RadioSEGA Review: Shinobi (3DS)

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RWDebara
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RadioSEGA Review: Shinobi (3DS)

Post by RWDebara »

Bringing back a dead franchise can be a difficult task for many companies, most failing to bring back the spirit of what made the franchise great. After missing for almost a decade can SEGA and Griptonite Games bring back the famous arcade hit “Shinobi” on the 3DS? Or should this series stay dead after all these years.
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Game: Shinobi

Developer: Griptonite Games

Publisher: :SEGA:

Released: November 2011 (3DS)
STORY
The game starts off in 1256 A.D. Japan where you play as Jiro Musashi , Joe Musashi father. While meditating with his teacher in a Dojo, the village gets attacked by a group of Ninjas. After fighting your way through the village to the end of the level the plot starts showing its true face. Anyone that has played any Shinobi games before should know most of the plots tend to be … silly, and Griptonite embraces this trend with a very loose silly tale. Jiro is then thrown into the future to 2056 where he’s being chased by soldiers and futuristic ninjas, fighting his way through cities and secret underground bases then ends with an alien invasion.

This plot progression is very reminiscent of a lot of classic arcade games which barley had anything that progresses the story besides a few screen caps between levels. The plot here is told through beautiful animated cut scenes between a couple levels throwing Jiro into ridiculous situations, the rest you have to connect the dots yourself by jumping from level to level.

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GAMEPLAY
Just like classic Shinobi games this game is in a 2D perspective and is very combat heavy. The game offers quite a lot of moves you can do with Jiro from short to long range sword attacks, air attacks, magic, and throwing stars. Some other basic moves you can do that can help you navigate through the levels is sliding, parry, a grapple hook, wall jumping and double jump which could help in some sticky situations. Thanks to tight controls it won’t take you long to master these moves after a few levels which are filled with enemies and precision plat-forming.

This game has four different difficulty levels to offer from Beginner to Very Hard but it must be said this game is insanely hard no matter what difficulty you pick. After jumping into normal I had to quit and start in Beginner to actually progress through the game after dying countless times in the first level alone but even in beginner mode you may have a hard time progressing. Beginner offers infinite lives, less damage and more checkpoints while the others offer a certain amount of them, for example in Very Hard mode there’s no save-points, enemy attacks can force you to lose half or all your health, and once you lose all your lives and continues you have to start the game all over again. Many casual gamers may have a hard time getting into this game but anyone who grew up with quarter-eating arcade machines may enjoy the challenge after all these years of games becoming easier and easier.

This game has a handful of enemies that are thrown at you, but instead of running into battle you must study their moves and attack when you see an opening. You must look at losing a life to not be an option in this game if you wish to beat any difficulty level besides beginner, jumping into battle is a good way to lose one. Luckily every enemy has a certain pattern and weak spot to them so you must time your moves perfectly to get a good blow at them to wipe them out. Thankfully moves like parry that can deflect throwing stars and sliding to slide underneath them when they do an air attack can become quite useful into winning the battle.

The game uses a point system which will grade you at the end of every level, for points you must do a lot of combos and some unique attacks to get the most points available. Getting hurt will force you to lose points while dying will force you to lose every point you earned so better hope you don’t die during the boss sequences. Using magic will give you less points than normal attacks since magic is very over powered and its main use for it is to get you out of some difficult situations. There are 4 different magic attacks, Fire which all your attacks will become more powerful, Earth will auto-parry and your attack moves increase in speed, Lighting makes you immune to damage from 3 hits, and Water can make you run faster and jump higher. You should save these for a very difficult situation because once you use it once you won’t be able to use it again until you find a hidden scroll within the level.

The game has a few items and collectables through every level of the game. Mentioned before Scrolls will give you the ability to use your magic again, Chicken allows you to regain health, Throwing stars which replenishes and gives your throwing star a special ability like lighting for a short time, and coins which each level has 3 hidden somewhere which is a fun and good edition for completionist. Each item is usually hidden with a crate which you can break but be careful the bomb returns from previous games which are hidden within various crates.

Another edition to this game is some difficult precision plat-forming. Each level has a handful of these which one mistake can force you to lose health or lose a life completely so tread carefully. These usually require you to jump onto platforms over death pits, or wall jumping over spikes and enemies to get to a safe location. It’s a shame this game doesn’t have more moments like these to break up some of the action since this is probably one of the strongest aspects the game has to offer.

Unfortunately during some platforming segments there are some questionable enemy placements that can easily push you to your death which to be honest isn’t fair, so you must be wary of what’s around the corner. Another disappointment is there are only a handful of enemy types to fight through the game, some more variations would have been nice so after fighting loads of the same enemy the game quickly becomes repetitive and boring after a few levels. Another strong aspect is the boss sequences which are fun and memorable. (Don’t tell me fighting a giant robot shark isn’t memorable) Just like normal enemies you must find the pattern and take advantage of their weak spot to finish them but keep a good look at your health, you may get distracted by them.

Last gameplay feature is a few minigames you can play at the end of a few levels. These range from a throwing-star challenge, riding a horse avoiding obstacles and slashing enemies, and my favorite riding on top of a jet slashing enemies to their death while the afterburner theme is blasting in the background. These games are mostly to gain some extra points to improve your score in the end and a good way to break up the gameplay.
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PRESENTATION
The game opens up to a very impressive visual presentation with a beautiful art style with the first level. The first level alone ranges from a burning down village, mountain caves, rivers, and a snowy peak which looked stunning which reminded me of some cel-shaded games.

Unfortunately when Jiro is thrown into the future the presentation makes a nose dive due to some boring locations like a dark city filled with average looking buildings and levels mostly containing boring hallways. It’s a shame they didn’t try to do more like what the opening level had to offer. The only other memorable parts of the game has to be the boss battles which ranges from ice ghost, tanks, super mutants, robots, and my favorite a giant robot shark. Almost each one had a distinct moment or stunning visuals which will stay fresh in your mind till the end of the game.

The game also has to offer a lot of collectables which gives the game more replay value besides the difficulty ranges. Coins, Achievements, Artwork, and Music, this game has much more to do after you finish the game.
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MUSIC
Music isn’t a strong aspect of this game. With only a few that stands out most are forgettable since a lot are just your basic action music on a loop. Would have nice to hear some great tunes that fits each level but this is not the case, but hey at least the after burner theme is in here, right?
3D
This game is stunning in 3D, unlike most 3DS games it adds a lot of depth within the level. Almost like if you can break away from the 2D perspective and actually walk around and since the game doesn’t have a lot of action moments with a lot of movements it didn’t bother my eyes or distracted me from the gameplay. A few occasions I even forgot the 3D was off. It’s a damn shame there’s a lot of tight corridors in this game so in the end the 3D is only a nice feature in the few open levels the game has to offer.
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VVV VERDICT BELOW VVV
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RWDebara
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Post by RWDebara »

VERDICT
After finishing the game after playing it twice on Beginners and Normal I was a bit frustrated with the cheap deaths and lack of enemies and locations but while writing this review I remembered a lot of fun moments and realized this game has more good than bad. Is this made for your average gamer? No. Is this one of the best games I played on the 3DS? No, but it was an adventure worth having and I think SEGA and Griptonite Games did succeed of bringing back the spirit of this franchise with this game and it defiantly deserves to be have the Shinobi name on it and defiantly should be on every Shinobi fans radar. Is this a game worth adding to my the 3DS library? Yes.

PROS:
-Good Challenge
-High Replayability
-Lots of Content
-3D
-Arcade Feel

CONS:
-Cheap Deaths
-Bland Level Locations
-Enemy Variations
-Repetitive Combat
-Lack of Platforming

3/5
Robot Shark...
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