Reviewed by CL on 6/19/2004
Here's another game with mixed reviews. On one hand, it is a cool, flowing, stylee game with great controls and great gameplay. On the other hand, it's a repetitive, uninspired game with controller breaking difficulty. Let's start with the positives.
Shinobi offers a lot of quick, instant action that is reminiscent of the original arcade game. The character also has very tight controls and has a multitude of moves that includes swordplay, wall running, throws stars, and many other moves. This makes the gameplay memorable since you have an extremely nimble character. However, all the nimbleness in the world isn't going to save you from cheap enemies, impossible bosses, and lots of blind leaps into bottomless pits. And thus begins the negatives of this game. This game is really, really difficult. In isn't difficult in a challenging way, it is difficult in a cheap way. The game doesn't seem like a hard game, you can be moving along fine and playing for 20 minutes with no problem (and no save spot either) and then suddenly, you'll turn a corner and fall into a bottomless pit. It’s this kind of cheap move that makes the game really frustrating. And the bosses are ridiculously difficult. All of them pretty much require that you combo off another 8 guys before trying to attack them. This becomes a pattern throughout the game and it gets really repetitive.
In conclusion, this game is fun for about the first 20 tries, but when you're spending more than that trying to beat a single level; it gets really frustration and annoying. I only beat the game so that I would never have any reason to pick it up again. In my opinion, I would stay away from this game; it's not worth the grief.
