I was never a Sega kid growing up. I caught onto the Dreamcast late in its life, but I missed the glory days of the Sega Genesis. Thankfully, ports, digital downloads and game compilations let me experience many of these titles while I still put off buying their older platforms.
Shinobi might be the only pre-Saturn Sega series that I’ve really grown fond of. I fell in love with the traditional side scrolling action in Shinobi III, and later enjoyed the multi-planed arcade game and Shadow Dancer. These older titles are stiff in comparison to later entries, but I enjoy the visual style across the series. It’s a mix of feudal japan, modern cities and even sometimes futuristic laboratories.
One of the oddities in the original arcade game is that enemy swords will deal damage even if they’re not attacking. If you jump onto a enemy’s blade at any point, you’ll die.
At first it may seem a bit unfair. But if you touch an enemy, and not their weapon, you simply bounce off them. It’s a nice alternative to most games where you instantly die no matter where you touch them.
