While The Revenge of Shinobi felt more like a refinement of the things introduced in the original Shinobi, Shinobi III feels like a proper evolution of the series!

While not much as changed on how you control Joe Musashi, being able to run and wall jump really does add a lot more to the gameplay, and makes it feel much more fast-paced!

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous for the Mega Drive and the stages are all super well done!

There's more variety in what you do too, for example, in Stage 2, you're riding on a horse through open fields while enemies are coming at ya.
It helps keep the game from getting stale, and it continues being fun from beginning to end, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of the final boss.

And yeah, the bosses were also tightly designed and pretty fun to take down!

Also, may I bring up how great the soundtrack is? Like, in retrospect, there were barely any pieces of music from the last two games that I remembered, and in the case of the last stage from The Revenge of Shinobi, that shit got annoying.

But Shinobi III has a lot of great songs, and some of them really make you feel like a ninja shinobi!

All in all, Shinobi III was a really good time and so far, might be my favourite in the series!

To really understand just how good this game is, I highly recommend a no-kunai playthrough(1). Despite being an unofficial mode, there is just a single obstacle which can't be easily passed without kunai. Even then, you have options - offensive ninjutsu will clear it, and there is even advanced movement tech which allows for a pure melee approach. In any case, it's totally viable without glitches or speedrun strats - you don't need to throw a single kunai to beat the game.

What I think really elevates the game isn't that this is possible, but how fun it becomes to engage with every obstacle without kunai. It's harder, yes, but this isn't a bullshit challenge run, the game is actually more interesting this way. You aren't hanging back chipping away at bosses, you're in their face, using the full extent of your abilities - guarding, divekicking and exploiting the running slash's i-frames for stylish as fuck boss kills. You have to actually learn how to deal with their attacks - it's difficult to express just how much more engaging the final boss becomes when you can't just spam kunai. Overall, I was particularly impressed by how well-balanced the game remains - the increased risk is nicely offset by your increased lethality. It's incredibly satisfying, and ever since I tried this mode, it's my preferred way to play. If you think you've mastered this game, give it a shot.

(1) The easiest way to experience this - download Najar's Shinobi III Enhancement Patch. However, there are options - you can use six-button mode for a dedicated melee button (though be careful of the double jump kunai burst, which still triggers). Alternatively, you can set the starting amount to 0 and either avoid kunai pickups, or use the game genie code RFST-G6ZC to receive 0 kunai from pickups. No matter your setup, there's a way to make it work.

Eu joguei pela primeira vez e não sabia metade do que fiz nesta última jogatina porque não tinha lido nada no manual do jogo. Me surpreendi bastante porque acabei vendo o jogo de outra perspectiva e porra... que SURPRESA!!!

Em questão gráfica, não há nada demais sem ser um jogo de Mega Drive que foi feito pela SEGA e toda a engine do jogo é baseado em Street of Rage descaradamente e pra ser sincero nem sei que veio primeiro: se o ovo ou a galinha. Não peca em nada em ser muito bem feito, bem padrão do Meguinha.

Todas as músicas são boas e não há nenhuma exceção. Aquela fase que ele está surfando é muito foda e da pra ver o quão durão é o Joe Musashi, indo atrás daquela merda toda ao som praiano que apenas o soundchip da Yamaha consegue executar com perfeição. A banda toda está ali, diferente do mid daquele outro console.

O controle é muito responsível e chega até dar ódio de jogar este jogo por causa disso. Se por ventura, você não conseguir jogar isto com excelência no seu emulador, não é tua culpa, o jogo é um inferno na última fase. Use e abuse do jutsu que te faz pular e... não saia do canto esquerdo quando você chegar no chefe que voa porque ele é um inútil.

Assim como todo jogo de Mega Drive: nível DIFÍCIL. Apanhei bastante para voltar ao jogo e mostrar que sou ninja sim a todos, posso não ter gostado do jogo de primeira, mas quando retornei, voltei o verdade ninja brasileiro. Não perdi muito continue, apenas na última fase que sugou todas as minhas energias para aprender a usar o pulo duplo e advinhe... não consegui e arreguei para o jutsu de pulo mais uma vez. Depois o inferno retornou e o restante da fase quase acabou com minha alegria em chegar até o fim do jogo sem gastar nada.

Jogão. Sem mais. Na segunda jogatina, você consegue. Persista, amigo ninja.

The best of the classic Shinobis , bar none. Although the janky double jump from the previous installment persists, almost everything else has been improved for the better. Running, wall jumping and the dive kick are incredibly satisfying to use. Although levels are super linear this time around, there are a few added nooks and crannies to seek out. The bosses here are unforgettable- the highlight being a monster that attacks you from the background for a stage before finally rearing its ugly face in a one on one at the end of the round.

Perhaps the biggest improvement here from Revenge is how the final stage is handled. In Revenge, you're up against a crappy looping "pick-a-door" scenario. Even after replaying that game many times, I still find it to be kind of stupid. Here, you're in for a platforming gauntlet that tests all of your skills that caps off with an intense climb to the top of a tower before you're crushed. I absolutely loved it and look forward to it every time I revisit this game.

Oh yeah...and the music is also peak Genesis. I'm not sure if I'd say it's better than Revenge of Shinobi's tracks, but they are definitely on the same level at least.

For the longest time, I was… unsure how my relationship with Shinobi was going. I mean, it kept showering me with as much love as it could give, in the form of as many games to play as I could feasibly stomach, but after a while, it started to get boring. Sure, the games were still relatively good, excluding some titles which were either really good or flat-out terrible, but aside from a few changes here or there, it was just more of the same, over and over again, with no signs of stopping. But hey, I have good faith that it will bounce back, otherwise why would Sega have kept pumping them out at the time (aside from the fact that its Sega)? So, I may as well go ahead and check out the next mainline entry in the series, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, to see if it got its shit together.

For the longest time, I had assumed that this was yet another Shinobi game to add to the pile, and nothing more than that, but when I looked into it a little more, I figured out that this is a different story. Out of all of the Shinobi games at this point, this one was considered to be the best of the bunch, and is considered to be one of the best games ever released on the Sega Genesis. That was some high praise from what looked like a generic sequel, but then when I decided to actually play the game for myself, I then completed understood where all that praise came from. While it isn’t perfect by any means, this was a fantastic game, one that has made me love the series again, and one that is definitely the best game in the series so far.

The story is as barebones as it gets, with Neo Zeed returning once again to spread chaos all over the world, so it is up to Joe Musashi to rise to the occasion once again to take him out, which is so basic to the point where I could complain about it, but considering all of the games in this series have skimped on plot as well, it wouldn’t be worth getting mad about. The graphics are pretty great, not looking too much better when put side-by-side with Revenge of Shinobi, but it still overall has a great look to it, and the sprites for characters and enemies, especially bosses, and wonderful, the music is fantastic, having plenty of jamming tunes that are not only energetic, but perfectly fit what is going on at that point, the control is about the same as other Shinobi games, except now with plenty of new moves to pull off, which work well for the most part, except for the double jumping being a little wonky, and the gameplay is mostly the same as the other titles in the series, but it does enough to make going through another one of these games fun and exciting again.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Joe Musashi once again, go through a set of seven different rounds each containing their own separate sections, slice your way through many different enemies that will try to stop you in your tracks by using either your main attack or several special attacks, gather plenty of different powerups, health items, and special attacks to help you out on your journey, and take on plenty of small yet quick or big yet threatening bosses. Once again, the mechanics for this game remains relatively unchanged from the previous games, but what it does manage to do is make this gameplay fun once again, having the game go at a pretty solid pace that always makes things fast and exciting, as well as invigorating whenever you take down a challenging obstacle, or even a new stage type introduced in the game.

One of the main factors that makes this game much better then previous outings is the emphasis on speed that is present here. The game was made deliberately to focus on speed and be faster, much more so than the other titles in the series (because, you know… Sonic), and this game manages to accomplish this by not only giving you a run that you can now use at any time, but also by keeping the levels pretty straightforward for the most part to where you can focus more on action rather than other elements. What also helps this greatly is with the amount of new maneuvers and attacks you can pull off, such as a running slash, being able to jump off of walls, and a downward kick that can be extremely helpful in certain situations. All of these moves are very fun to pull off, and they keep the action flowing at a steady pace, while being very useful when they are applied. And finally, one other aspect of the game that does make it more exciting is the obstacles that are placed for you to deal with. There are plenty of different hazards and roadblocks you will need to deal with, each presenting a different way of you needing to progress forward, and while they can be pretty hard at points, they don’t feel unfair. It was really fun exploring these areas and figuring out what to do next to progress for most of the levels, and even if I did fuck up, I didn’t feel discouraged from trying again.

Now, despite all that, I wouldn’t say that this game is perfect all the way through, because it still does have some factors that weigh it down for me. In many ways, this is still yet another Shinobi game, so if you are looking for something new and exciting from the franchise (which is a genuine concern at this point when we are EIGHT ENTRIES IN), then you won’t be getting too much bang for your buck. Yeah, what is introduced here manages to make the game much more fun and exciting for me, but I can’t say that will be true for everybody. Alongside this, while most of the levels and segments were fun to traverse through, there were some that were just a slog to get through, such as several elevator sections, and even one segment that is a maze. Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I typically don’t like mazes in video games, especially ones that don’t give you clear indicators for where to go next, so the maze that you do have to go through in this game does hinder it, despite everything else around it being good.

Overall, despite not too much change being present and some annoying segments/levels here or there, this is definitely the best game in the Shinobi franchise so far, and a massive improvement over not just Revenge of Shinobi, but all of the other Shinobi games that had come out after that title. I would highly recommend it for those who are fans of the series, as well as those looking for more quality titles to check out from the Sega Genesis, because I can definitely recommend this game over the other Shinobi titles, and it gets my stamp of approval. Glad to see that this series finally managed to pick up on the slack and deliver on the goods once again. Now I will move onto other stuff, and I will look forward to inevitably being disappointed by Shinobi Legions.

Game #466

Shinobi III is one of the best action games on the Genesis and still the best game in the very good Shinobi series. Everything clicks - the controls are tight and once mastered allow for precision movement. Which is good, because by the end of the game, precision movement is required. The move set is greatly expanded from Revenge of Shinobi. Musashi can sprint now, enabling speedy travel through levels and a way to quickly close the distance on enemies, capped with a lunging attack. Jump kicks, wall jumps, clinging to and clambering across ceilings - these actions once mastered enable us to flow through levels in style, and it feels amazing to not just overcome the challenges of the game, but doing so with style and a flourish.

The graphics are exceptional, with excellent animation for all characters and enemies, good effects work and clear, well detailed environmental and character designs. Every level is given depth through some of the most extensive parallax on the Genesis. The soundtrack is somehow up to the task of following Yuzo Koshiro's legendary work in Revenge of Shinobi, with a widely varied score spanning tracks that are slower and atmospheric when it suits the level to straight up rock (the jet ski sequences). Every track is great, and I still listen to this OST regularly all these years later.

But the true star here is the level design: every stage introduces new ideas and challenges, and they slowly make increasing use of verticality and require exploration in order to progress. Each presents several initial opportunities to make use of moves like wall climbing to get a feel for it before later requiring it to both advance and find secrets. Pure action stages on horseback or the aforementioned jet ski break up the longer levels, and the game climaxes in a pair of long and very intense platforming stages that epitomize the 'tough but fair' game design, making the game incredibly salifying to clear. Everything from the health and ammo systems to the abundance of secret stashes of supplies is tuned to walk that line.

This was my favorite Genesis action game when I was a kid, and probably my most replayed game ever. Playing it again for the first time in many years, I was struck at how well it holds up. Solid game design never ages. This game simply rocks.

Played on Genesis mini.

This game has incredibly rewarding design. It has limited lives and continues but they feel purposeful in that the game is pushing you to get better with each playthrough. I streamed this game for my channel (link below). In my first playthrough I made it to the final level and lost all of my continues. In my second, I was able to get to the final boss with all my continues, but lost all of my continues trying to fight him. It was a crushing defeat that felt bad to me. After a while though, I wanted to try again. I streamed it again a couple days later and I was able to beat it with all of my continues in tact.

The reason I was able to go back to this again and again is because of how well designed every sequence of this is. The controls are a little weird to learn at first, but are incredibly fun once you master them. It's one of the best controlling 2D action platformers I've played yet. This is also carried by its carefully designed and varied levels. Every challenge feels fair and the games rising difficulty is expertly tuned. It also just has awesome level themes and the music really enhances the experience. The boss fights are incredibly sick, the final boss is a huge highlight, it was the perfect way to end the game. My only issue with this game is that it could have used proper support for the six button controller. I didn't know you could block by holding the attack button for the longest time. Also having Kunai and the sword mapped to the same button is incredibly silly. But these are things I was able to learn and adapt to.

I don't have any major problems with this one honestly. It just got better and more refined the more I played it. Conquering it felt like a great accomplishment. I consider it a definitive action platformer that I think everyone should play.

https://youtu.be/IL2gYrQBLbY?si=lIB6H2nFowgZOhDU

[Mega Drive Collection PS4]

I enjoyed this so much more than Shadow Dancer. It’s like a highly evolved version of Revenge of Shinobi. The graphics are excellent, the music is good (with a couple of bangers). The gameplay is solid, if slightly frustrating towards the end of the game. Initially I played through with liberal use of the rewind function and save states. I found the experience far more enjoyable the second time around after I discovered a couple of cheats for infinite shurikens and invincibility.

Review se eu não tivesse jogado com save state: CARALHO VAI SE FUDER QUE RETA FINAL FILHA DA PUTA

Review com save state: Esse jogo é bom pra caralho, música insana, visual irado, controles muito bons, o uso dos efeitos do Mega Drive são impecaveis, os bosses são muito fodas e a luta final é iradissima, jogaço

Como joguei com Save State vai aí essa review foda pqp q jogo bom

For starters, this game is really good where it counts. It has some of the best visuals on genesis with a great soundtrack to boot. When the level design works its incredibly well done, and there's some really nice feeling attacks here that keep it going.

I do have a lot of negatives though. I think this game is really clunky to control. I think the biggest problem is the games strict double jump timing. Think of screwattack from Super Metroid for timing comparison. It made me screw up a lot of jumps, especially near the end where the platforming gets really treacherous. The game also uses an attack exclusive to the double jump where you fire off a lot of shurikens. I find this clunky too because when you land the jumping animation plays for a split second more, thus causing me to execute the attack when I didn't want to. I generally think this game is stiff feeling in ways I don't really care for. I had a hard time also clinging to polls, and it was hard to tell which ones I can cling to. A lot of this stuff made an otherwise solid game really frustrating, and I got to the very last level and got a game over which made me have to start over. I'm probably not gonna pick this one up again any time soon, I think it's quite good and often memorable, but a little too annoying at the moment.