I'll be real. As a kid, I always thought the first Shinobi game was kinda arse and just poorly designed. It's hard to fault Sega when it was made in 1987 and the blueprint for a fun action platformer wasn't really something they could just copy yet. However, as someone who tremendously enjoys the first Castlevania, Mega Man, and of course Ninja Gaiden games, it's important to note all the ways Shinobi 1 dropped the ball compared to those games, and why it didn't make such a cultural impact.
The player dies in a single hit. There are cheap as hell enemies spawning left and right, so that coupled with the previous part means the player must slowly inch their way across the screen and use the bomb right before dying whenever possible. The player cannot move around like a badass ninja at all. There are 3 different powerups, but they all behave exactly the same way with only animation differences for some fucking reason. The levels are balanced around rescuing the small ninjas for powerups, but each ninja can only be rescued once which makes stages exponentially harder should the player lose any life. Yet, the best way to progress in many stages is to continuously retry them after killing the boomerang enemies since they are the only enemies who don't respawn.
It's just a nightmare of a game! As far as ninja action platformers go, I've beaten every Ninja Gaiden game, every Strider game, every Shinobi game, Hagane, etc and even done challenge runs for a lot of those. I am not shitting on the game just for being hard; I am shitting on the game for being the wrong kind of challenge, the one where every single enemy is equally dangerous in an action platformer.
However, after the recent Shinobi 4 announcement, I promised myself I would replay every single Shinobi game. That meant starting with 1. I had heard some inklings about the SEGA AGES version, so on a whim I decided to play it for my replay and, well...
Wow! They made Shinobi 1 fun!
The SEGA AGES port rebalances the game in various ways. There is now a turbo button, which makes Joe's attacks far more reliable for both the bonus levels and hitting fast as hell enemies. Joe wears his iconic white costume now, which looks way better than the completely generic costume in the original game. Speaking of things that are now in line with the rest of the series, Joe can actually take a hit before dying. No longer are levels balanced around saving the ninja girls since the powerups are permanent; now the player can actually move more freely around levels and feel like a badass ninja.
It's really the little things that help. The original arcade version had a copyrighted picture of some famous actress. On Switch, it was hacked and changed to an Altered Beast ad. Very charming! I also really appreciate all the extra options. There are options to fit the screen to be pixel perfect along with a solid scanline filter.
Perhaps my favourite change however is the melee mode. The player can now use melee attacks whenever with the click of a single button, as opposed to the original where it was context sensitive. Coupled with the vibration option, it feels really smooth. Definitely in line with the 6 button mode of Shinobi 3.
Also I loved the ending omg! The twist that the villain was actually Joe's mentor who wanted to bring about a great civil war since he wanted ninjas to be important to society again would have been mindblowing if I played this in 1987. It wasn't quite as shocking as Fantasy Zone's ending which left me thinking about video games as an artform, but for a silly ninja arcade game it was insane.
So yeah, my thoughts are the AGES version elevates the game from maybe a 4-5/10 to a 7ish/10. You're still left with an all too short game that isn't the most visually memorable nor does it have the best music. However, the levels are a lot more fun to breeze through than ever thanks to the improved gameplay mechanics, and it's a short and sweet experience with a great ending. If nothing else, it laid the foundation for Shinobi 3 which is definitely a top 20 game of all time for me at the very least. The SEGA AGES version knocks this from an experience that can take hours to master to a 15 minute ride. Definitely check it out any way you can.
I look forward to replaying and reviewing the rest of the series!
The player dies in a single hit. There are cheap as hell enemies spawning left and right, so that coupled with the previous part means the player must slowly inch their way across the screen and use the bomb right before dying whenever possible. The player cannot move around like a badass ninja at all. There are 3 different powerups, but they all behave exactly the same way with only animation differences for some fucking reason. The levels are balanced around rescuing the small ninjas for powerups, but each ninja can only be rescued once which makes stages exponentially harder should the player lose any life. Yet, the best way to progress in many stages is to continuously retry them after killing the boomerang enemies since they are the only enemies who don't respawn.
It's just a nightmare of a game! As far as ninja action platformers go, I've beaten every Ninja Gaiden game, every Strider game, every Shinobi game, Hagane, etc and even done challenge runs for a lot of those. I am not shitting on the game just for being hard; I am shitting on the game for being the wrong kind of challenge, the one where every single enemy is equally dangerous in an action platformer.
However, after the recent Shinobi 4 announcement, I promised myself I would replay every single Shinobi game. That meant starting with 1. I had heard some inklings about the SEGA AGES version, so on a whim I decided to play it for my replay and, well...
Wow! They made Shinobi 1 fun!
The SEGA AGES port rebalances the game in various ways. There is now a turbo button, which makes Joe's attacks far more reliable for both the bonus levels and hitting fast as hell enemies. Joe wears his iconic white costume now, which looks way better than the completely generic costume in the original game. Speaking of things that are now in line with the rest of the series, Joe can actually take a hit before dying. No longer are levels balanced around saving the ninja girls since the powerups are permanent; now the player can actually move more freely around levels and feel like a badass ninja.
It's really the little things that help. The original arcade version had a copyrighted picture of some famous actress. On Switch, it was hacked and changed to an Altered Beast ad. Very charming! I also really appreciate all the extra options. There are options to fit the screen to be pixel perfect along with a solid scanline filter.
Perhaps my favourite change however is the melee mode. The player can now use melee attacks whenever with the click of a single button, as opposed to the original where it was context sensitive. Coupled with the vibration option, it feels really smooth. Definitely in line with the 6 button mode of Shinobi 3.
Also I loved the ending omg! The twist that the villain was actually Joe's mentor who wanted to bring about a great civil war since he wanted ninjas to be important to society again would have been mindblowing if I played this in 1987. It wasn't quite as shocking as Fantasy Zone's ending which left me thinking about video games as an artform, but for a silly ninja arcade game it was insane.
So yeah, my thoughts are the AGES version elevates the game from maybe a 4-5/10 to a 7ish/10. You're still left with an all too short game that isn't the most visually memorable nor does it have the best music. However, the levels are a lot more fun to breeze through than ever thanks to the improved gameplay mechanics, and it's a short and sweet experience with a great ending. If nothing else, it laid the foundation for Shinobi 3 which is definitely a top 20 game of all time for me at the very least. The SEGA AGES version knocks this from an experience that can take hours to master to a 15 minute ride. Definitely check it out any way you can.
I look forward to replaying and reviewing the rest of the series!