Retro Let's Play: Shinobi (Sega 1987)

Retro Let's Play: Shinobi (Sega 1987)

Following on from last month’s blast from the past, we have this month of November a new Sega game from 1987 to play… Shinobi!





These vid's are a bit long, but very informative giving a complete visual history of this game;





History wise the word Shinobi basically means Ninja;

A ninja (忍者, Japanese pronunciation: [ɲiꜜɲdʑa]) or shinobi (忍び, [ɕinobi]) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan.

The original release of this game was of course an arcade version, so can be played here;

https://archive.org/details/arcade_shinobi

... or obtain the ROM and play using MAME or same via Retroarch.

If you’ve not played around with MAME before, have a read here;

https://forums.overclockers.com.au/threads/retro-faq-mame.1256345/

There have been many ports of this to various platforms over the years and many sequels. Some good historical info here;

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/shinobi/

Participants may want to try the various ports on the below platforms;

Sega Master System (Some of the play mechanics from the original coin-op version were altered for this version. Instead of the one-hit kills from the arcade game, the player now has a health gauge that allows Musashi to sustain more damage before losing a life, although this comes with the trade-off that touching an enemy causes Musashi to lose health.)

C64

Amiga

Amstrad CPC

ZX Spectrum

Atari ST

IBM PC

PC Engine (The graphics and play mechanics of the PC Engine version are similar to the arcade version's, but the close-range attacks and power-ups are missing and there are no bonus rounds (extra lives are instead given by getting a certain number of points). Although there is no life gauge, the time limit for finishing each stage from the arcade version was removed. Mission 2 is also completely omitted and all subsequent missions are renumbered as a result.)

NES (The play mechanics are based on the Master System's version. However, Tengen removed all of the close-range weapons (the sword, the nunchaku, and the chain) and the grenades. Only the basic punches, kicks, throwing daggers, and pistol were kept. Unlike the Master System version, the player can only shoot one shuriken, dagger, or bullet on-screen at the same time, even after obtaining power-ups. However, the maximum stock of ninjutsu skills has been increased to five. All the vertical-scrolling stages (such as Mission 2-2 and Mission 3-2) were redesigned into horizontal-scrolling stages.)

Wii & Xbox 360 (Although both releases are emulated from the arcade game's code, slight graphical modifications were made due to licensing issues. One of the enemy grunts in the second stage of Mission 1, a wall-crawling ninja who roughly resembles the comic book character Spider-Man, originally wore a blue bodysuit and mask with red gloves and boots, which was too close to Spider-Man's color scheme. In the Wii and Xbox 360 releases, his color scheme was changed to a green bodysuit and mask with yellow boots and gloves.)

The Amiga and Atari ST deliver the most faithful ports, which only differ from the arcade version in resolution, colours and HUD, as well as some different mechanics.

An interesting bit of info;

Further info on sequels and other releases here;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinobi_(series)


Personally I first played this back in the arcade days (mostly that place I used the clicker lol). Being a reasonably challenging game it was common to need a good supply of 20c/$1 coins, less once the player got better and remembered the various methods to complete each stage.

Next for me was the C64 version then the NES. I’ve not played this on any other platform, so during this month may explore these other options too. J

It will be emulation for me, as I can’t find the original NES cartridge for this.

Does anyone here have the original arcade board, maybe even running in a cabinet?

Enjoy Shinobi!






JSmith

 

Sega Lord X also did a great Shinobi video recently.

 

There's work in progress on a port of the original Sega System 16A (10MHz M68K CPU) arcade game to Megadrive (7.6MHz M68K CPU) as well. Doesn't look like the individual is really pushing to complete it (seems to be a "just for fun" project), but there's pretty interesting progress so far.

 

Love this game, used to play it in the arcade.. the history of Shinobi was interesting and i enjoyed that a lot.

Ill hook this up on my cab for the next week or so

cheers.

 

I'll give it a small play on Master System just for the memberberry factor, but I think I might cheat a little this month.
See I loved Shinobi on the Master System, along with The Ninja, but don't have much need to replay it.
But I do have a copy of Shinobi X for Saturn sitting on my shelf that I'll likely never play otheriwse.

This will be a good chance to see how well the original game is holding up though.

 

played this on SMS till the wee hours of the night. bring it on

 

It really is an excellent game... have been playing for 20 mins or so now. You always know it's a quality game when you get killed but have no issue playing over and over, with a smile.



JSmith

 

had a few goes this evening on the Amiga, just as good as I remember it.

 

Original cover of SMS port;





JSmith

 

Attract mode...
Bloody hard game!!

 

ah me neck, don't you know we're all getting old

haha - that looks fantastic you can't beat the standup experience (or laying down in this case).

 

Hey here's some high scores we can try to beat;

http://www.highscore.com/games/ArcadeEmulatedMAME/Shinobi/9252

Bubufubu looks hard to beat!

... and here are some hints on generating high scores;

http://benjamin.bouloch.free.fr/shinobi.htm

e.g.;

JSmith

 

Fired this bad boy up on the MAME cabinet tonight in the arcade room. This isn't one I spent a lot of time with previously, so it was good to give it a solid go over.

I'd played a fair bit of Shinobi III on Megadrive, which is obviously a much more polished title, focussed on the home market, with a lot more design budget and time on its side. But I was surprised to find that the original was quite fair, compared to a lot of other arcade games of the era that are really punishing. Even though I sunk a fair few credits in on my first run, it was clear where I was making obvious mistakes, and how a bit of practice and a little pattern memorisation, and this could be really fun.

Definitely going to keep at this one. I've got some time booked on the weekend over in the console gaming room for both Retro Racing on the N64, and more Shinobi both on the Master System and hopefully I can get the arcade-to-megadrive port fired up to in order to compare.

Sorry for the bad CRT shots. Still fiddling with my new phone, will find some better settings next time.

 

Having flashbacks of playing this, kenseiden and ghouls n ghosts on the sms2.

 

Lol high score to beat.. i am lucky to get through stage 2...

 

I got up to stage 1 of mission 4 last night... god knows how many lives used though, on freeplay.



http://www.arcadequartermaster.com/sega/shinobi_4.html



JSmith

 

It's a title that's heavy on memorisation. Stages aren't difficult if you've played them through a few times.

This is very much one of those era titles that forces you to play it the way *IT* wants you to play. There's no flexibility here. You need to memorise enemy placements and spawning.

 

True... although the last stage of mission 3 (I think) I was able to time it so I avoided almost all ninja's and just walked out the door. Also where I got up to has the two ninja's that appear as one to start with, or 10. Loving walking down memory lane with this one.



JSmith

 

This game is really great - I did a 1CC a few weeks ago:



Not a super tough game to learn if you aren't going for the special bonuses. If you do go special bonuses route its a completely different game and this is what I love most about old games - you get to choose your level of commitment.

 

Yeah true... will be trying those after I finish it, but some of those sound pretty difficult to achieve as well.

Sure is, Shinobi!



JSmith