Shadow Dancer review - Sega Megadrive

The year is 1997. The world, at peace until now, is brought to the brink of global disaster - the Union of the Lizard has kidnapped a large number of dignitaries, and has threatened to kill them all unless their demands are met to the letter. The only man capable of rescuing them is Joe Mushashi, the master ninja known as The Shinobi.

Mushashi has not only his martial arts skills to aid him, but also the secret of ninjitsu magic - a power to conjure up the force of the elements themselves - and his faithful dog, who will attack on command, leaving most enemies defenceless.

The way ahead is treacherous and dangerous, with many warriors and creatures out to stop the Shinobi by any means possible - none worse than the evil spirits called from the Otherworld to use their powers to destroy Mushashi utterly!

Retrospective comments

Shadow Dancer is often overlooked in favour of Sega's other Shinobi games. You might say it is regarded as the black sheep of the family. What's even funnier about this Megadrive version is it bares very few similarities to the arcade version in terms of its gameplay. Fans of the original 1987 arcade Shinobi will probably appreciate that in some ways Shadow Dancer has a few things in common with it. The rescuing of hostages, close hit attacks, platform jumping and one-hit deaths are all retained here. Whilst Revenge of Shinobi and Super Shinobi III were awesome games in their own right they did somewhat break away from the original arcade formula with the introduction of the energy bar and free roaming style levels. One of the interesting features of Shadow Dancer is the use of Shinobi Joe's dog Yamoto. Hold on to the action button for a second or so to charge up and your faithful sidekick will launch an aggressive assault on the bad guy you are too coward to take on yourself! Watch out though, get your timing wrong and your dog will get hit and shrink into a puppy!!? The boss battles are worth a mention as they require the gamer to work out the winning tactics and repeat. With the 'one hit and you die' system there is no margin for error here. After beating the stage boss you enter a bonus stage much like the original arcade Shinobi except this time you have to take out the oncoming ninjas whilst skydiving! It's a short game with only 5 levels. The default difficulty setting is quite easy also so most seasoned gamers will complete this quickly. It's still a fun arcade style romp and is still fun to replay over and over again. See if you can get through this by cranking up the difficulty setting or turning off the shuriken option! This is by no means the perfect game. It is not as vast as the other Shinobi games on the Megadrive and some may find the lack of a energy bar frustrating. (whimps!) However even if you only give this a try out of curiosity you are likely to be pleasantly surprised.

Have your say about this review

Tris Wicks - 11 Nov 2008, 02:36 GMT

This is so tough to master. It may be short but it's classy - and having seen a mate OWN this game on the hardest difficulty settings i've found new respect for it.

Matt Taylor - 04 Aug 2009, 00:28 GMT

Its a shame that 'Shadow Dancer' was overlooked as a 'classic' Shinobi title on its launch, but its easy to see why following on the back of the seminal and convention breaking 'Super Shinobi' and falling short as an arcade conversion. But its for exactly the latter reason that it should be applauded. Like other early megadrive titles such as 'E-Swat' and 'Rainbow Islands', 'Shadow Dancer' offered (and still offers) and genuinely exclusive arcade title, not available on any other platform, and a game platform/shooter fans can relish. Perhaps only with the benefit of hindsight will a generation of gamers come to realise it.

Rich - 05 Nov 2009, 16:42 GMT

Hmmm, yeah I remember this review, the only time where I read a review from CVG, where I really felt that they had completely missed the ball, this is an awesome Shinobi game, one of my favourites.

Stuart - 12 Aug 2010, 16:17 GMT

There was a disappointment with this not being that close the the arcade version. I think a closer arcade conversion would have been better.
Still a good game although personally I think its a little under rated here.

Dylan Barry - 20 Jun 2012, 16:02 GMT

mental soundtrack... very abstract

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