After eight years since the last entry in the arcade and home console Shinobi series, which has appeared not only in arcades, but also on the Genesis and the PS2, the ninja master is back, and he is going to kick some ass.
For those not in the know, Shinobi is traditionally a side-scrolling game in which you play a ninja who uses swords, shurikens, and powerful jutsu to obliterate the Japanese crime syndicates composed of ninjas, disguised assassins, shadow dancers, and military soldiers. All of them excellent games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONs8UvZswgI&feature=player_embedded
Shinobi for the 3DS follows the traditional 2D gameplay of the arcade and genesis titles with several new quirks and abilities as seen in the above trailer. Musashi still has the double jump and the shuriken spread that goes with it, but has also added a helmbreaker attack to his family’s arsenal, sharply improved his melee combat with combos and blocking, and plenty of new jutsu.
The graphics of the trailer aren’t looking far too impressive to be honest, but as it’s still in development they’ll likely be sharpened up quite a lot. If not, it’ll still have a unique look to it. Consider this a launch-day purchase for me if I ever get around to buying a 3DS.
I guess the gameplay could be compared to Viewtiful Joe, rewarding players for extended and skillful combos, and possibly having to do specific combos to defeat an enemy or expose its weakness. The company behind this have a pretty solid record of making faithful handheld games based on existing IPs, and they know how high the bar is for the countless fans of the ninja master.
The first thing I’m going to do when I get it is set the shuriken amount to zero and set the sound effect to shuriken and see what happens. In the original games, that gave you infinite shuriken. They better keep that gem in for the faithful!
