The original Shinobi is more of a Rolling Thunder type game, and out of its sequels would only really serve as a basis for Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi. Now, Shadow Dancer isn't awful, but I'm glad it's the only sequel like this because this game kinda fucking sucks. You could probably get a dog to program a more enjoyable game.

The problem is that you always die in one hit, and you respawn back at the start of the level, so it makes everything brutishly difficult when it really isn't necessary. E-SWAT, also by Team Shinobi, manages to fix these issues and it's still a big quarter muncher, so what gives? It makes me wonder how much people spent on this game to beat it on actual arcade cabinets, if anyone even bothered.

Wildly deranged overall. Not quite as obscene as some of 1989's arcade shmups, but it's not far behind. Considering those shmups have console versions that make them much more reasonable, maybe the console ports of this are better as well. I wouldn't really know yet.