The Revenge of the Shinobi is a Sega Mega Drive exclusive sequel to the original arcade Shinobi game. This time it was inspired heavily by all those cheesy western Ninja movies and it was now designed as console game instead of arcade one, for example there no 1-hit deaths anymore and more levels. The game was made by Sega of Japan and came out in 1989 on 4 Megabit cartridge, becoming Mega Drive's early killer app before Sonic. Because Shinobi was awesome!
The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version. Well, almost. You see, when came was launched, it actually had a whole load of licensed character that it wasn't supposed to have. Godzilla, Rambo, Batman, a whole bunch. From what I understood, it was because the Artist was way too faithful to Game Designer's placeholders. And where it was "supposed to look similar to Rambo" he drew Rambo. But don't take it 100% true, I am still unsure.
In the end, there were few revision that would replace these graphics, aside from Spider-man because Sega just happened to have his license at the time to make a videogame. But due to this, it wasn't re-released for a looong while, until 2009 when they finally remade final graphics for Virtual Console release.
So yep, this release uses the latest version. At least uncompressed ROM and bedroom HUB do. For some reason, Simple Launcher uses Revision 01, with real Godzilla and Spiderman, and non-ugly ninja face at title screen.
Also, since it's western version the good ending skips the credits, so it feels way too short, with music not being even done before it resets the game. Oh well.
In the end though, Joe Musashi beating up Batman is still canon, I say!
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 "TheSuperShinobi_JUE.SGD".
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 "TRoS_PC_MG_EFIGS_WW_HR.pdf".
So, the criminal empire Zeed once again managed to rebuild itself, this time called as Neo Zeed. Not only they took over the world, but they decided to revenge Joe Musashi for their defeat, by killing his sensei and taking away his wife. Now, Joe Musashi, the Shinobi, has to outrevenge the revenge of Neo Zeed in his own Revenge of The Shinobi! NINJAS, man!
Yep, there is usual options menu. It got sound test which is where half of your gameplay time will go because it's too awesome to ignore. You also got difficulty, which changes the amount of lives that you start with and how much damage you take. You also can change how much shurikens you start with on each life, even though Shinobi throws kunai. But nobody cares anyway because "shurikens is any stuff that ninjas throw". And yep, control changing things.
And yep, this game is actually one big classic. You control The Shinobi, ninjas in white, who stealths his way like a western ninja: like a Terminator doing a frontal assault. The game has very responsible controls and it's actually enjoyable to just control Joe Musashi. There is something about combination of his slow calm walking, high jumping and his quick throwing skills that makes it so enjoyable. Feedback and effects makes it nice, even if everybody explodes. Or maybe it's so awesome BECAUSE everybody explodes. Not to mention that it kept this really really nice feature from original Shinobi where if you simply touch enemy you don't take damage, just get knocked back only.
You also get four ninjutso, the ninja magic. Pick those wisely. The first one surrounds you with lighting. While one might think that it's temporary invincibility, it's actually just a shield that allows you to survive few extra things. Good for keeping powerup. By the way, powerup is fancy as it allows you to block projectiles while walking, but not standing. Fancy. The second magic is "destroy things on screen". The third one allows you to jump higher, which is very nice on some levels, but sadly doesn't improve horizontal reach of jump. And the last magic is quite strategic. It allows you to kamikaze, destroying everything on screen at cost of single life. But it also restores your health fully, so it can be used as alternative to dieing and having to redo from checkpoint. Doesn't waste magic either.
Also, learn to double jump! Do it! It's cool. Helps to revenge. Not to mention that enemies layout and levels are designed in such way that developers expect you to use everything you got to the fullest, good usage of magic and always having shurikens. It may even feel a bit cheap on first wlakthrough, being shot before you can react, but trust me, it becomes an addictive game on later tries. It's arcade quality, with three continues. And you feel that you will progress futher each time.
And one of the big strenght of this action-platformer is in the setting. As said, it's inspired by by western cheesy ninja movies. You don't travel through Ice, Fire and Sewer. Instead you go kick some ninja butt at waterfall, destroy the army and dogs inside airplane while the doors open into which you may get sucked, show who got the best skills to martial artists in chinatown. All while rocking out the funkiest music from Yozo Koshiro, who is so awesome that you can see his copyright at title screen! Also, if you don't know, he is quite a big cheese and apple and makes best music around. And bosses are awesome too. With awesome boss music. Even maze levels is enjoyable in this one. I think.
Graphics are also early, yet tasteful.
The only two flaws that I have with this game is some jumps and final boss. There are two jumps in the game that require either to stand very close to the edge, up to pixels, and time double jump correctly. The first is at Chinatown and the second one is at a port/harbor. You should practise this jump in Chinatown, as harbor one will kill you if you fail.
The second one is final boss. It's just that this boss requires just plain memorization. You can't really predict what he is about to do, no warning at all. You only have to either memorize his pattern hard or farm up powerups from previous level. And then it's not obvious that you are supposed to shoot kunai at holes in walls to stop the ceiling from crushing Naoko, Joe Musashi's girlfriend. Developers wanted to add cogs graphics there, but they ran out of time.
But in the end, it's the best blood-boiling cold-headed revenge that I ever had in my whole life. One of the best action games on Mega Drive and one of my favourite games ever. Feels good, challenging to degree, west ninjas style.
Thank you Sega. I hunger for another revenge. Would make Spider-Man look-a-like run away like a sissy again.
