantingly conveyed overcast atmosphere is defined by its dark-pastel-blue shades and its appropriately dreary environmental features: the cloudy sky and the lake whose surface reflects its somber radiance, the darkened mountains and evergreens seen in the distance, and the graying foliage that occupies the front layers.
There's a creepy, twisted bio lab whose lights constantly flicker on and off yet do little to steal your attention away from the background's disturbing imagery--the surrounding layers' containment chambers that are occupied by unfortunate testing subjects, both human and nonhuman. A slimy sewer formed from layers of sludge and the drainage tunnels from which it pours in. And other impressive settings in which ocean water, cloud-filled skies, cities, skyscrapers, forests (including one that's completely on fire!), mountains, fantastical industrial backdrops, and other attractive imagery scroll along, all around you, and do marvelously to make you feel deeply immersed in Shinobi III's world.
Believe me when I say that Shinobi III is as fun to look at as it is to play!
Shinobi III, more than any other game in the Genesis' library, reminds me of one thing that I really like about Genesis games: the increased horizontal space. The Genesis runs games (in general) at a 320x224 resolution whereas its competitors run them at a mere 256x224. That's 64 more pixels along the x-axis! And Genesis games use that extra real-estate so well; they use it to show off more of their environments, provide you more space in which to operate, and make room for larger, wider enemies!
As someone who plays a lot of SNES games, I can't help but feel envious of that particular specification. I always find myself wishing that the SNES had been made capable of running games at that same 320x224 resolution. I mean, imagine what its games--particularly visually rich games like Super Metroid and Mega Man X--would have been able to do with all of that extra horizontal space! Think about all of the larger environments, fields of views, and boss rooms that might have been!
Really, it sucks that Nintendo always went the cheap route and unnecessarily limited the potential of its machines. You know--like how its hardware team decided to use an outdated 8-bit CPU for the SNES, which worked to plague its games with noticeable and sometimes an embarrassing amount of slowdown. Sure--the console's best games (Super Castlevania IV, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mega Man X, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, et tal.) are able to overcome their slowdown issues by force of will and therein render it a minor annoyance at worst, but it's still sad that it serves to compromise their performance, even if by only a tiny bit.
But yeah--I really like that Genesis games have that extra screen space. It's one of those "wonderfully disparate characteristics" I'm always going on about. It's one of those qualities that helps to make the Genesis such a unique machine.
You could say that it's one of the ways in which Genesis does what Nintendon't.
But Shinobi III scores its highest marks in the area of level design. All of its stage areas are expertly crafted and especially creative; the game is constantly throwing new things at you--new types of challenges--and making sure to innovate on those that are repeated.
There are stage areas that offer straightforward action, sure, but mostly it's the inventive sort: fast-autoscrolling stages through which you ride vehicles (a horse or a surfboard). Vertically scrolling elevator sequences in which you have to both negotiate your way through tricky platforming segments parkour-style and engage in shooting-gallery-style combat. Complexly structured multidirectional stages that invite you to put your many abilities to use and find clever ways to fully explore them and thus access all of their hidden nooks. A stage area in which the end boss shows up in the background, follows along as you progress, and continues to intervene by targeting you for attacks with a moving reticule. Stage areas formed from segments in which you have no choice but to perilously climb along on pipes, landing skids, and such. And a vertical section in which you have to ascend by jumping onto and between large falling rocks--this while constantly under attack!
And it's all executed brilliantly. It's all so well done that you'll get the sense that Shinobi III was made by master video-game designers who had produced classics in multiple genres and were thus eager to put their diverse skill sets to use and impress you in a myriad of ways.
During your first play-through of Shinobi III, you'll spend a lot of time wondering, "What cool idea will it hit me with next?!" And you'll find those moments of wonderment to be some of the best parts of the experience.
Hell--the designers' flair for plotting and structuring is so potent that it got me to like fast-autoscrolling stages, which I normally dread playing through. For as long as I can remember, I've always disliked stages in which you're forced to zip along on motorcycles, jet skis, surfboards, and such (you know--those like Mega Man 8's snowboarding sections and the PlayStation Mega Man X games' Ride Chaser sequences), yet I find the ones in Shinobi III to be really engaging. They flow nicely, their vehicles control well, they're visually immersive, and their action is engrossing.
Basically it's fun to soar through the air and reflexively pick off targets as they appear!
Also, it's cool how you can see said enemies charging or flying across the background before they appear on the stage proper; it's a nice little nod to the original Shinobi's between-stage mini-game, whose enemy ninjas operated in similar fashion.
What's more is that Shinobi III has an outstanding soundtrack. It hits you with one high-spirited, rockin' tune after the next, and, of course, each one exudes that unmistakable Shinobi-series Japanese vibe. Shinobi III's is the type of music that inspires you to dial in, put on your best scowl, and vigorously take to action. The type that motivates you to exuberantly sway from side to side, in rhythm to the beats, as you charge forward and slice down baddies.
It's like that from beginning to end. The music begins to exert its inspiriting influence the moment the intro begins to play--with an awesome main theme whose tremendously rousing emanations fill you with energy and therein immediately secure your full investment (I've got to give a serious look to any game that starts off with this hot beat!" you'll think to yourself upon hearing it)--and continues to do so all throughout the game, in every stage, in every boss fight, and until the credits are done rolling.
Shinobi III's music has it all: excellent sound quality, pleasing instrumentation, great energy, and the power to effectively tell the story of any environment it supplements. For those reasons, its soundtrack is one of the best to be found on the Genesis and on 16-bit machines in general. It's one of those to which Genesis fans can point when they want to make the case that the Genesis' sound hardware can hold its own against competitors' when utilized properly.
Also, Shinobi III has a finely contrived difficulty curve. In the early going, it's easy and accessible; it provides you plenty of opportunity to freely experiment with your abilities and get a feel for the game's controls and mechanics (and, if you're like me, you'll want to use some of this time to intently gaze at the game's striking background work and take in the atmosphere they produce). And then the difficulty increases gradually as you move from one stage area to the next, with none of the incremental increases ever feeling like a huge jump. You'll always feel well-equipped--feel as though what you've learned in previous stages has undoubtedly prepared you for the challenges that lie ahead.
Though, I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of some of the final two stages' platforming challenges because of how they demand heavy use of Joe's frustratingly unreliable double-jumping ability. Half the time, the move simply doesn't work. This would be forgivable if there were always solid, safe ground below, but most of the time there isn't; so it becomes the case that the final stage areas (and particularly the aforementioned falling-rock one) are loaded with do-or-die jumps, and you can wind up losing everything--all of your remaining lives and continues--because a few inputs fail to register.
I wouldn't be as annoyed by this if continues weren't in such short supply. This is a problem with Sega-made Genesis games in general: They're intent on putting too strict a limit on how long you can play them. I mean, I'm fine with a game having an endurance-based challenge--with being asked to clear it within a set amount of time or with a limited amount of lives--but not when some aspect of it is so faulty that all of the skill in the world can't help you to surmount it. Well, that's exactly the kind of game Shinobi III can potentially become if its double jump move is repeatedly failing to work as advertised.
I'm not even asking for unlimited continues. Just give me five or six of them (rather than a paltry 3). Or at least give me the ability to earn extra continues via points-accruement or item-procurement, like you can do in Bionic Commando and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I want to keep playing your games, Sega! So please let me! They're really good, and I hate having to walk away from them because they don't give me enough opportunity to fully invest myself.
Shinobi III, though, is very fair when it comes to item-provision. It's constantly supplying you health pickups, kunai, power-ups and ninjitsu magic. You'll very rarely fail because you're short on some item or another. Also, it's very generous with the checkpoints; hell--it even allows you to continue from stages' halfway points and boss rooms!
Another one of Shinobi III's strengths is its willingness to allow you to set your own pace. It doesn't rush you. It doesn't make you wait. It just hands you control and says, "Here's the world! Traverse it however you like!"
You can play it at a speedy pace--stay in constant motion and establish a beautifully rhythmic flow--or you can tread along slowly--cautiously suss out threats and meticulously calculate your actions (and, yes, spend time taking in the visuals!). And you'll have a great either way.
That's the power of Shinobi III, a top-tier action game that provides you a fun, satisfying experience no matter how you decide to play it.
Closing Thoughts
Shinobi III, more so than QuackShot Starring Donald Duck or Castlevania: Bloodlines, makes me regret the fact that I neglected to explore the Genesis' library back in the mid-90s, during that year-and-a-half-long period when I owned the console. Had I discovered it back then, in my teen years, I surely would have fallen deeply in love with it.
Well, thank goodness for second chances. It may have taken 26 years for it to happen, but finally our paths did cross. Shinobi III and I became acquaintances And that--our coming together--stands as one of the best highlights of my journey into the medium's history. It really is that good. In fact, I consider it to be the Genesis' Mega Man X equivalent--an awesome side-scrolling action game that comes to be defined by its explosive action, stunning graphics, amazing visual effects, wonderfully engrossing world, and rockin' soundtrack. And much like Mega Man X, Shinobi III goes out of its way to make you feel like you're in control of a stacked superhero--one who could meet and overcome any challenge. That's everything you could want from an action game.
I'm so happy to have discovered it.
The G.G. Shinobi will always be my favorite entry in the series, yeah, but I can't deny that Shinobi III is objectively the better game. It's just too good to be ranked below any other game in the series. It's much superior, I'd say, to Shadow Dancer, The Revenge of Shinobi, Shinobi II: The Silent Fury and the rest of the arcade and Genesis Shinobi titles, none of which possess the same high level of class or refinement. It's the crème de la crème--a superstar standing above mere all-stars.
Really, Shinobi III is just an awesome video game in general. It has it all: Tight controls. Fun, satisfying action. Cool fight moves. Innovative level design. Interesting, intense boss fights. Amazing art direction. Impressive, sometimes-stunning visuals (wait till you lay eyes on the the final boss room's wavy background animations, which manage to be all at once freaky, surreal and awe-inspiring) that do a phenomenal job of creating a world whose every setting has the power to thoroughly enchant you. Great animation. Outstanding sound design. A jammin' soundtrack. An ideal difficulty curve. The perfect length. And strong replayability. Everything that will make you want to return to it again and again.
Trust me, action-game fans: You don't want to miss Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master. It truly is one of the 16-bit era's finest.
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