As a Genesis kid, I grew up with Shinobi. So when a new game was teased at The Game Awards two years ago, I raised an eyebrow, thought about its potential awesomeness, and forgot about it. Then I finally saw it in action at the beginning of the year and eventually got my hands on it at Summer Game Fest, and let me tell you: Shinobi is SO BACK.
I’ll do you one more — just a month after NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound last month, Shinobi this month, and then the promise of Ninja Gaiden 4 next month, it’s the “Year of the Ninja,” and I’m totally here for it.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance puts players back into the gi of Joe Musashi. After his home gets decimated by the militarily-led ENE Corporation and his loved ones are turned to stone, Musashi is out for blood, and he does it in the most video game way possible. He’ll kick ass in villages, meadows, mountains, cities, submarines, trains, the desert, laboratories, and he’ll even ride on animals and surf to kick all the ass he can. There’s hardly anything original happening in this story. It’s just stylish, enjoyable, and also just the right amount of difficult.
As I stated earlier, I grew up with Shinobi. I absolutely haven’t beaten them all, so I’m not going to go out and proclaim myself to be a Shinobi master, but I know how they feel, and this might be a whole lot of different things to different people — Art of Vengeance doesn’t play like the Shinobi we’re used to, and that’s not a bad thing.
A ninja with a grappling hook. Don’t know why it took this long.
If you read my hands-on impressions from SGF, you might remember that I said opinions on this game might be divisive. All of the action in Art of Vengeance is extremely fast-paced, which should come as no surprise that it was co-developed by Lizardcube, who also worked on the superb Streets of Rage 4. To go along with that, while the developers have stopped short of calling it a Metroidvania when asked, there are definitely similarities that make it hard to argue that it isn’t. First off, each area’s map is definitely Metroidvania-like, and you’re also highly encouraged to come back until after you’ve mastered alternative forms of attacks to open up pathways to areas otherwise inaccessible. That’s what a Metroidvania is all about, but the developers’ attempts for that not to be the case are more than respectable. The biggest point is that each level in the game is its own separate thing and not one giant shared map. Still, the ability to go back to whatever level you want and traverse through it with whatever new abilities you have shows where the inspirations came from.
Aside from level design suggesting Metroidvania backgrounds, what also makes Shinobi feel different from previous games is its combat — and it’s also what makes the game shine. Melee strikes existed in the classic games, but what really contributed to its feel was its reliance on projectiles such as Musashi’s kunai. In previous Shinobi games, most enemies were slain after one hit, so it made throwing kunai the way to go. While you can play that same way in Art of Vengeance, there’s just way more depth to it now, making it feel like a necessary evolution to playing a Shinobi game in 2025.
If I had to compare the game’s combat to anything recent, it would be Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It’s another Metroidvania with a big emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, and Shinobi takes just feels right. Quick slashes are relegated to the square button, while the triangle button unleashes a somewhat slower but more powerful attack. The right shoulder button allows you to do a dash technique that’ll help with platforming, dodging, and performing a cancel, which veterans might fall in love with fairly easily. It just feels visceral. At times I even felt like I was playing a single player version of Super Smash Bros. — there was a point where I died because I thought I could use an Up-B combination, thinking I had another jump in me.
As you progress through the game, you’ll find a wealth of different Ninjutsu, Ninpo (kind of like supers in fighting games), Ningi (mobility actions), and Combat moves that’ll have you feeling like you’ll be able to slap the police whenever you may choose. Okay, that might’ve been a bad metaphor, but think of these abilities as your loadout: You won’t be able to equip everything all at once, but you’re welcome to mix and match depending on your combat preferences. For example, as you get towards the end of the game, more and more enemies will have access to shields and other kinds of defense, so if you equip the shuriken, you’ll be able to do away with shielded adversaries way more easily because they’ll just cut through.
The Fire Ninjutsu is a sight to behold. It’ll also take out so many enemies you could be fighting right now.
All that said, while it may not necessarily feel like “classic” Shinobi, it just feels good to be playing a sidescrolling action game that’s both this intuitive and challenging. I died countless times in my playthrough as I looked for the right Ninpo and Amulets to suit my preferred playstyle, but my claim to fame will be keeping the difficulty at the default the entire time. I haven’t really felt like this playing this kind of game since Streets of Rage 4, and that’s definitely not a coincidence.
While I had my fair share of dying, it really wasn’t the difficulty that led to some of my pain points — it really goes back to how the game was designed visually. First off, I thought every boss in the game was awesome with the way they made you think on your feet to and think of the best possible approach, but I wasn’t too big a fan of the whole “If it’s red here, you’re gonna get hit” aspect of the game. I think there could’ve been better cues or more obvious activations when it came to the animation each enemy was about to prepare. Eventually, I got it, but it seemed like it was more trouble than it’s worth, and I think audio cues could’ve helped more in that regard.
My issues with the visual design don’t stop with taking hits from enemies. I feel like the game made it a little too hard to see at times. One of the early levels, The Mountain, requires you to get through a level alongside a bunch of snowy mountains. The fog in this level was intense, and to make matters worse, there was stuff on the foreground that really got in the way. These effects may look cool to a bunch of people, but there are plenty of things anybody can do without, and that’s an example. I talk a little bit about it in the Editor’s Note below, but visual accessibility was one of the main reasons I had to review this game (it was supposed to be Fil).
Those two things aside, the Sega Genesis days were simply a vibe. I may have not grown up with Mega Man X, but I was more than happy with the euphoria I had when playing games like Vector Man and Shinobi III. They were definitely an experience, and my past with these games really gives me a huge appreciation for what Sega is doing here. And don’t get me started on the music — I know I didn’t talk about it, but Tee Lopes once again composed another certified banger. If you can get over the fact that it doesn’t play EXACTLY like its past games but can appreciate the steps in direction the game has taken to play like both a retro and modern game in 2025, you might find a candidate for Game of the Year.
—
Editor’s Note: This review was supposed to be done by Filippo Dinolfo. Unfortunately, because of accessibility difficulty, the review was reappointed to Danreb Victorio. We thank Sega for their flexibility and willingness to provide us with another review code for the sole purpose of allowing us to stay current in our video game coverage.
I asked Filippo to provide a quick statement as the primary reviewer:
For Accessibility Options, Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden:Ragebound have several in common. Both allow for you to decrease the amount of incoming damage from enemies and environmental hazards, for instance. Shinobi doesn’t offer the option to slow the game down, but does let you change how continues work, letting you restart from the nearest location to where you died. On the whole, Shinobi’s options are solid, but they don’t go quite as far as Ninja Gaiden did, not offering the ability to disable knockback, or set incoming damage to 0. From a difficulty perspective, there’s enough here to work with, and I’m always happy to see these options.
The fog looks cool, but it’s not really friendly to people who have trouble seeing, whether or not the front layers pop out.
Shinobi’s biggest problem, though, is there’s nothing for those with low vision. With the game’s very stylish art style taking center stage, design choices were made that directly effect how visible the game is going to be. Some platforms have very little contrast against the background, and some can even be obscured by a foreground layer, like the lake crossing during the festival of lights level. So, many of the suggestions I made about Ninja Gaiden regarding dialing back the background intensity to make the platforms stand out more apply here, as well. Edge detection for when you’re getting close to the edge of a platform would also be a nice addition.
The biggest issue this game has, though, is the stylistic elements like fog and foreground effects obscuring the player. They look great, yes, but it is making things more difficult than they need to be. Maybe offering layer toggles so players can decide how much visual flair they want might help. I’ll never tell a developer to change their vision of the game. I’m just asking for options to tweak for those of us that need a bit of extra help. Since, despite everything I mentioned here, I absolutely love this game.
As a Genesis kid, I grew up with Shinobi. So when a new game was teased at The Game Awards two years ago, I raised an eyebrow, thought about its potential awesomeness, and forgot about it. Then I finally saw…
As a Genesis kid, I grew up with Shinobi. So when a new game was teased at The Game Awards two years ago, I raised an eyebrow, thought about its potential awesomeness, and forgot about it. Then I finally saw it in action at the beginning of the year and eventually got my hands on it at Summer Game Fest, and let me tell you: Shinobi is SO BACK.
I’ll do you one more — just a month after NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound last month, Shinobi this month, and then the promise of Ninja Gaiden 4 next month, it’s the “Year of the Ninja,” and I’m totally here for it.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance puts players back into the gi of Joe Musashi. After his home gets decimated by the militarily-led ENE Corporation and his loved ones are turned to stone, Musashi is out for blood, and he does it in the most video game way possible. He’ll kick ass in villages, meadows, mountains, cities, submarines, trains, the desert, laboratories, and he’ll even ride on animals and surf to kick all the ass he can. There’s hardly anything original happening in this story. It’s just stylish, enjoyable, and also just the right amount of difficult.
As I stated earlier, I grew up with Shinobi. I absolutely haven’t beaten them all, so I’m not going to go out and proclaim myself to be a Shinobi master, but I know how they feel, and this might be a whole lot of different things to different people — Art of Vengeance doesn’t play like the Shinobi we’re used to, and that’s not a bad thing.
A ninja with a grappling hook. Don’t know why it took this long.
If you read my hands-on impressions from SGF, you might remember that I said opinions on this game might be divisive. All of the action in Art of Vengeance is extremely fast-paced, which should come as no surprise that it was co-developed by Lizardcube, who also worked on the superb Streets of Rage 4. To go along with that, while the developers have stopped short of calling it a Metroidvania when asked, there are definitely similarities that make it hard to argue that it isn’t. First off, each area’s map is definitely Metroidvania-like, and you’re also highly encouraged to come back until after you’ve mastered alternative forms of attacks to open up pathways to areas otherwise inaccessible. That’s what a Metroidvania is all about, but the developers’ attempts for that not to be the case are more than respectable. The biggest point is that each level in the game is its own separate thing and not one giant shared map. Still, the ability to go back to whatever level you want and traverse through it with whatever new abilities you have shows where the inspirations came from.
Aside from level design suggesting Metroidvania backgrounds, what also makes Shinobi feel different from previous games is its combat — and it’s also what makes the game shine. Melee strikes existed in the classic games, but what really contributed to its feel was its reliance on projectiles such as Musashi’s kunai. In previous Shinobi games, most enemies were slain after one hit, so it made throwing kunai the way to go. While you can play that same way in Art of Vengeance, there’s just way more depth to it now, making it feel like a necessary evolution to playing a Shinobi game in 2025.
If I had to compare the game’s combat to anything recent, it would be Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It’s another Metroidvania with a big emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, and Shinobi takes just feels right. Quick slashes are relegated to the square button, while the triangle button unleashes a somewhat slower but more powerful attack. The right shoulder button allows you to do a dash technique that’ll help with platforming, dodging, and performing a cancel, which veterans might fall in love with fairly easily. It just feels visceral. At times I even felt like I was playing a single player version of Super Smash Bros. — there was a point where I died because I thought I could use an Up-B combination, thinking I had another jump in me.
As you progress through the game, you’ll find a wealth of different Ninjutsu, Ninpo (kind of like supers in fighting games), Ningi (mobility actions), and Combat moves that’ll have you feeling like you’ll be able to slap the police whenever you may choose. Okay, that might’ve been a bad metaphor, but think of these abilities as your loadout: You won’t be able to equip everything all at once, but you’re welcome to mix and match depending on your combat preferences. For example, as you get towards the end of the game, more and more enemies will have access to shields and other kinds of defense, so if you equip the shuriken, you’ll be able to do away with shielded adversaries way more easily because they’ll just cut through.
The Fire Ninjutsu is a sight to behold. It’ll also take out so many enemies you could be fighting right now.
All that said, while it may not necessarily feel like “classic” Shinobi, it just feels good to be playing a sidescrolling action game that’s both this intuitive and challenging. I died countless times in my playthrough as I looked for the right Ninpo and Amulets to suit my preferred playstyle, but my claim to fame will be keeping the difficulty at the default the entire time. I haven’t really felt like this playing this kind of game since Streets of Rage 4, and that’s definitely not a coincidence.
While I had my fair share of dying, it really wasn’t the difficulty that led to some of my pain points — it really goes back to how the game was designed visually. First off, I thought every boss in the game was awesome with the way they made you think on your feet to and think of the best possible approach, but I wasn’t too big a fan of the whole “If it’s red here, you’re gonna get hit” aspect of the game. I think there could’ve been better cues or more obvious activations when it came to the animation each enemy was about to prepare. Eventually, I got it, but it seemed like it was more trouble than it’s worth, and I think audio cues could’ve helped more in that regard.
My issues with the visual design don’t stop with taking hits from enemies. I feel like the game made it a little too hard to see at times. One of the early levels, The Mountain, requires you to get through a level alongside a bunch of snowy mountains. The fog in this level was intense, and to make matters worse, there was stuff on the foreground that really got in the way. These effects may look cool to a bunch of people, but there are plenty of things anybody can do without, and that’s an example. I talk a little bit about it in the Editor’s Note below, but visual accessibility was one of the main reasons I had to review this game (it was supposed to be Fil).
Those two things aside, the Sega Genesis days were simply a vibe. I may have not grown up with Mega Man X, but I was more than happy with the euphoria I had when playing games like Vector Man and Shinobi III. They were definitely an experience, and my past with these games really gives me a huge appreciation for what Sega is doing here. And don’t get me started on the music — I know I didn’t talk about it, but Tee Lopes once again composed another certified banger. If you can get over the fact that it doesn’t play EXACTLY like its past games but can appreciate the steps in direction the game has taken to play like both a retro and modern game in 2025, you might find a candidate for Game of the Year.
—
Editor’s Note: This review was supposed to be done by Filippo Dinolfo. Unfortunately, because of accessibility difficulty, the review was reappointed to Danreb Victorio. We thank Sega for their flexibility and willingness to provide us with another review code for the sole purpose of allowing us to stay current in our video game coverage.
I asked Filippo to provide a quick statement as the primary reviewer:
For Accessibility Options, Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden:Ragebound have several in common. Both allow for you to decrease the amount of incoming damage from enemies and environmental hazards, for instance. Shinobi doesn’t offer the option to slow the game down, but does let you change how continues work, letting you restart from the nearest location to where you died. On the whole, Shinobi’s options are solid, but they don’t go quite as far as Ninja Gaiden did, not offering the ability to disable knockback, or set incoming damage to 0. From a difficulty perspective, there’s enough here to work with, and I’m always happy to see these options.
The fog looks cool, but it’s not really friendly to people who have trouble seeing, whether or not the front layers pop out.
Shinobi’s biggest problem, though, is there’s nothing for those with low vision. With the game’s very stylish art style taking center stage, design choices were made that directly effect how visible the game is going to be. Some platforms have very little contrast against the background, and some can even be obscured by a foreground layer, like the lake crossing during the festival of lights level. So, many of the suggestions I made about Ninja Gaiden regarding dialing back the background intensity to make the platforms stand out more apply here, as well. Edge detection for when you’re getting close to the edge of a platform would also be a nice addition.
The biggest issue this game has, though, is the stylistic elements like fog and foreground effects obscuring the player. They look great, yes, but it is making things more difficult than they need to be. Maybe offering layer toggles so players can decide how much visual flair they want might help. I’ll never tell a developer to change their vision of the game. I’m just asking for options to tweak for those of us that need a bit of extra help. Since, despite everything I mentioned here, I absolutely love this game.
by Danreb Victorio
