Shinobi™ III: Return of the Ninja Master

­

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, known as Super Shinobi 2 in Japan, is a sequel to Revenge of Shinobi, known as Super Shinobi. And yep, number 3 is quite confusing because who knows which games counts as main line. The game was developed by Megasoft, that Sega of Japan supposedly owned at that moment. And thankfully they had Treasure in same building which helped a lot with consulting on game development. No wonder it turned out to be so awesome. Came out in 1993. 8 Megabit Rom.
There is a slightly superior 3DS version.

Also, did you know that what the world got is actually a remake of Shinobi 3 that they were planning to release in 1992? A certain game magazine actually got to review that but their ratings and impressions apparently weren't good enough for Sega. Which is another reason why Shinobi 3 turned out to be so awesome. Reminds of Yuji Naka interview where he wished that Sega took more time with polishing their games instead of immeditly throwing them into printing. Still would love to get my hands on original version.

The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version.


Now, technical part about Sega's emulation here:
The Sega Classic games that you purchase on Steam count as DLCs for "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" game that should appear in your library.
It has Bedroom HUB which is the one with many features yet lags for many and Simply Launcher which lacks Workshop and Online but at least it works just fine for everybody.
However, Simple Launcher has it's fair share of glitches as well. It can crash. And it does the second time you go to main menu, so always quit after saving there so it doesn't crash when you want to save next time!
Emulation itself, mostly sound, isn't that good but it does it's job. Also, yes, emulator supports quick saves.
As alternative, you can use external emulator to run games that you purchased. Sega kindly placed in all games that you purchased in "uncompressed ROMs" folder that program itself doesn't use, just change file extension to ".bin" or so. The file for this one being "SHINOBI3_U.68K".
I also demand you to read digital manual of this game first. You can find it here on store page or go to "manuals" folder of game root and open "SH3_PC_MG_EFIGS_US.pdf".

Did you know that the game has ability to use 6-button controller but in order to activate it you must pull off the cheat? Now you do. It's cool for experts. Point at “Options”, hold Mode on Player 1 and hold Up and C buttons on Player 2 and then press Start on Player 1. Boom, separate buttons for throwing, melee and blocking.


The plot is that Joe Musashi, the Shinobi, is back into action as he is out to stop the Neo-ZEED once again by destroying them before they do much naughtyness. And this time the mysterious Shadow Master is behind the crime organzation. With backbox of US release claiming that he is cloned from Shinobi's bloodline, yea. Naoto, the rescued girlfriend from Revenge, was most likely left behind in a kitchen. Cooking real ninja food. Hopefully it's still going to be warm by the time Joe destroys the Neo-ZEED.

The game, being a direct sequel to Revenge of Shinobi, takes the core gameplay and builds up on it. The gaming at that time got more flashier, infulenced by Sonic and awesome shoot-em-up alikes. Thus Joe Musashi got faster and has a lot of new moves. He is still able to double jump and it's something that you should learn in order to succeed. But now Shinobi learned how to cling to the ceiling and how to jump off the walls. Futhermore he is able to run now. And then you can do katana slash, yea boy. And don't forget about the awesome drop kick you can do while jumping, after doing which you also knock yourself up into air again. Developers smartly decided which frames should be invincible and how and against what so it all feels extremely awesome, especially on running slash. Feels great to slash yourself past the boss that is charging at you unharmed. Oh yea, and you can block by holding attack button.

And yep, got options. There is usual shurikens starting amount. Sadly, you can't force no-shurikens. But hey, with 6-button control cheat you can just use melee. There are also sound tests, control swaps, usual. And there is difficulty. It changes amount of starting lives you have and the maximum amount of health you have. I also thing it changes some minor things such as the speed at which hand comes up at Boss of level 3.

And yea, it's classic console Shinobi action. Great controls with quick attacking on a tab of a button that also changes between kunai or melee depending on distance of nearby object, all fancy, It feels so good to master Joe Musashi, Alucard from Castlevania can only dream of such ninja mastery. And yep, you don't take damage on simple contact with most of enemies, albeit this time you don't knock them away either.

It still kept some strategy by having 4 selectable Ninjitsu magic. There are pretty much no changes from Revenge, magic almost same. Thunder shield that lasts few hits. Fire dragons do heavy damage to everything. There is magic that allows you to jump higher, albeit level design rarely makes use of that. And of course there is this unusual kamikaze magic that requires having one magic but takes away life instead, damaging everything on the screen. This kamikaze magic once again restores your health fully so it can be used as alternative to starting from the checkpoint.

So, what else about this game gives me pants full of Burning Passion? The pacing and level design. Now, I feel that level design isn't exactly as open or explorative as it was in original Revenge. It has three auto-scrolling levels too. But look, one of them includes riding on a horseback under the awesome music, which while isn't Yuzo Koshiro, sure, more than fits the game and is catchy as yeah! And guess what another one is. A freaing. Ninja. Surfboard.
The game has this perfect length and pacing. There are no cliché or boring levels to fill in the gaps. It mostly takes you through the high-paced adventure, as you slash your way through ninjas of the forest, infiltrate the base, take on the horrors of the bio-labs and so on. Highly intensive moments with occasional breaks for more slow explorative stages. And each level miniboss too. Great!

Even modern action games still don't reach the absolute awesomeness of Shinobi 3. Graphics are awesome, setting is amazing, music is totally rad. Alright, actually this game does have a flaw. It's too easy. At least compared to previous Shinobi games. People who beat Revenge of Shinobi should play on Expert difficulty immeditly. None the less, this game makes me so happy and is such a role model.

I bet you want me to provide with the more objective reasoning of Shinobi 3 ingeniousity. Well, do you know how people praise Doom for having 7 common monster which improves the game because they say that human brain can remember only 7 objects at same time? Even though the science has already moved on and that knowledge is outdated and wrong, but hey, who cares about modern science, there is a reason why people still agrue with original Darwin's theory of evolution. So, here is mindblowing thing: Shinobi 3 has exactly 7 levels. That means that after beating the game you are going to spend 7 days laying on the couch enjoying the aftertaste. It's too bad that devs weren't smart enough to run the game at 7 frames per second, this way you would have never need to replay the game. But I guess that Batman: Arkham Knight wins this time. Oh well. Shinobi still would beat Batman in 1v1, as proven by Revenge.

Objectively speaking, this is the best game ever, As Far As I Care.
10/10
gg
no re