Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
System: Genesis
Release Date: June 23, 1991
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action
Exact your revenge on those who have wronged you and your friends in Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi! The last time we saw Joe Musashi, he was busy taking down the Neo Zeed organization. His services no longer needed, he traveled to New York to spend time with his former pupil, Kato. Kato got involved in a hostage situation and was gravely wounded while rescuing children. Musashi vowed revenge on the terrorists and inherited Kato’s faithful dog, Yamato. Together, they have six rounds of action to bring down the Union Lizard group and save the world!
Joe comes equipped with an unending supply of throwing stars, unless you turn them off in the options menu, and his razor sharp katana blade. Each level tasks him with saving a number of hostages. In order to do this, he has to attack or avoid the Union Lizard thugs in his way. There aren’t a massive number of enemy types, meaning you can learn attack patterns pretty easily. It’s just a matter of pulling off your own battle strategy. Joe doesn’t move very quickly, which can make avoiding flying enemies and projectiles more difficult than it should be.
Some hostages give points and others give a powerup to your attacks. I found that if you play on the hardest difficulty, you are never given a powerup. This means that some enemies must be slashed at to defeat, like this shield throwing guy. When you’re powered up, you can break through some enemy defenses. If you hold down the attack button, you can send your dog forward to attack an enemy in front of you, but both you and the dog need to be on solid ground or it won’t work. You are gifted a special ninja spell for use in each level, but I rarely used them on purpose, instead opting for the point bonus from not using it.
Bosses can be defeated through pure pattern recognition. I died a couple times on each until I figured out their weak point and attack sequences. The wall boss in Stage 2 was particularly infuriating until I figured it out. If you can avoid their attacks and don’t try to rush, they’re all pretty easy to defeat. The final boss has limited vulnerability and pits you against several very difficult shadow ninjas before that point is revealed.
After each round is a bonus stage where you’re falling from the top of a building and throwing ninja stars at enemy ninjas jumping up the building. If you kill all 50, you earn a few extra lives. If you miss a couple you’ll get two lives, otherwise it’s all point bonuses. Unless you kill zero… you get one free life at that point. I went through the game on the normal difficulty and the ending suggested my journey wasn’t over. The internet said to beat it on the hard difficulty, so I did… and got the same ending. Lame.
Graphics: 3.0
Sprites and animations are well detailed and pleasant looking enough.
Sound: 2.0
Music is decent, but the dog barking when you attack gets annoying quickly.
Gameplay: 2.0
A lack of powerups and special attacks is kind of a let down, but it works fine for what it is.
Difficulty: 2.5
Five lives and five continues. One hit deaths and enemy placements that don’t change. Levels are short enough to learn quickly.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I mean, it was alright, but I prefer the first title in the series.
Overall Rating: 2.3
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi earns a C+. The game is fine overall, but nothing to get excited about. I hope the next title goes back toward the basics.