Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

Genesis - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Megasoft Publisher Sega Published 1993-07-23 Platforms Genesis, Mega Play Genres Beat 'em up, Platformer Themes Action, Martial Arts, Science Fiction, Ninjas Series Shinobi Distribution Commercial

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is a platform shooter developed by Megasoft and published by Sega for the Genesis on 1993-07-23. It's part of the Shinobi series, but, despite its number, it's not the third game in the series. Instead, it's the sequel to The Revenge of Shinobi.

The game's story follows The Revenge of Shinobi. Two years have passed since Joe Musashi vanquished the crime syndicate Neo Zeed, but it appears to have returned to power led by a man known only as the Shadow Master. You play as the ninja Musashi who must defeat them once again.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	No.

While I was quite fond of the original arcade release of Shinobi, I found it to be far too difficult, so I never made a serious attempt to beat it, or even play any of the other games in the series. However, I saw several people online writing that this title wasn't too difficult, so I decided to give it a try. Once again, they lied to me.

Review

3	4	7	5	2

Best Version: Genesis

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The static graphics are drawn quite well.
• The soundtrack, by Morihiko Akiyama, Hirofumi Murasaki, and Masayuki Nagao nicely blends modern and traditional Japanese music, though I didn't find any of the songs particularly great.
• You're given plenty of moves in your ninja arsenal.

Bad

• The levels are sparsely populated and feel quite empty.
• The double jump is a useful special ability, and necessary at times, but I couldn't consistently pull it off, so I frequently fell into harm's way.
• There are several parts of the map where you can't see what's below you, but, if you jump down to see what is there, it will sometimes be a pit. These beginner traps make for poor level design.

Ugly

• Although the game starts out simple, there are several bottlenecks where the difficulty ramps up. Stage 4, "Destruction," has a lot of pits with enemies purposely placed to knock you in, but this reaches ridiculous proportions in stage 6, "Traps," where you have to survive for several minutes double-jumping across small platforms while enemy ninjas fly around you throwing shurikens. I quickly burned through all my remaining lives and continues at this section, and, since I didn't really enjoy my time getting to that point, had no interest in having to do it all over again, so I gave up on the game.
• With a limited number of continues, a game over forces you to have to restart the game entirely. While this still wasn't out of the norm for video games at time, it's not a fun way to experience the game.

Media

Box Art

• 

  Mega Drive, Japan. Asian releases. Looks like someone's getting the better of Joe.

• 

  Genesis, USA. Used in all non-Asian releases. Uh, Joe, all the enemies are behind you, buddy.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Mega Drive - Brazil.

• 

  Manual - Mega Drive - France.

• 

  Manual - Mega Drive - Japan.

• 

  Manual - Genesis - USA.

Videos

Longplay - Genesis.

Play Online

Genesis, Master System

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Pass	The game's hero, Joe Musashi, is Japanese.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Japanese	ザ・スーパー忍II	Za Supa Shinobu II	The Super Shinobi II

Links