What if Shinobi had a grappling hook, non linear levels and an even higher level of difficulty? It would probably look a lot like Ninja Five O, which is a fairly short yet brutally difficult game that mixes the Sega classic with Bionic Commando while (mostly) getting it right.
The goal of each stage, similar to Shadow Dancer, is to save a bunch of hostages and make your way to the end. Key hunting is added to the mix, and the methodical design Revenge of Shinobi is also pretty present in the combat but done somewhat better. You do have a life bar, but it drains pathetically fast on normal mode so don't bet on rushing in and tanking hits.
At the end of each of the game's five rounds, you fight a boss (duh). While the bat boss absolutely sucked until I figured out how to loop him, the other encounters were pretty interesting. One had me carefully aiming my shots to assure I hit the boss' head and not the hostage he was holding as a meat shield- killing the hostage would result in a game over (and in the main levels a loss of about 3 quarters of the life bar if a hostage gets hit with your weapon). It was a big highlight of the game- the icing on the cake being that the dude would morph into a firey dragon in true Konami fashion every once and a while.
The grappling hook felt a bit janky at times and there's some instances of dickish enemy placement that would feel right at home in Ninja Gaiden. Levels can also be kind of long and none of them have checkpoints. Still, I had a good enough time to be able to recommend it to anyone who is into the more hardcore action/platformers.
The goal of each stage, similar to Shadow Dancer, is to save a bunch of hostages and make your way to the end. Key hunting is added to the mix, and the methodical design Revenge of Shinobi is also pretty present in the combat but done somewhat better. You do have a life bar, but it drains pathetically fast on normal mode so don't bet on rushing in and tanking hits.
At the end of each of the game's five rounds, you fight a boss (duh). While the bat boss absolutely sucked until I figured out how to loop him, the other encounters were pretty interesting. One had me carefully aiming my shots to assure I hit the boss' head and not the hostage he was holding as a meat shield- killing the hostage would result in a game over (and in the main levels a loss of about 3 quarters of the life bar if a hostage gets hit with your weapon). It was a big highlight of the game- the icing on the cake being that the dude would morph into a firey dragon in true Konami fashion every once and a while.
The grappling hook felt a bit janky at times and there's some instances of dickish enemy placement that would feel right at home in Ninja Gaiden. Levels can also be kind of long and none of them have checkpoints. Still, I had a good enough time to be able to recommend it to anyone who is into the more hardcore action/platformers.