Shinobi

Shinobi
$29.99
About a year ago after hearing loads of repeated mumblings concerning this titles difficulty and as someone who loves a challenging game, I decided to purchase this. Boy was it waste of my 6$.

I'm not really much of a stickler for graphics but I will say the games graphics were decent. In terms of presentation, this game fails at everything environment-wise. To go into the previous statement a little further, I will say that the games environments are all VERY shallow and lacking in creativity. I can't tell you how many times I saw the exact same dull environment design throughout my limited playthrough.

The subject of gameplay is the sole reason why I gave this game 2 stars. Devil May Cry debuted on the PS2 in 2001 with hack and slash gameplay that was engaging, deep, and rewarding. Fast-forward to close to the end of 2002 and we have Shinobi; a game with an inexcusable extreme lack of depth and repetitive soulless gameplay. I can't tell you how fast this game bored me with the SAME 1-2-3 combo combination; Unlike Devil May Cry, you can't vary your slashes or work your projectile weapon into your "combo." I could even accept that the sword constantly drained my health as I idled, but that fact added nothing in terms of feelings of tension or incentive to keep playing. In addition, it was kind of cool to pull of those multiple kills at first, but after I did it the 20th time in one level, that feeling of excitement lost its luster FAST.

Now, I played about 6 levels, but after that I could go no more. I must again reaffirm it has NOTHING to do with difficulty, but this gameplay just led me to keep asking myself, "..so does it ever get deeper? Does he get newer abilities as he progresses? Does it EVER...?" and it hit me like a rock when I realized the answers to all my questions was this: NO. It's for this very fact alone that I really don't think I'll ever beat this game.

And that's it, a very short review for a very narrow game. So, as a recap for interested parties, this title is for those who don't notice gameplay that never varies and never gets deeper as well as those simple minded enough to be wowed by 60fps graphics. For the rest of us however, there's to many games out there are ACTUALLY fun to play.

Shinobi No Mono
$24.98

I too will adress the series - or at least the first four films.
Will there ever be a serious critique of these films? Probably not. It ain't high art and so scholarly thinkers (snobs for the most part) shan't bother with them. That is a shame, because the series actually deserves some intelligent scrutiny. Some of this saga would merit more detailed explication.
Animeigo gives some amount of this in their Extras, but it isn't great. They're good enough on the historical context; however "it is to be regretted" that they do not tell the amateur viewer more about the film's background &c. I realise Animeigo is not Criterion, but some amount of behind-the-scenes information would be helpful. Or as a for-instance, some notes about the various films' receptions?
Why, particularly, does the GOEMON character recede into the mist at the end of the third film only to be replaced by the SAIZO character (notably, "Saizo of the Mists")? Are we to understand that they are in fact one and the same man or not? This clearly affects our reading of the film. Does Saizo have the same attitude to domesticity and women as Goemon, for instance?
It is more confusing when the excellent Tomasiburo Wakayama returns in the fourth film, now in a heroic role. Is there authorial purpose behind this? Does the director deliberately and subtly double Wakayama's first chartacter, ODA NOBUNAGA, with his second character SANADA YUKIMURA? Nope I don't think so either. Was Wakayama drafted in again because he was so popular in the first two films and the third did less well at the box office? Probably. It'd be nice to know. (I must add that I am well pleased that he IS in the fourth film, however confusing his reappearance; any appearance he makes is to be applauded. He does the same, the inexplicable reappearance, in a couple of Zatoichi films.)
Maybe this is simply a convention of Japanese cinema we are not familiar with, in which characters are more important than their actors.
More confusing is the appearance and reappearance of one SUBARO DATE, who is in the second and third films as the pro-Ieyasu Hanzo Hatorri but appears in the fourth as an anti-Ieyasu ninja (duly crucified). I get the idea he returns again to the fifth movie as Hanzo again. WHA-----
Not that all this chopping and changing is too confusing - it is actually quite enjoyable trying to discern sense in the flux of chaos - like trying to focus on a sock whirling in a washing machine - but I would like to know the reason for it; that is all.
I must know the reasons for why things are.
Now to another problem resulting from some of the above reviews; what exactly constitutes "realistic" ninja action anyway? Have any of the esteemed reviewers of these films actually seen ninjas going about their everyday activities, enough to pass this solemn judgment? What would William Dean Howells say were he to walk the earth today at this very hour and read these words?
As for RAIZO, I like him, especially when he does his set-piece, the exaggerated laughter at inappropriate times, but let's not be carried away. He has two modes; the aforementioned hysterical nihilist laughter and then the brooding sulking pompadoured James Dean impersonator, troubled by overthinking. I say flatly that he is no Katsu Shintaro!
It shouldn't seem eccentric for me to compare this series with Zatoichi or Lone Wolf and Vub, since they are each of a type (jidai geki popular serials), and the latter two are, let it be said candidly, far superior.
(If you are interested in this subset of jidai geki, incidentally, I will here recommend the excellent WATER MARGIN Japanese TV series, filmed in the seventies, which was televised in Britain in the 1980s and so can be found on an adequate DVD reissue in Britain. Some familiar actors show up in this too. Particularly of note is the excellent KEI SATO.)
But I see that I have taken up enough of your time and I fear that I am rambling.

Shinobi
$3.12

Shinobi III
$129.99
One of the best retro games EVER!!

Very polished and FUN!!

SHINOBI!!!

also, check out Shinobi on Xbox live Arcade.......