Revenge of Shinobi Review

[timewarpgamer]

Is Shinobi III better? I say the original 16-bit Shinobi wins out, thanks to better music and deeper level design. Check out the full review here:

http://timewarpgamer.com/consoles/genes ... inobi.html

Still looking and playing quite well after almost 20 years.

[jepjepjep]

Great review! This game is totally awesome.

[Flak Beard]

I actually prefer Shinobi III out of all the games myself, but Revenge of Shinobi is pretty solid too.

I stay far away from Shadow Dancer.

[marurun]

Gee, I actually liked Shadow Dancer. It wasn't the best in the series, certainly, but it had a certain appeal.

[ThunderPrince]

for atmosphere/music I prefer Revenge, but for gameplay I greatly prefer III. diving jump kick owns anyone for free.

[timewarpgamer]

PresidentLeever, you point out some good criticisms. I will work on incorporating them into my review. The danger with reviewing games like this, which one grew up playing, is that you lose your objectivity. Thanks for keeping me on an even keel. I pull off about 95% of my double jumps (I guess practice makes perfect), and I've long since learned to bust crates open at a distance, or plan on a mandatory melee attack against them when at short-range, but these gameplay aspects are not natural for non-veterans.

[cyborc]

sweet review. I'm really digging your website.

[timewarpgamer]

sweet review. I'm really digging your website.

Thanks for the feedback. I try to get at least an update a week, along with various behind-the-scenes tuning of the top game lists. Just added a new top-10 feature for shoot -em ups:

http://timewarpgamer.com/top10s/shoot_em_ups.html

And here's the thread for a discussion about it:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... &sk=t&sd=a

PresidentLeever, I finally got around to incorporating some of that criticism on the gameplay. Good reasons why Revenge didn't get a higher gameplay score.

[pureevil]

i used to have this game in that box is it worth anything theses days?was a great game with cool bosses spiderman even pops up in it as a boss played that game to death good game

[Mr.White555]

Good review of a good game. There are a few not so good things about it that I think you should've mentioned:
- Player character (joe) moves very slowly for being a ninja. You can't run and the amount of inertia when jumping is pretty extreme.
- Very tricky to pull off somersaults. I've played this game off and on since it came out and it still doesn't work for me sometimes.
- Frustrating final level (it's a big maze).
- Joe automatically uses his melee attack when standing above item crates or next to the metal lifts in the factory level.

I agree with pretty much all of this. Some parts of the game seem like you NEED that jumping power up(water level) which seems ridiculous to me since you should be able to beat the game without those. Other than that the game rulez. Great controls(except for double/somersaults jumps), memorable music, fantastic bosses(looking at you godzilla and spiderman)despite being hard as balls. What really blows my mind about the game is that it came out in 1989!