The G.G. Shinobi (ザ・GG忍) is a side-scrolling action game by Sega released for the Game Gear in 1991. It was the first Shinobi game developed specifically for a portable game platform. The player controls the modern-day ninja Joe Musashi, the protagonist of previous Shinobi games, as he goes on a mission to rescue four kidnapped comrades from an enemy, gaining control of the other ninjas (each with different abilities) as the game progresses in a manner inspired by Mega Man.
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Pretty brutally difficult but honestly a really fun game.
The music is pretty fantastic and the visuals are pretty good for the platform.
The different ninja abilities and the open ended design of the levels are very unique for the series and are really fun.
Glad I got to play this one! Though it's definitely pretty skipabble.
The music is pretty fantastic and the visuals are pretty good for the platform.
The different ninja abilities and the open ended design of the levels are very unique for the series and are really fun.
Glad I got to play this one! Though it's definitely pretty skipabble.
I’m not gonna lie to y’all, I wasn’t looking forward to playing this game at all. I didn’t necessarily think it was gonna be terrible, certainly not as bad as the last Shinobi game that I played, but after The Cyber Shinobi left just an awful taste in my mouth, I was extremely put off from this series for a while. However, giving up on the entire series just because of one rotten entry wouldn’t be fair, so I figured I would go ahead and venture forward in this series to see if Shinobi can get its groove back, one way or another. So far in this series, we have had several arcade titles and plenty of console titles, but we haven’t had any instances where the series would tackle a handheld game. Kind of surprising, considering how many other franchises jumped on this bandwagon as soon as they could, but I guess Shinobi wanted to take its time in that regard. But, eventually, it would join the crowd with the release of the first handheld Shinobi game, The G.G. Shinobi.
When going into this game, I didn’t really have any high expectations whatsoever. I figured it would just be yet another Shinobi game, but it just so happened to be released on the Game Gear, and that was the only change. So, after playing it, I can definitely say that I was… half-way right. It is, more or less just another Shinobi game, and it was now on the Game Gear, but they do change some things up this time around, but not enough to where I would ever go back to this. So, with that in mind, I would simply say that this game is just ok, as it doesn’t do anything really anything that wrong, but there is really no reason to seek this game out if you were curious about it.
The story is, what a shocker, evil has taken over the land of Ninja Valley, and a bunch of other ninjas from your clan are captured, so it is up to you to go and save them, so it is a pretty standard Shinobi plot all around, nothing to really latch onto or get that mad at, the graphics are pretty good for the Game Gear, and it does resemble a Shinobi game, which is a lot better then I can say for other titles on the system, the music is alright, consisting of a lot of the typical tracks that you would hear not just from a Shinobi game, but one that was made on the Game Gear, the control is mostly what you would expect from one of these games, and it is kind of stiff, but nothing that you can’t get a grasp of, and the gameplay is mostly run-of-the-mill for this series, but there are one or two new additions to the formula this time around.
The game is still an average action 2D platformer, where you take control of one of five ninjas, take on a bunch of stages that are themed on what you would usually see from this game, take out a bunch of enemies using either regular attacks or super attacks that you can find lying around, gather plenty of health, extra lives, and super attacks from item boxes scattered throughout each stage to help you out along your journey, and take on a set of simple bosses, ones that will give you a hard time once you first encounter them, but once you figure out their patterns, they go down pretty easily. It is, more or less, everything that you would expect from a typical Shinobi game, but to give it some credit, it does have several unique element that no other game in the series has had until now. That at least helps out with the monotony.
First of all, similarly to Mega Man, in the beginning, you are given the choice of taking on the stage in whatever order you want, which not only gives the game some kind of replayability, but is also a nice change from previous Shinobi games, where you were always going in a set order for all of the stages. The second, and undeniably biggest change to this game, would be with the other ninjas. At the end of each of the main four stages, you will rescue one of your ninja brothers, who’s only difference compared to you is that they are a different color, so this game is essentially just Mighty Morphin’ Power Ninjas. But, what does make them stick out is that each of them has a unique weapon that they can use to take on enemies and tackle stages, such as with the pink ninja throwing bombs, and the blue ninja having this chain whip he throws out at enemies. Not only that, but each one of them also has their own unique special moves, which not only help out in taking out enemies and bosses, but can also help you out in traversing several levels that are otherwise impossible without them, so that is cool that the special moves are now more useful than just being a last resort.
Unfortunately though, none of that can save the game from, again, being your typical Shinobi game. Everything that you would expect from one of these games is present here, ranging from the enemies, the locations, and even with the boss designs, and while this may satisfy the most die-hard Shinobi fans, I was already starting to get sick of this formula that wasn’t getting any major changes to keep the game fresh. The addition of other ninjas to play as is nice, but you are gonna have to do a little better than that to make me like this series again. Not to mention, the final stage SUCKS. It is essentially a giant maze stage, where you go through plenty of these rooms with different deadly traps, which not only are extremely frustrating to navigate half the time, but you also have to redo multiple times if you go down the wrong fact. This is also paired with having to refight pretty much all of the previous bosses depending on which direction you take, and as you can imagine, it is not a fun time at all. It is a unique approach to a final level for a Shinobi game, but one that I am not welcoming in the slightest.
Overall, despite not doing too much wrong overall, and having some appreciated changes, this is basically just “the handheld Shinobi” and nothing more, being exactly what you would expect in both the best and worst ways possible. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fans of Shinobi, as well as those looking for more quality games to play on the Game Gear, but for everyone else, there really is no reason to seek this title out whatsoever. It did end up getting a direct sequel, so hopefully that entry changes things up, but honestly, I don’t really have too many high hopes. Also, The G.G. Shinobi is just a stupid name, anyway. I guess they wanted to distinguish this from the other titles somehow, but they could’ve given it a cool subtitle like “Shinobi Warriors” or something like that, but no, we get The G.G. Shinobi instead. 10/10.
Game #380
When going into this game, I didn’t really have any high expectations whatsoever. I figured it would just be yet another Shinobi game, but it just so happened to be released on the Game Gear, and that was the only change. So, after playing it, I can definitely say that I was… half-way right. It is, more or less just another Shinobi game, and it was now on the Game Gear, but they do change some things up this time around, but not enough to where I would ever go back to this. So, with that in mind, I would simply say that this game is just ok, as it doesn’t do anything really anything that wrong, but there is really no reason to seek this game out if you were curious about it.
The story is, what a shocker, evil has taken over the land of Ninja Valley, and a bunch of other ninjas from your clan are captured, so it is up to you to go and save them, so it is a pretty standard Shinobi plot all around, nothing to really latch onto or get that mad at, the graphics are pretty good for the Game Gear, and it does resemble a Shinobi game, which is a lot better then I can say for other titles on the system, the music is alright, consisting of a lot of the typical tracks that you would hear not just from a Shinobi game, but one that was made on the Game Gear, the control is mostly what you would expect from one of these games, and it is kind of stiff, but nothing that you can’t get a grasp of, and the gameplay is mostly run-of-the-mill for this series, but there are one or two new additions to the formula this time around.
The game is still an average action 2D platformer, where you take control of one of five ninjas, take on a bunch of stages that are themed on what you would usually see from this game, take out a bunch of enemies using either regular attacks or super attacks that you can find lying around, gather plenty of health, extra lives, and super attacks from item boxes scattered throughout each stage to help you out along your journey, and take on a set of simple bosses, ones that will give you a hard time once you first encounter them, but once you figure out their patterns, they go down pretty easily. It is, more or less, everything that you would expect from a typical Shinobi game, but to give it some credit, it does have several unique element that no other game in the series has had until now. That at least helps out with the monotony.
First of all, similarly to Mega Man, in the beginning, you are given the choice of taking on the stage in whatever order you want, which not only gives the game some kind of replayability, but is also a nice change from previous Shinobi games, where you were always going in a set order for all of the stages. The second, and undeniably biggest change to this game, would be with the other ninjas. At the end of each of the main four stages, you will rescue one of your ninja brothers, who’s only difference compared to you is that they are a different color, so this game is essentially just Mighty Morphin’ Power Ninjas. But, what does make them stick out is that each of them has a unique weapon that they can use to take on enemies and tackle stages, such as with the pink ninja throwing bombs, and the blue ninja having this chain whip he throws out at enemies. Not only that, but each one of them also has their own unique special moves, which not only help out in taking out enemies and bosses, but can also help you out in traversing several levels that are otherwise impossible without them, so that is cool that the special moves are now more useful than just being a last resort.
Unfortunately though, none of that can save the game from, again, being your typical Shinobi game. Everything that you would expect from one of these games is present here, ranging from the enemies, the locations, and even with the boss designs, and while this may satisfy the most die-hard Shinobi fans, I was already starting to get sick of this formula that wasn’t getting any major changes to keep the game fresh. The addition of other ninjas to play as is nice, but you are gonna have to do a little better than that to make me like this series again. Not to mention, the final stage SUCKS. It is essentially a giant maze stage, where you go through plenty of these rooms with different deadly traps, which not only are extremely frustrating to navigate half the time, but you also have to redo multiple times if you go down the wrong fact. This is also paired with having to refight pretty much all of the previous bosses depending on which direction you take, and as you can imagine, it is not a fun time at all. It is a unique approach to a final level for a Shinobi game, but one that I am not welcoming in the slightest.
Overall, despite not doing too much wrong overall, and having some appreciated changes, this is basically just “the handheld Shinobi” and nothing more, being exactly what you would expect in both the best and worst ways possible. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fans of Shinobi, as well as those looking for more quality games to play on the Game Gear, but for everyone else, there really is no reason to seek this title out whatsoever. It did end up getting a direct sequel, so hopefully that entry changes things up, but honestly, I don’t really have too many high hopes. Also, The G.G. Shinobi is just a stupid name, anyway. I guess they wanted to distinguish this from the other titles somehow, but they could’ve given it a cool subtitle like “Shinobi Warriors” or something like that, but no, we get The G.G. Shinobi instead. 10/10.
Game #380
Amazing game for the GG, a must play if you are able to!
Posiblemente uno de los mejores juegos de Game Gear y uno de los mejores Shinobis de todos los tiempos.
Gráficamente es brutal para dicha portátil, jugablemente es muy divertido y exigente, y tiene una banda sonora soberbia; compuesta, una vez más, por el genio Yuzo Koshiro.
Podemos elegir por qué fase empezar, aunque si nos sabemos la ruta óptima será más sencillo y podremos coger todos los "power-ups".
Destaca el poder cambiar de ninjas con sus propias habilidades, algo único en la serie Shinobi.
Si le he quitado media estrella es debido a la dificultad del nivel final, pues en mi opinión abusa demasiado de que si no te sabes la fase, vas a tener que repetir bastantes veces los mismos sectores.
Obviamente soy consciente de que esto buscaba que el juego te durase más, pero a día de hoy me es imposible no penalizarlo de algún modo.
Si os mola Shinobi o los juegos de ninjas, tenéis que jugar a esta joya.
Gráficamente es brutal para dicha portátil, jugablemente es muy divertido y exigente, y tiene una banda sonora soberbia; compuesta, una vez más, por el genio Yuzo Koshiro.
Podemos elegir por qué fase empezar, aunque si nos sabemos la ruta óptima será más sencillo y podremos coger todos los "power-ups".
Destaca el poder cambiar de ninjas con sus propias habilidades, algo único en la serie Shinobi.
Si le he quitado media estrella es debido a la dificultad del nivel final, pues en mi opinión abusa demasiado de que si no te sabes la fase, vas a tener que repetir bastantes veces los mismos sectores.
Obviamente soy consciente de que esto buscaba que el juego te durase más, pero a día de hoy me es imposible no penalizarlo de algún modo.
Si os mola Shinobi o los juegos de ninjas, tenéis que jugar a esta joya.