You ever play an action game and notice yourself mashing your moves out even though you know they have cooldowns between them? It's kind of a gut reaction and a self-fulfilling mishap: You mash to psychologically get yourself out of a tough situation, and that chaotic movement only further hurts you. Quicksand.
But Shinobi's a game about overcoming mashing instincts - sometimes by force. The original and Shadow Dancer both give you a single lifepoint to make it through - you can't aggro your way through things. Try it and take a fussless curbstomp. They're like Elevator Action and Rolling Thunder's brand of 'gunning-but-not-running' action, where you have to plan your moves ahead and commit to risky endeavors - reflexes are natural parts of surviving them, but without anticipation and timing, you're deadmeat. Revenge of Shinobi carried these philosophies into a larger scope with increased toolkits and platforming, while making healthbars more forgiving to compensate. But the tradeoff was a half-step ahead and feels uncomfortably transitional. Speaking for myself, when I play RoS, I want to play reactively, but I get fucked over. It's things like the slow horizontal movement, the uncomfortable timing on the double-jump, Musashi's chunky attack options, etc. I have tools that make feel like I should be able to rush ahead, but I feel like the designers still intend you to sit back and plan ahead. It doesn't feel complementary or satisfying; I feel underwhelmed playing slow, and underpowered playing fast. And when my patience gets tested, I button-mash.
III is cool because it refines what RoS brings to the table while iterating further. It has a very rhythmic pace to movement. There's still odd control discrepancies, but here they feel like intentional paramaters for encouraging thoughtful play. Mastering the timing of the double-jump, the angle and rebound of the divekick, the dash attack and laser-sharp kunai throws - these become drum-like beats to the rhythm and lead of your playstyle. It works perfectly for III's difficulty curve: A surprisingly comfortable game until the last bits, but that gives you space to develop your movement language and flow - and on return playthroughs, you feel like you're swimming. Every move you make is a matter of instinct but ultimately-calculated - and when you catch yourself mashing, that's when you know you're getting ahead of yourself. Airtime is floaty but punctuated through sharp divekicks, and it's really addicting to bop from one enemy to another. My favorite stages were around the midsection of the game where you have to time your walljumps - and by surprise, I was pretty fond about stage 7-2. I think having an all-platforming section to capstone the game is kinda brilliant - like an exercise of self-discipline before a final confrontation.
The part before that though, 7-1? Fucking abominable. I hate having to navigate under the jet exhausts. And don't get me started on 6-2's maze shenanigans and the dumbass kabuki boss.
Shinobi III is also just really fucking badass. It doesn't have the movie parody bosses or the Yuzo Koshiro music, but it owns itself and does so many cool things with the stage setpieces, bosses and music. You fight mechas on a surfboard while this song plays. 'Need I say more' is an easy throwaway, but like, dude - literally. Seriously. Fergaliciously.
Ok actually, one thing that makes the art especially cool? The use of soft grey gradients and shadows. Shinobi's never been a 'vivid' game visually, there's much to parse taken as-is on HD displays, but on CRT? Absolutely killer. Maybe the biggest facelift any game has ever gotten from CRT filtering. Everything blends like paint and has so much depth to it. When that first stage hits you and you see the parallax trees with the sun casting rays against them? Unbeatable.
Best of the Shinobi works and a loud-and-proud Genesis killer app. It's that rare 16-bit magic where everything feels organic, simple, and aggressively satisfying, up there with SoR2 and Phantasy Star IV for doing everything right where it counts. Props to RoS for laying the groundwork, but uh, when people say that game's better than III? Total buffoonery. Moron-pilled and poop-shitted. Go to jail. Re-evaluate yourself. Do better.
But Shinobi's a game about overcoming mashing instincts - sometimes by force. The original and Shadow Dancer both give you a single lifepoint to make it through - you can't aggro your way through things. Try it and take a fussless curbstomp. They're like Elevator Action and Rolling Thunder's brand of 'gunning-but-not-running' action, where you have to plan your moves ahead and commit to risky endeavors - reflexes are natural parts of surviving them, but without anticipation and timing, you're deadmeat. Revenge of Shinobi carried these philosophies into a larger scope with increased toolkits and platforming, while making healthbars more forgiving to compensate. But the tradeoff was a half-step ahead and feels uncomfortably transitional. Speaking for myself, when I play RoS, I want to play reactively, but I get fucked over. It's things like the slow horizontal movement, the uncomfortable timing on the double-jump, Musashi's chunky attack options, etc. I have tools that make feel like I should be able to rush ahead, but I feel like the designers still intend you to sit back and plan ahead. It doesn't feel complementary or satisfying; I feel underwhelmed playing slow, and underpowered playing fast. And when my patience gets tested, I button-mash.
III is cool because it refines what RoS brings to the table while iterating further. It has a very rhythmic pace to movement. There's still odd control discrepancies, but here they feel like intentional paramaters for encouraging thoughtful play. Mastering the timing of the double-jump, the angle and rebound of the divekick, the dash attack and laser-sharp kunai throws - these become drum-like beats to the rhythm and lead of your playstyle. It works perfectly for III's difficulty curve: A surprisingly comfortable game until the last bits, but that gives you space to develop your movement language and flow - and on return playthroughs, you feel like you're swimming. Every move you make is a matter of instinct but ultimately-calculated - and when you catch yourself mashing, that's when you know you're getting ahead of yourself. Airtime is floaty but punctuated through sharp divekicks, and it's really addicting to bop from one enemy to another. My favorite stages were around the midsection of the game where you have to time your walljumps - and by surprise, I was pretty fond about stage 7-2. I think having an all-platforming section to capstone the game is kinda brilliant - like an exercise of self-discipline before a final confrontation.
The part before that though, 7-1? Fucking abominable. I hate having to navigate under the jet exhausts. And don't get me started on 6-2's maze shenanigans and the dumbass kabuki boss.
Shinobi III is also just really fucking badass. It doesn't have the movie parody bosses or the Yuzo Koshiro music, but it owns itself and does so many cool things with the stage setpieces, bosses and music. You fight mechas on a surfboard while this song plays. 'Need I say more' is an easy throwaway, but like, dude - literally. Seriously. Fergaliciously.
Ok actually, one thing that makes the art especially cool? The use of soft grey gradients and shadows. Shinobi's never been a 'vivid' game visually, there's much to parse taken as-is on HD displays, but on CRT? Absolutely killer. Maybe the biggest facelift any game has ever gotten from CRT filtering. Everything blends like paint and has so much depth to it. When that first stage hits you and you see the parallax trees with the sun casting rays against them? Unbeatable.
Best of the Shinobi works and a loud-and-proud Genesis killer app. It's that rare 16-bit magic where everything feels organic, simple, and aggressively satisfying, up there with SoR2 and Phantasy Star IV for doing everything right where it counts. Props to RoS for laying the groundwork, but uh, when people say that game's better than III? Total buffoonery. Moron-pilled and poop-shitted. Go to jail. Re-evaluate yourself. Do better.