SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance Review – Stylish No-Espionage Action

The original SHINOBI is back! Despite being a ninja, good ol Joe Musashi dons his signature white gi loud and proud in this no-stealth all-action side scrolling platformer created by Lizardcube, the team behind the equally gorgeous Streets of Rage 4. Sporting a unique hand-drawn look, Joe will journey through stylistic stages while executing ninja arts and attacks with surprising precision, making for some very satisfying exploration and combat encounters.

The Art of Vengeance

Joe Musashi is a man of few words. Very few. But his art of vengeance is set when his village and ninja clan are attacked by the evil Lord Ruse and the ENE Corp. While the story and setup are about as candid and corny as your typical arcade-style side scroller, it does ultimately present itself a lot better than in its opening salvos. You run into more characters than I ever expected to in a game of this nature, plus the fully-voiced dialogue is greatly appreciated. They do a good job expanding the feel of the world and do explain why you visit the locales that you do instead of just having the player go with the flow and accepting whatever weird stage comes up next.

While the story is not going to win any awards in terms of writing, the tropes it plays with are used to great effect and make for some epic visual moments, bolstered by an eye-catching art style.

Rewarding the Curious

SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is more than just a stage by stage “run to the right” style of game. Each stage has its own sets of secrets and collectibles, a few of which are easy enough to find while others are hidden away. The routes to some can be found easily enough, but may require a power-up or two in order to access. Luckily secret locations that you reveal on the map are colored in violet, making it clear that you have in fact found a hidden area. Most of these hidden areas are also near checkpoints that you can fast travel to during revisits.

Beauty and Precision in Violence

I expected combat in SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance to be straightforward and simplistic like its previous iterations, or at the very least a button mash fest against damage sponge foes. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of depth in the combat mechanics. You can choose to deal regular damage with your sword attacks or throw consumable kunai to help build up the Execution Meter, which allows you to perform a homing instant kill strike that ignores enemy health. 

Unlocking more attacks and abilities lets you string combos better, opening up a toolkit of moves that you can tailor to best suit whatever combat scenario you’re currently in. Art of Vengeance slowly introduces more enemy types as the stages progress, some of which will require a bit more strategy beyond mindless slashing to defeat. There are enemies with armor that first needs to be broken. Certain attacks excel at such. Other enemies with shields will need to hit from the rear to be dealt any damage at all. There are support types that constantly heal other enemies to the point that they’re virtually invincible, but still vulnerable to Execution *wink wink*, and another enemy type that will fire projectiles from an absurd range. They’ll need to be taken out before you can safely confront the more grounded enemies. It all builds up to Joe simultaneously slugging it out with combinations of multiple enemy types, all of whom can be defeated in stylish fashion, if your ninja skills are up to par.

In the words of Joe Musashi; “……”

SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is a mixture of multiple mechanics and ideas from both modern and classic game design philosophies. From the familiar arcadey side-scrolling adventure to the tight and stylish action combat, plus the sometimes crazy difficult platforming sections in the special Rift stages, it’s a familiar yet refreshing experience all around.

There are a few hiccups. The game is somewhat short, though it rewards replay value. I was able to complete everything it had to offer within 13 hours. Traveling between checkpoints is also awkward, as you need to use the menu, not map, to select travel points. There’s also an almost slavish point of recreating the best bits from the older titles rather than focusing on making new epic moments. 

I don’t believe there was any particular outcry for a new SHINOBI game, but I am very glad that this game exists. SEGA and Lizardcube really polished this like a well-oiled katana blade, and this is no doubt a stellar entry in the storied shinobi series.

Verdict: 4 / 5 (Fantastic)

PROS

• Stellar artwork and visuals

• Solid and tight combat mechanics that reward precision 

• Encourages exploration and stage revisits

• Fun and challenging bonus stages that test the culmination of all of your skills

CONS

• Awkward map controls. Unable to manually hover over checkpoints on the map to fast travel. You’re locked into only being able to select the checkpoints via the menu, which can be a bit disorienting.

What I’ve Played 

• 100% completion at 13 hours

• All power-ups unlocked and purchased

• Dark Katana completed

• Lab key boss defeated

*This review is based on a Steam review copy provided to the reviewer