game corner

Game Corner: Doom (2016; Xbox Series X)

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Released: 4 August 2020 
Originally Released: 13 May 2016
Developer: id Software 
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
First-person shooters (FPS) existed before Doom (ibid, 1993), but that celebrated title popularised the genre with its online “Deathmatches” and multiple ports. Although sparking much controversy, Doom was incredibly successful and this translated into a bigger, equally successful Doom II (ibid, 1994). It then took ten years for id Software to release Doom 3 (ibid, 2004), a more story-focused title that was celebrated for its claustrophobic atmosphere and gory combat. Following this, id Software tried to launch a new FPS series with Rage (2011) and outsource a fourth Doom as they had with their Wolfenstein franchise (Various, 1981 to 2019), a difficult proposition that Bethesda Softworks revised after purchasing id Software. Originally set on Earth as a spin on Doom II, Doom 4 struggled to build momentum and was eventually retooled into a series reboot. Now simply titled Doom, the game sought to emphasise fast-paced combat rather than story, taking inspiration from the bloody action/horror movies of the 1980s and rewarding bloodthirsty players. Lauded as one of the best games of 2016, Doom received top scores from critics, who praised the gory visuals, heavy metal soundtrack, and action-orientated gameplay. Doom was further bolstered by three packs of downloadable content (DLC) that added extra content to the uncharacteristically divisive multiplayer mode, all of which was later bundled alongside the first three games in one handy collection. Having successfully revitalised the franchise, Doom was followed by an even bigger, widely praised sequel in 2020 and a fantasy-orientated prequel in 2025.

The Plot:
In the far future, crippled Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) researcher Olivia Pierce opens a portal to Hell to enslave humanity, prompting UAC cyborg scientist Doctor Samuel Hayden to awaken the legendary Doom Slayer to combat the invading demons.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Unsurprisingly, Doom is a first-person shooter in which you assume the role of the legendary Doom Slayer, a mute, violent warrior greatly feared by the demons of Hell. Before beginning Doom, you may wish to tweak the game’s settings. Alongside the standard difficulty modes, you can change the heads-up display, crosshair, compass and objective display, and even the position of your weapons. Naturally, the game’s controls are equally adjustable, but the default settings are perfectly fine. You jump with A (eventually upgrading to a double jump), crouch with B, and switch to the chainsaw or Big Fucking Gun/BFG with X and Y, respectively, once you acquire them. Pressing the left stick activates photo mode to share your bloody accomplishments, while pressing the right stick interacts with consoles, switches, map stations, etc. The Right Bumper switches your weapon; holding it opens the weapon wheel and you can toggle whether you want to automatically switch to new weapons. The Right Trigger fires (no need to worry about reloading here and there’s even aim assist), the Left Bumper uses items (typically a grenade), and the Left Trigger activates your weapon’s currently equipped modification to deal additional damage. You need Medikits of different sizes and special stations to replenish health and armour pick-ups to reduce the damage you take.

Blast, tear, and slaughter your way through hordes of demons.

Health and ammo are further replenished by slaughtering demons with the chainsaw (though fuel is limited) and performing “Glory Kills”. Shooting enemies eventually stuns them, which is your prompt to press the right stick and tear them to shreds with your bare hands. Similarly, you occasionally find more traditional power-ups (Berserk, Haste, Invincibility, Quad Damage, etc) to temporarily empower you. The Doom Slayer begins with a simple pistol that boasts unlimited ammo and a charged shot modifier. You soon grab a shotgun (which can be modified with either a charged or explosive shot), the heavy assault rifle (which can be modified into a sniper rifle or to fire cluster missiles), a plasma cannon (which can emit a stun or heat blast), and my personal favourite, the Super Shotgun (which fires two shots at once). You’ll also grab a massive chaingun (which can become a sentry turret), the Gauss Cannon (a heavy-duty laser cannon that I struggled to aim), and the ever-reliable rocket launcher (which can fire homing missiles). You can toss frag grenades, siphon grenades (which replenish your health at the cost of your target’s), and distract enemies with a hologram. Enemies also attack each other, especially in Hell, and you can shoot explosive barrels to thin out their numbers. Of course, the most powerful weapon is the BFG, acquired quite late in the game, which obliterates all nearby enemies. Weapon modifications are purchased from field drones and applied using Upgrade Points earned from completing various Mission Challenges (such as finding secrets or killing certain enemies in certain ways). To master a weapon, you must perform specific kills on certain enemies (such as 50 headshots with the sniper function). Furthermore, you occasionally find dead UAC soldiers who yield Praetor Tokens that upgrade your suit to increase your resistance to environmental damage, better spot secrets, and reduce weapon charge time, amongst other buffs.

Conquer Rune Trails, activate switches, and complete tricky platforming sections.

You also find UAC crates containing Argent Cells that increase your maximum health, armour, and ammo. Various datapads contain lore about each area, weapon, and monster, and you download map data to locate secrets, such as Doom Slayer figurines. Eventually, the game introduces hidden Rune Trails that warp you to Hell and challenge you to defeat enemies or destroy barrels or other timed tasks. Completing these earns your demonic Runes; you can eventually equip and upgrade up to three of these, which offer buffs like increasing your pick-up rate, performing faster Glory Kills, and negating ammo cost when you’re at full armour. These are worth seeking out and, like each mission, can be replayed from the main menu (which also carries over your upgrades and weapons). You’ll often venture onto the rocky wastelands of Mars, but you thankfully won’t have to worry about zero gravity sections or maintaining your oxygen supply. To counteract this, you must frequently destroy demon nests to spawn increasingly difficult demons fought under lockdown. As in the classic games, you search for coloured keys and skulls and activate switches, though thankfully I never had trouble navigating even the more confusing areas. Mostly, you must simply kill everything in your way, but you’re often forced to perform some awkward platforming (without fall damage, but at risk of bottomless pits) and clambering ledges to higher areas. You must avoid being cut to ribbons by the BFG’s laser grid system, a puzzle that took me way too long to figure out (get to safety and shoot the power nodes on the energy ring…and don’t fall!) Otherwise, you’ll activate portals, overload power cores, lay demonic souls to rest, and destroy specific targets to progress. Occasionally, you use the right stick to muscle open doors or grates and be forced to battle increasingly difficult waves of seemingly never-ending demons without a checkpoint, which can get tiresome.

Presentation:
Doom wisely drops the obsession with flashlights and nigh-impenetrable darkness that dogged the third game. Every area is nicely lit and makes effective use of shadows, steam, flickering lights, and darkness to create a foreboding atmosphere. Even when you enter slick, clean, futuristic facilities, it’s not long before you see dismembered corpses, blood tails, or gripping gore plastered everywhere. These, alongside pentagrams, altars with still-beating hearts on, skewered bodies, screaming skeletons, and a bloodbath of carnage, make Doom a gore-fest for the eyes. The Doom Slayer is entirely mute and never seen in full; windows are conveniently smashed and you barely catch a glimpse of his visage, which is great as I’d much rather have a silent killer than a generic Jarhead. He’s aided by the cybernetic Dr. Hayden, who gives directions and exposition over the comms, though the Doom Slayer rarely listens to his advice. Demonic whispering and screaming add to the creep factor, while rocking music kicks in whenever demons appear. Unfortunately, while Doom runs incredibly smoothly, with short load times and highly detailed, gory environments, textures sometimes take a second to render properly, which surprised me for such a top-tier title. Still, the over-the-top gore makes up for it. Even the Doom Slayer’s death scenes see his entrails or limbs blowing off, and you’ll see demons get blown to bloody chunks with each shot, which makes the combat very satisfying.

Gore is everywhere but the game’s gothic, cosmic horror excels in the underworld.

The game’s story is as simple as the original games, but also amusingly convoluted thanks to Dr. Hayden’s constant exposition, Dr. Pierce’s manic desire to unleash Hell, and even the moments where you learn the lore of Hell. These are easily ignored in favour of the action, however, and I enjoyed the attention to detail in each area. The developers clearly drew inspiration from sci-fi/horror classics when putting the UAC facilities together, and their Mars outpost features all kinds of laboratories, offices, a monorail system, and more. Sometimes, you’ll rip limbs and even torsos off bodies to access high-level areas; you’ll activate turbines, overload the reactor core in the frigid cooling room, encounter Nests in storage facilities, and traverse large vertical shafts, hopping to gantries and walkways as you desperately try to curb the demonic infestation. While many UAC areas are still brightly lit, others are in utter disarray. Darkness and jump scares (like steam vents, pop-up holograms, and flickering consoles) make it more terrifying when enemies suddenly appear from behind walls or portals. Things take a turn towards the industrial as you venture to the less refined areas of the Mars base, encountering pistons, chasms, and more rundown areas. You’ll often be transported to Hell, like Doom 3. Hell is a desolate, warped environment made up of rocky structures, floating boulders, chains, medieval dungeons, and depraved scenes of torture and agony. With a tumult in the flaming clouds and demons lurking around every corner, Hell is where Doom really shines, especially with its gigantic skeletal remains, looming stone statues, and ominous demonic structures imbedded with depictions of Hell’s finest, like the Icon of Sin. Acid pits, tricky platforming, and torture chambers are the order of the day, with demons fighting and constantly swarming each area to keep you on your toes.

Enemies and Bosses:
As near as I can tell, all the classic Doom enemies are back and looking better than ever. Common enemies include the zombie-like Possessed, who shamble about and swipe at you, and their more demonic counterparts, the Unwilling, who are functionally the same cannon fodder. The Possessed can be soldiers and security forces wielding bio-organic hand cannons, the security variants hide behind energy shields, some are missing arms, and others have explosives strapped to them that you can use to take out multiple enemies. Imps scurry up walls and ceilings, tossing fireballs while their armoured cousins, the Hell Razer, fires concentrated energy beams. The ever-annoying Lost Souls fly at you in a shrieking kamikaze attack and are as frustrating as the bulbous Cacodemons, which float about spitting energy blasts and biting you and, for some reason, I found far more difficult to deal with in this game. You’ll also encounter the equally frustrating Summoner, a regal and effeminate demon that teleports about, fires energy waves, and must be prioritised to keep it from spawning more demons. The screaming, skeletal Revenants are also back, still packing missile launchers on their back and now leaping and flying about using a jet pack. Pinkies (and their invisible counterparts, the Spectres) are also back and equally aggravating, charging at you from behind and taking a lot of shots to be put down. These enemies are bolstered by some bigger, tougher demons who are initially introduced as mini bosses, of sorts, but quickly become regular enemies. The most common are the Hell Knights, large, brutish demons who leap in with a slam and run at you like a rhino.

Gigantic demons and near-endless swarms represent a significant difficulty spike.

Hell Knights are often joined by a Mancubus or two and their cybernetic variants; these rotund ghouls pack arm cannons that spew flames, push you back with an energy wave, or fire toxic blasts. And then there’s the Baron of Hell, a massive, horned, goat-legged monster who tosses green energy balls and stomps about. These larger enemies will have you switching to the BFG or employing a fully fuelled chainsaw, or madly spitting rockets, and make each encounter a fight for survival. It’s a good thing you’re constantly tearing through these hordes as Doom only has three boss battles. These all occur in Hell and feature big, stubborn health bars. The Cyberdemon is initially fought in the Lazarus Labs and then finished off in Hell. This gigantic demon pelts you with rockets, charges a big laser cannon, and throws energy waves that must be ducked or jumped over. It also traps you in stone walls and, like all bosses, can be stunned with the BFG and will drop resources to aid you. The Hell Guards guard the Crucible and are invulnerable within their shields, attack with a staff, erratically spin and throw fireballs, or swing a massive hammer for a gruelling two-stage fight. The damnable Spider Mastermind slashes with its metallic claws, fires a chain gun, sweeps the area with laser, erects pillars, electrifies the floor, and psychokinetically tosses boulders. Its skull-like face is its weak point, and you’ll want to stun it with the BFG and blast it up close with the Super Shotgun, keeping your distance otherwise and hoping you get lucky with its frequent and damaging attacks.

Additional Features:
Doom yields fifty-four Achievements, with six awarded simply for playing the main campaign. You can easily snag a few more by performing 200 Glory Kills, killing fifty enemies with a chainsaw, 100 more with explosive barrels, and by upgrading any of the Praetor suit categories. You’ll get additional Achievements for finding and upgrading all Runes, completing all Mission Challenges, and mastering first one and then all weapons. You can play on harder difficulties and take on the game’s more casual ‘Arcade’ mode, earning medals and Achievements for your performance, and even create and publish your own levels using the ‘SnapMap’ option (though you need an Xbox Live subscription to do this). Similarly, there is no couch co-op or multiplayer here; you need to get online to play the various deathmatches. This version includes all the DLC, allowing you to play as demons (including the new Harvester variant) and use different weapons in this mode. I couldn’t play it so I can’t speak to it, but I imagine the multiplayer offers the standard free-for-all, king of the hill, and team-based slaughter popularised by the original Doom. Finally, every stage contains a hidden room modelled after the classic Doom, old-school graphics and all, which are fun Easter Eggs even if there are no Achievements tied to these beyond finding every secret in the game.

The Summary:
After being disappointed by Doom 3, I was hesitant to get into Doom, despite hearing nothing but praise for it and its sequel. However, I was wrong to hesitate as this is a phenomenal first-person shooter that perfectly marries old-school sensibilities (an action-orientated focus) with modern gameplay mechanics. I was so relieved to find I could see what was going on, that I wasn’t wandering a pitch-black maze, and that the focus on searching for keys and alternate paths was put to the side. The focus on gory action was very satisfying; it’s fun ripping demons apart with your bare hands, shredding them with a chainsaw, and blowing them to bloody chunks with the Super Shotgun. However, it’s true that I did find the mindless combat tiresome at times. When you’re forced to fight waves of increasingly difficult demons with no checkpoints between them, it can become aggravating. However, the satisfaction of getting better skilled at dispatching these enemies and using nearby power-ups or the benefits of the chainsaw and BFG can’t be understated. I loved the gore-infested environments; it truly seemed like these idiot scientists had unleashed the furies of Hell and had their entrails painting across the walls for their efforts. The demons were monstrous and many, sporting little quirks like fleeing from you or fighting each other, and I enjoyed that you were constantly earning upgrades or motivated to master your weapon’s abilities. While the Doom title might seem derivative, it’s incredibly fitting as Doom really felt like a modern reimagining of the original games. Retaining that arcade-style accessibility with the constant euphoria of bloody combat made me happy to push on past the more troublesome sections and made this a bloody good time that I’d be happy to revisit to mop up the remaining Achievements.

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Were you a fan of Doom? Did you enjoy its modern reimagining of the original game’s simplicity? Which weapon was your favourite, and did you ever master them all? What did you think to the outrageous gore and the Glory Kills? Did you also struggle against the demon hoards and the Spider Mastermind? Did you ever play the multiplayer and, if so, how does it hold up? Whatever your thoughts on Doom, or FPS games in general, drop a comment below and go check out my other Doom reviews.

Game Corner [Bat-Month]: Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate: Deluxe Edition (Xbox 360)

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In the decades since his first dramatic appearance in Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a pop culture icon. The brainchild of writer Bob Kane, Batman was brought to life by artist Bill Finger and has been a popular staple of DC Comics over the years. Accordingly, September celebrates “Batman Day”, the perfect excuse to celebrate comic’s grim and broody vigilante.

Released: 1 April 2014
Originally Released: 25 October 2013
Developer: Armature Studio
Also Available For: Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita

The Background:
Batman’s “troublesome” relationship with videogames was changed for the better when Eidos Interactive, Rocksteady Studios, and celebrated Batman writer Paul Dini collaborated on the critical and commercial success Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios, 2009). This was followed by a bigger and better sequel, Batman: Arkham City (ibid, 2011), that was even more lauded, an achievement Rocksteady Studios didn’t take lately. Eager to capitalise, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment turned to WB Games Montréal to develop a prequel while Rocksteady worked on a third game. Although it received a fair amount of praise, Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) was largely seen as mediocre and derivative. Yet, Warner Bros. doubled down on their desire to cash in on the Arkham franchise and outsourced the development of a portable spin-off title to many of those behind the Metroid Prime trilogy (2002 to 2007). Armature Studio collaborated with WB Games Montréal to ensure continuity between their titles, and the portable versions were developed to be unique for each system, though reception was mixed regarding the downgrade to portable hardware. Indeed, considering reviews criticised the bland prison setting and clunky combat, it’s surprising that the game was re-engineered to run on home consoles, though with updated visuals, controls, and maps, to deliver this slightly better received Deluxe Edition of the game.

The Plot:
Three months after apprehending the maniacal Joker, Batman is forced into an unlikely alliance with Selina Kyle/Catwoman to quell a prison riot at the Blackgate Penitentiary, which has been taken over by the Joker, Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, and Roman Sionis/Black Mask. 

Gameplay:
Unlike other entries in the Batman: Arkham series, Arkham Origins Blackgate is a 2.5D “Metroidvania” style title that restricts Batman to a self-contained, largely linear series of environments explored and expanded by acquiring additional gadgets. While the 3DS version divided the gameplay to the top screen and the map to the lower screen, the Deluxe Edition emulates the Batman: Arkham style but on 2 2.5D plane. Therefore, players must press the ‘Back’ button to bring up a janky 3D wireframe map and check their objectives and collectibles, and use the Left Bumper to enable the trademark Detective Mode rather than tapping on the bottom screen. Similarly, LB allows you to scan the environment, pinpointing crates to open, clues to solve cases, and interactive elements in the environment (that, strangely, need to be scanned every time before use). Otherwise, the controls should be relatively familiar for anyone who’s played a Batman: Arkham game before. Holding A allows Batman to sprint and double tapping it sees him to hop over enemies to attack from behind or roll past spiked hazards. B stuns enemies with a swipe of your cape, allowing you to pummel armoured foes, while X sees Batman attack with strikes, building combos for fancier moves and additional damage. Tapping Y when the icon appears over his head counters incoming attacks, while the Right Trigger is used to crouch and enter vents. Batman’s various gadgets are selected with the directional pad, aimed with LT, and used with RT, allowing him to toss Batarangs or quickly grapple to higher ground as needed.

The game tries to emulate its main console counterparts by recreating Batman’s abilities,

Given the 2.5D restrictions, you won’t be battling large waves of enemies and foes tend to come in manageable groups and only swarm from the background and foreground sporadically. There is no level-up system like in other Batman: Arkham games so you can often bypass enemies rather than fighting them, which is sometimes preferable given that the combat feels much clunkier than in the other games. Countering, in particular, can be a bit hit and miss at times. Knife-wielding thugs and those with stun batons cut through your defences surprisingly easily and Batman seems much weaker this time around. This means electrical currents and poisonous gas drain your health extremely quickly and Batman cannot withstand even a short burst of sustained gunfire. Although Batman doesn’t have to worry about gaining experience points and levelling-up, he can still improve his suit and gadgets by finding WayneTech crates. Similarly, you upgrade Batman’s “Rush” ability (something I struggled to understand but seems to do additional damage as his combo increases) or obtain gauntlets to increase your regular damage. There are numerous helpful autosave points and you can skip cutscenes when reloading, which is even better, but it can be very frustrating to fail again and again because you were spotted and got caught in a crossfire. Arkham Origins Blackgate tries to recreate the “Predator” sections of its bigger, better counterparts but these are both painfully limited and needlessly frustrating. Detective Mode highlight enemies and objects to distract them, and Batman can toss a snare to tangle goons when up high, but there are few options to avoid being spotted. Batman can still hop into floor grates, shimmy along ledges, or sneak behind enemies to take them down or can just dive kick them. Still, you’ll mostly rely on distracting enemies or take them out by dropping hazards into them or destroying the ground beneath them.

You can explore new areas with Batman’s different gadgets and abilities.

Blackgate Prison is split into three main areas: the Cell Block, the Industrial Area, and the Administration Offices. Each has sub areas, such as a sewer system, a dock and lighthouse, and the maximum-security Arkham Wing and you’ll be going back and forth between these areas many times. In many ways the game has more in common with Batman: Arkham Asylum than the other open-world titles, meaning you’ll inevitably reach an obstacle and be forced to explore elsewhere to acquire a different gadget or a key card for your Cryptographic Sequencer. Each area has different entrances and exits and there are shortcuts you can take, but it would’ve helped speed things up to be able to return to the main map from the pause screen. Once there, you can jump to different areas, which is helpful, but it’s not always clear where you need to go or what you need to do no matter how helpful the map thinks it’s being. To be fair, if you haven’t acquired the Line Launcher then you obviously can’t cross gaps and if you don’t have the right key card you can’t open new paths. However, the game is structured to allow you to tackle the main bosses in any order provided you don’t mind backtracking. The puzzles are pretty simple and familiar and largely centred around the Cryptographic Sequencer, which launches you into a number matching/finding mini game, but you’ll also be activating consoles, grappling to switches, and using your various gadgets to access new paths scanned with your Detective Vision. Batman starts with his Batarang and grapnel gun but soon acquires the Batclaw to rip down grate covers and certain walls, the Line Launcher to cross gaps, and explosive glue to explode floors. These can also be upgraded as the story progresses, providing a shock upgrade for the Batarang to create an electrical current to activate doors and machinery, the ability to walk on your line like a tightrope and clumsily ascend up shafts, and glue gel to temporarily jam gears and mechanisms.

Presentation:  
As you might expect, given that it’s a conversion of a 3DS game, Arkham Origins Blackgate isn’t anywhere near as impressive as its main console counterparts but, for the most part, it looks and runs quite well. Batman’s character model fittingly gets the most attention, though he won’t show battle damage and he’s obviously limited in his animations and movements because of the perspective shift and lesser game engine. Combat is a little sluggish, unfortunately, and nowhere near as slick and satisfying as in the other games, which makes one of the franchise’s most enjoyable aspects a chore. Thankfully, much of the gameplay is focused on exploration, simple puzzle solving, and backtracking and Batman controls much better in this regard. Catwoman will help him on the comms, presenting a unique dialogue dynamic compared to talking with Batman’s usual allies. Thugs still engage in some amusing and distracting banter as you wait in the shadows, but the visuals let the game down a bit, appearing more akin to a late-PlayStation 2 or PlayStation Portable title.

Blackgate fails to impress with its drab visuals, however ambitious they may be at times.

Much like Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game is awash in drab, uninspired, grey locations. It’s all very dull and clinical whenever Batman’s indoors, with the only things separating one area from another being one might have some elevators while another has more office equipment, one will be a gothic almost steampunk sewer and the other will have more advanced cells for inmates, but none of it is very visually appealing. The lighthouse and docks are a notable exception, but I was glad to venture into the sewers (generally one of the more visually uninspiring videogame locations) just to mix things up. When I played through the 3DS version, I chose not to engage the 3D function; while it offers a decent sense of depth, the game’s too visually dull to make the most of it. As many environmental puzzles and collectibles are hidden, this means it’s usually better to play with Detective Mode activated so you don’t miss anything and can see during blackouts. The game’s cutscenes largely use a motion comic style reminiscent of Tim Sale’s artwork and they’re fully voiced. You’re gameplay is also often interrupted by cutscenes showing Amanda Waller observing and commenting on your progress, though cutscenes using the in-game engine are restricted to a few short sequences.

Enemies and Bosses:
Blackgate Prison houses some of Gotham City’s most violent criminals, but they’re not the most colourful. Most of the common thugs return from the bigger Batman: Arkham games, with no new additions or interesting wrinkles added. You’ll get into fist fights with enemies, some of whom wield blunt instruments like baseball bats, but those with knives will slash at you mercilessly unless you stun them with a swipe of your cape and beat them down and those with stun batons must be hopped over and attacked from behind. You won’t have to worry about thugs using car doors as shields or coming at you with swords, or any brutish goons, but anyone with a gun should be avoided at all costs. In these instances, you’ll need to use stealth to take them down as it won’t take much to alert them to your presence and see you riddled with bullets, but easily one of the worst dangers in the game is the annoying abundance of spiked hazards lining the floors!

Bosses can be ridiculously simplistic or ridiculously frustrating, with little middle ground.

As Batman progresses further into the prison, or to facilitate this progression, he must face some of his most memorable rogues…and also Benjamin Turner/Bronze Tiger and Floyd Lawton/Deadshot…in boss battles that range from simplistic to ridiculously frustrating. First, you’ll chase Catwoman across the city’s rooftops to a construction site, then you must tap Y to evade her claw swipes and press B to stun her with your cape when prompted. If you try to attack any other time, she’ll slap or whip you away and you’ll need to be quick with your counters for the final hit as she swipes at you three times in slow-motion before going down and offering to help you out. As you explore the cell blocks, you’ll end up in a specially constructed electrified arena made for the Penguin’s amusement where you fight Bronze Tiger in a battle that’s functionally very similar to the one against Catwoman. You’ll initially need to counter Bronze Tiger’s attacks, stun him with your cape, and hit a quick combo but he also has a leaping attack that you must dodge to smack him up, and you can deal a fancy finish if your combo hits him into the electrified cage. As much as I mock him, Deadshot at least mixed up the challenge for his boss battle. Initially, you control Batman from the perspective of Deadshot’s sniper rifle, using cover to avoid being shot and making your way around the area. Then, he switches to a machine gun and will cut you down in seconds if you don’t duck down, meaning the timing to hit a nearby spotlight and blind him is very tight, but at least it wasn’t just counter/stun/attack/repeat.

These three bosses had me tearing my hair out during each encounter.

Down in the sewers, you randomly fight Cyrus Gold/Solomon Grundy, the game’s solo gigantic foe. Accordingly, he’s immune to your standard attacks and you must use Batman’s explosive gel and Batarangs to activate electrical cables to shock him when he charges over puddles. It’s probably just me but this wasn’t immediately clear and I struggled to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do but, once you figure it out and get the timing right, it’s not too difficult. This frustration continued into the fight with Black Mask. As he’s not a physical match for the Batman, Sionis sends in his goons, tosses grenades, and blasts away with his machine gun. He’s also very slippery and forces you to disable three generators in a time-consuming puzzle before waiting to gun you down the moment he spots you. You need to distract him with the nearby alarms, take out an overhead light, and use the floor grates to lure him into position to take him down, all of which was far more aggravating than it had any right to be. Easily the most difficult of the regular bosses, for me, was the Penquin. Cobblepott is flanked by armed goons who cannot be defeated without disarming them, which is extremely difficult to do. Instead, it’s better to distract them so you can drop onto the Penguin and avoid being shot to death in seconds by his shotgun. As the battle progresses, more goons and even an overhead drone makes things harder, though thankfully there is a checkpoint for the final stage.

Your greatest challenge will come, surprisingly, from the Joker and Catwoman.

In a change of pace for this series, you go one-on-one with the Joker in Arkham Origins Blackgate, to a degree. You fight him in a small, enclosed space where his minions toss grenades and the Joker races around a central obstacle, smacking you with an electrical baton whenever you get close. Accordingly, you must run in the opposite direction and time your Line Launcher to fly in and land a combo, but he’ll also take shots with his pistol, floods the arena with poisonous gas, and has the largest health bar of any boss so far. However, he’s a walk in the park compared to the final boss, initially teased as another tedious fight against Bane but which turns out to be an infuriating three-stage fight against Catwoman, of all people. Before you fight her, you’re forced to search all over finding and defusing bombs before you battle her in the same format as in the first encounter, except she’s added Bronze Tiger’s leap to her arsenal and trying to counter her claw swipes is even more difficult. After this, she blinds Batman and strikes from the darkness; your only cue to when she’ll attack is the brief glow of her goggles and a little jingle, meaning it’s way too easy to miss-time your counter and get hit. Survive this phase and she appears to duplicate, with her doubles feigning attacks and the true Catwoman striking so quickly and so awkwardly that it’s near impossible to correctly time your counters as you need to press Y slightly before the indicator appears. Oh, and you need to repeat this last phase three times, with the fakes and attacks increasing each time, making for the most irritating boss battle in the franchise since that God-awful fight with Slade Wilson/Deathstroke!

Additional Features:
There are thirty Achievements on offer in the Deluxe Edition of the game, with one being awarded each time you defeat a boss or hit a continuous combo (up to 100). You’ll also get Achievements for solving detective cases, destroying Joker teeth, explosive bird cages, and replica black masks (which also unlock extras in the game’s gallery), and locating armour and full costume sets. Interestingly, there are some creative Achievements available too, such as dying from the Joker’s laughing gas, facing a different final boss each time, and defeating Grundy with the shock Batarang. While there are no Riddler Trophies, you can find and scan various clues to different criminal cases; some are hidden and others require your gadgets to uncover. What you really want, though, are the WayneTech crates containing the different Batsuit parts. Find all five of each to apply a new skin to the Dark Knight and be afforded additional perks, such as increasing your resistance to damage or just making you invincible! Although there are no Achievements tied to it, the Deluxe Edition offers “Normal” and “Hard” difficulties and you unlock “New Game Plus” after clearing the game, which carries over any Batsuits, clues, and unlocks you’ve earned but will overwrite your save data, take away your gadget upgrades, and present you with re-ordered boss battles and some new items.

The Summary:
I knew that Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate wouldn’t be as expansive or as impressive as its home console counterparts, but I held out hope that the game would make the most of its new format and genre to deliver a fun and engaging Metroidvania. In many ways, Batman suits this genre perfectly; it really opens a lot of avenues for exploration, unique use of Batman’s gadgets and abilities, and speaks to his reputation as the World’s Greatest Detective. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to its potential, the standards set by its bigger cousins, and to meet the expectations of its genre. The combat is slow, sluggish, and unreliable; you’ll try and counter an attack only to get hit and this makes fighting, especially boss battles, extremely aggravating. The Predator sequences are far too limited; I think it might’ve been better to switch to a different presentation for these sections, perhaps a little more zoomed out or isometric perspective but, as it stands, they’re just too finnicky to be anything other than a chore. Some aspects are interesting, like tracking the Penguin’s blood trail or rescuing hostage or even defusing the bombs in the game’s finale, but it’s so difficult to navigate that it’s easy to get turned around or exit an area before you’ve completed your objective. I appreciate it when a game doesn’t hold your hand but, normally, the Batman: Arkham games give you a little more direction than here, where you can just fail constantly trying to figure out how you’re supposed to take out Solomon Grundy and the Penguin or get to where the map’s directing you. I’m not really sure what makes this version so “deluxe” compared to the 3DS title as it barely improves upon the limited 3DS version. As a budget title that offers a taste of Batman’s bigger adventures, it’s not bad but, as an entry in the lauded Batman: Arkham series, it’s a clear disappointment.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate? Do you agree that it fails to make the most of its new format and genre? Did you also find the game world difficult to navigate or were you able to find your way without much problem? What did you think to the game’s bosses? Did you struggle against Black Mask, the Penguin, and Catwoman? Would you like to see the Arkham Origins games given more spotlight? How are you celebrating Batman Day and what is your favourite Batman videogame? Whatever you think about Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, or Batman in general, please leave a comment below and check out my other reviews of the Batman: Arkham series.

Game Corner [K-Month]: Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

In the absolutely bonkers science-fiction film Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013), the monstrous Kaiju first attacked humanity on 10th August 2013, which was subsequently branded “K-DAY”. To celebrate this event, and giant monster movies, I dedicated every Sunday in August to one of cinema’s most prolific monsters: King Kong!

Released: 22 November 2005
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Mobile, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox

The Background:
Considering his status as one of the titans of the monster movie genre, it’s kind of surprising that King Kong hasn’t featured in more videogames. Between his debut in 1933 and the release of Peter Jackson’s blockbuster remake of the influential original, King Kong had only featured in three videogames and was perhaps best represented by unsubtle knock-offs like Donkey Kong and the Rampage series (Various, 1986 to 2018). After a long period of dormancy following a slew of questionable sequels and the impressive 1976 remake, King Kong returned with a bang when life-long King Kong fan Peter Jackson reimagined the original into a critical success. Though plans for a sequel were scrapped in favour of a later reboot, the 2005 King Kong was accompanied by this videogame, whose Xbox 360 drew initial criticism for being unsuitable for standard-definition televisions. Heralded as an innovative title due to its cinematic presentation and minimal use of onscreen text, Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie allowed players to explore Skull Island as a first-person shooter or as the titular ape, though the visuals were criticised compared to the elaborate environments. A commercial success, the game was praised for being ahead of its time and one of the rare, more competent tie-in games, though the simplistic gameplay was noted.

The Plot:
In 1933, film director Carl Denham coerces playwright Jack Driscoll and struggling actress Ann Darrow into accompanying him to Skull Island, a treacherous, forgotten land populated by dinosaurs, savage natives, and a gigantic ape who becomes besotted by Ann and the focus of Carl’s excursion.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (which I’ll simply be referring to as King Kong going forward because that is a ridiculously long and convoluted title) is a hybrid first-person shooter (FPS) and action game based, obviously, on the big-budget, long-winded remake of the same name. The game is split into a number of chapters that vary in length and primarily takes place entirely on Skull Island, with the bulk of the action seeing you controlling screenwriter Jack Driscoll, who turns out to be very handy with a variety of firearms (though he can always rely on his fists or one of the many spears). You get a pistol, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a Thompson machine gun, with this latter being the best weapon in my opinion. When playing as Jack, you’ll use the Left Trigger to aim your weapon, the Right Trigger to shoot, and (oddly) the Left Bumper to reload. RT also allows you to grab new weapons, swapping out your current one (Jack can only hold one firearm and one torch at a time), “repel” with a melee attack, or use levers. Y drops any spears you’re carrying, B checks your ammo (which is simply Jack commenting on how many rounds or magazines he has left), A lets you talk to nearby non-playable characters (NPCs), and X does nothing. Jack can crouch when you press in the left stick (though I found minimal use for this), zoom in by pressing in the right stick, and can bash open wooden barricades and push rotating locks with RT. If he runs out of ammo, Jack can use his fists or any spears nearby, or can smash ammo crates that drop from planes or even grab more ammo or a weapon from helpful NPCs. He can also light spears using any fire sources to solve puzzles or burn down thorny bushes to clear a path. Fire can deal additional damage, and take out some of the game’s smaller enemies, but don’t get too close as it’ll quickly sap your health, too.

Kong uses his size and strength to make short work of the monstrous enemies that prey on Jack,

Neither Jack or Kong need to worry about grabbing health kits as they’ll automatically regenerate health if you avoid damage for a bit, but there are also no power-ups to find beyond ammo crates and Kong’s “Fury Mode”, meaning there’s no real incentive to explore beyond trying to find a lever. If you’re hoping for some fun King Kong action, then you’ll be left disappointed. The titular ape is only playable a few times, and each is little more than chasing and mindless combat sequences that somewhat break up the monotony of the FPS sections. Kong is a massive, lumbering beast able to swing from branches and leap to handholds, cliffs, and vine-encrusted walls to chase his quarry. These actions are performed with X and see Kong rampage through the jungle and primitive settlements like a heavy, unstoppable beast. Kong can also push enemies, bite them or enter “Fury Mode” if you rapidly tap Y. This slows time and seems to empower Kong to easily dispatch the island’s biggest predators. He does this with A, which sees Kong hit enemies with clubbing blows or simply break their jaw if you tap the button like a madman. Kong can also grab Ann with B to carry her or put her down, and Ann will helpfully open doors or burn down obstacles so Kong to progress, though you’ll need to protect her by fending off any incoming attacks. Kong can also muscle obstacles out of the way, bash down doors, and clamber up buildings in downtown New York. However, he’s as vulnerable to harm as Jack. Both automatically regain health if you avoid danger for a short time, but Kong tends to jump from perfectly fine to near death with just a few attacks, meaning you’re best off activating Fury Mode before you tackle the game’s larger, more aggressive enemies. When in the city streets at the end of the game, Kong must avoid the military’s heavy cannons and take out spotlights on rooftops as artillery fire will quickly cut him down. He can also grab and pound the island’s monstrous inhabitants with relatively ease but you’ll be more concerned about being hit mid-jump and plummeting to your death.

Jack’s gameplay loop is sadly as repetitive as Kong’s, with little variety on offer.

Just as the movie plodded along and quickly outstayed its welcome, so too does King Kong very quickly fall into a repetitive series of simple tasks and annoying hazards. The gimmick of having no or very minimal information onscreen is interesting, but hardly anything game-changing and actually makes it more annoying to navigate or locate levers and keep track of your ammo. Jack repeats the same basic puzzles again and again, blasting monstrous creatures, finding levers, and pushing doors with NPCs. Sometimes you must defend Ann and your other allies (and you’ll be met with failure if they die); others, you must carefully cross narrow wooden platforms that collapse under your feet. One of the most common tasks is using fire to burn thorns to uncover new areas, find levers, or reach a goal. You can do this either by lighting your spear or breaking flaming skull symbols around the environment, and you must light multiple torches, with one enjoyable moment seeing you avoiding a herd of Brontosaurus’. Occasionally, you’ll be chased by the ravenous Vastatosaurus rex or King Kong himself and must  use flaming spears, stone buildings for cover, and distract the beasts util doorways open. One key way of achieving this is using the game’s “food chain” system, where enemies are distracted by your kills or various bait (large worms and flies) to allow you to escape or ambush them, which is essential for clearing spiders from levers. As for Kong, he has an even simpler gameplay loop; you just swing and jump and chase Ann as she’s carried away, and battle V. rexes and the bat-like Terapusmordax obscenus. It is fun playing as Kong, but his sections are far too brief. However, I did enjoy ploughing through the native’s village, clambering about avoiding a lava pit, and the parts where Kong’s massive hands and face burst through the scenery as he follows Ann when she’s rescued by Jack.

Presentation:
King Kong uses clips and footage from the movie its based on very sparingly. So sparingly, in fact, that they only really appear in the game’s opening, which tells an incredibly truncated version of the events that bring these characters to Skull Island. I don’t necessarily mind this as the movie spent what felt like an age set on the Venture, but there were plenty of times where film footage could’ve been used as cutscenes or to bolster the in-game action, but the game chooses to use its in-game graphics instead. Luckily, these aren’t too bad…for the most part. While characters have the voices and likenesses of their movie actors, they resemble marionettes more than anything; however, they are a little more lively than regular NPCs. Carl will continuously stop to bust out his camera and chastise you for obstructing his shot, Ann is actually very helpful and will burn thorns or open paths, and NPCs are always gifting you weapons or chiming in on the bizarre events around them. The game’s environments are quite impressive, too. While it gets repetitive exploring the thick jungle of Skull Island, rain and thunderstorm effects are used very effectively and the island is very alive thanks to the food chain system and a great deal of care has been put into creating the aesthetic of the movie, it’s just a shame there’s no collectibles or interesting Easter Eggs to find.

Although it faithfully echoes the movie, the game is quite bland and visually uninspired at times.

While the game runs fairly smoothly, I noticed some graphical pop-up, slow down, and fogging that’s used to obscure more complex models (however appropriate the fog is to the setting). You’ll venture into a number of dank, dark caves, so you might want to turn up the brightness settings. I’d also advise saving often as I had a few instances where the game wouldn’t load in a scripted sequence, forcing me to reload and do the section again to progress. There are some fun moments that break up the gameplay, such as when you’re forced onto makeshift rafts in tumultuous rapids or when Kong or the V. rex are chasing you, and it’s quite exhilarating playing as Kong. Kong feels large and sluggish but also nimble and powerful, exactly as I expect he would, and there are some impressive sections involving him, such as when you creep through his bone-littered lair to rescue Ann or when he first appears as you’re tied to a stake. Kong also hounds you, dropping you into a cave filled with giant insects, and there are times when you can set large parts of the jungle ablaze and explore some interesting ruins, but these are merely stop-gaps in the endless gameplay cycle. The finale sees Kong rampaging through downtown New York City, which should be an epic and thrilling experience but it’s actually quite claustrophobic and restrictive. The game doesn’t immediately tell you to clamber up buildings to use the rooftops, meaning you’re left wandering around and getting shot at, and it’s really more of an extended, interactive cutscene as there’s nothing to do except plough through obstructions and climb the Empire State Building.

Enemies and Bosses:
Jack and Kong will be set upon by the numerous prehistoric creatures that inhabit Skull Island, from giant bats and insects to more formidable dinosaurs. Even the island’s natives get in on the action, hurling spears and causing the environment to catch fire as they either chase you or desperately fend off your rampage. Typically, you’ll contend with giant insects and giant bats, which slither from every dark corner and swamp the skies at times but are easily put down with your basic pistol. If you don’t have any ammo, a spear will do the trick, or you can distract them using the food chain system, which is true of all the game’s enemies. Although Jack can’t kill or even damage to V. rex, he can put down the smaller Venatosaurs, which regularly attack in voracious packs. He also has to contend with scorpion-like creatures, blast at lizard-like beasties when his allies are crossing banks of water, and make sure that he’s keeping his friends alive whenever hordes of creatures close in. While Jack is limited in his means of fending these off, King is not. He doesn’t have to worry about ammo, only the game’s janky camera, his inability to lock-on to a target, and his inconsistent durability.

While Jack is spared fighting the bigger dinosaurs, Kong must wrestle them alongside the controls.

Kong simply pummels enemies that Jack has to pick off either strategically or in a frenzy. Kong can grab Megapedes and pound them into the dirt or toss them about, swat Terapusmordaxes out of the air, and flatten the natives, and offers players a fighting chance against the larger Queen Terapusmordaxes and the V. rexes. These are essentially the game’s boss battes; while Jack has to run and hide from these creatures, Kong tackles them head-on, to varying degrees of enjoyability. The Queen Terapusmordax is flanked by any of her smaller minions; she’ll dive at you, whereupon the game prompts you to hit X and A together to tackle her out of the sky, which can be tricky to master. When battling the V. rexes, you must avoid their tail swipes, bites, and claw attacks. The V. rexes will try and bite Kong’s neck, so you must mash buttons to escape, and you’ll often fight two or three at once. Your best bet when faced with Kong’s monstrous enemies is to quickly enter Fury Mode and swipe at them a few times. This quickly allows Kong to perform his jaw snap finishing move, allowing you to make short work of them, which is preferable as these can be frustrating sections. In the finale, Kong swats at biplanes from atop the Empire State Building, but there’s obviously no way to win this fight as Kong simply plummets to his death as always.

Additional Features:
If there’s one benefit to King Kong it’s that the game is short and the Achievements are simple to attain. Just play through the game and all nine Achievements will pop as you complete each chapter. It’s good in the sense you can rush through for an easy 1000G but disappointing that there aren’t any fun Achievements here. There are no collectibles to find, no Easter Eggs that net you extra Achievements, and not even basic stuff like “Kill 100 Enemies” or “Clear a Chapter Without Taking Damage”. Some extra content unlocks in the game’s gallery as you play, but it’s nothing but images and videos and such. There is no two-player mode where you and a friend work together as Jack and Hayes (or one of the other NPCs), no battle mode where you fight as Kong against the game’s bosses, no skins, and no real incentive to play the game again once you’ve beaten it as its so unremarkable and easy. There are push-button codes that’ll grant you unlimited spears, questionable invincibility (you have to enter the cheat every chapter and I found it often didn’t work), or gift you specific weapons but the game’s so easy that you shouldn’t need them and they don’t exactly make it more fun anyway.

The Summary:
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie tries to go for a unique, cinematic presentation to stand out from the many terrible videogame adaptations and, in some ways, it achieves this. The game lovingly and faithfully recreates the visual aesthetic and atmosphere of Jackson’s overblown remake and you definitely feel immersed when exploring the dense jungles and ruins of Skull Island. It’s interesting incorporating a food chain system and giving Jack such limited ammunition to increase the tension felt when enemies attack, but the repetitive gameplay cycle soon wears thin. While King Kong should offer some entertaining alternatives to this system, he doesn’t feature enough for it to be anything other than a glorified mini game and a boss battle system. I definitely would’ve preferred to see Kong’s gameplay fleshed out more, perhaps telling a prequel to the film’s events and then showing his perspective on what happens in the game. Rather than switching between characters, you could’ve had two story modes: one with ten longer, more unique missions as Jack and one with ten, more action-packed missions as Kong. Instead, we get an overall bland experience that suffers from pacing issues. Some chapters are over in a minute or so, others drag on needlessly, and none of them offer any variations on the gameplay beyond mixing up the enemies you fight. Ultimately, this is a game only worth playing to quickly add 1000G to your Gamer Score and is far from the definitive, immersive King Kong videogame I’d like to see.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

What did you think to Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie? Were you disappointed by how repetitive it became and the odd pacing of the chapters? Did you enjoy utilising the food chain system? What did you think to Kong’s gameplay, and would you have liked to see him included more? What’s your favourite videogame featuring giant monsters? Would you like to see a new King Kong videogame someday? Whatever you think, comment below, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other King Kong content.

Game Corner: Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 7 July 2022
Originally Released: 22 March 2001
Developer: Monkey Craft
Original Developer: Namco
Also Available For: PlayStation 2 (Original Release); Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S (Phantasy Reverie Series)

The Background:
After Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991) put anthropomorphic mascots on the map with its incredible success, bizarre characters like Sparkster, Earthworm Jim, and even a sentient period paved the way for later 3D platforming icons. When it came time for Namco Bandai to toss their hat into the market, videogame director Hideo Yoshizawa originally envisioned a ceramic fighting robot named Amenti before Yoshihiko Arai pitched the strange, rabbit-like Klonoa to appeal to kids and adults. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Namco, 1997) impressed critics with its simple controls and cute visuals, and development of a sequel began soon after. Initially planned for the PlayStation, Klonoa 2 transitioned to the more powerful PlayStation 2 in order to expand the 3D space and give players more control and freedom. Klonoa’s design was tweaked to make him easier to animate and more mature, which was reflected in the more emotionally nuanced story. Like its predecessor, Klonoa 2 was met with universal praise for its addictive gameplay, impressive visuals, and near-perfect controls. However, Klonoa 2 was also criticised for its short length and, despite largely positive reviews, its sales were lacking and a planned Wii remake was allegedly cancelled. After decades of being stuck as an expensive PlayStation 2 exclusive, Klonoa 2 was finally re-released and remastered in this well received, modern overhaul for new generations.

The Plot:
When Klonoa is fished from the waters of Lunatea by Lolo, a priestess-in-training, and her friend, Popka, he joins them to stop sky pirates from spreading hopelessness.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Surprisingly, given most 2D and 2.5D franchises made the jump to 3D back in the day, Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil is a 2.5D action platformer that looks and plays exactly like its predecessor. I was fully expecting that Klonoa would’ve transitioned to something more akin to the Spyro videogames (Various, 1998 to 2018) as even Earthworm Jim got a clunky, third-person 3D adventure back in the day. Instead, Klonoa 2 sticks to its roots so closely that it barely changes anything from the first game, though some of this may be because this version of the game is based upon the game engine of the short-lived Wii revival. This means that players once again travel through various colourful stages (known as “Visions”), though they’re much larger and each area has anywhere from two to seemingly five levels. Klonoa 2 still allows a second player to jump in and give Klonoa a boost with Y and the controls remain unchanged from before. By default, you’ll jump with A or Y, holding the button to flutter Klonoa’s ears to help cross gaps, and pressing B or X to fire “Wind Bullets” from his magical ring. You again use these to grab nearby enemies and throw them at other baddies, to the background or foreground to activate switches or smash Nagapoko Eggs for goodies, or to activate switches. When an enemy is in your grasp, pressing the jump button twice launches them beneath you to destroy whatever’s under you and boost you higher, and I was happy to see that there are far less sections where you must desperately string double jumps together to hit switches in a certain order. Enemies usually always respawn to give you plenty of “ammo”, though no new features have been added to Klonoa’s arsenal beyond you now pressing the Left or Right Bumper to pull off a taunt or a useless twirl. You can disable the onscreen timer and tutorials from the game’s settings and (to start with) pick between “Easy” (which grants infinite lives and more health) and “Normal” (which limits your lives and reduces your maximum health) difficulties. While bottomless pits and flaming hazards still spell instant death for Klonoa, you can partially or fully restore his health with Small or Large Hearts, hit Memory Clocks to activate checkpoints, collect one of the many 1 Up Coins for extra lives, or earn even more for every 100 Dream Stone collected.

While Klonoa 2 adds some new gimmicks, the original’s core gameplay remains unchanged.

Mirror Spirits still appear to temporarily double the value of Dream Stones, Klonoa will often need keys to open doors in Visions (usually backtracking to use them and then activate something to progress further), and he can now collect six stars in each Vision rather than rescuing Phantomiles. Though they function the same (held within bubbles in Visions), these earn you “Mommett Dolls” to deliver to the Mommett House to unlock extra game modes. Though you’re more likely to hit switches to open paths, timed switches still appear, as do disappearing platforms, which get smaller and more precarious as the game progresses. Gondolas and moving platforms also appear, as do springs to rocket you high into the air, and you’ll also hit switches to spawn (or despawn) blocks. You’re more likely to be working out how to toss Boomies at just the right time so they explode to activate these switches from afar, or nabbing Likuries to absorb enemies and change their colour to then break matching coloured crystals. These can be surprisingly taxing puzzles as you must work out how to clamber to higher ground before the Likurie returns to you, requiring you to snag coloured bulbs to get higher (or carry you across endless pits). You’ll also be tossing enemies to gigantic Ow-Gows so they’re distracted from eating you, grabbing Erbils to rocket higher and smash through crates above you, tapping A while holding a Kiton to fly around for a short time, or blasting away using a Jetimo. Klonoa also gains a gnarly hoverboard that he uses to surf over water, sand, and surfaces alike. These effectively replace the water slide sections from the first game and appear quite often, either from a 2.5D or 3D perspective, and see you hopping gaps, making tight, precise movements to stay on narrow or crumbling paths, and using your double jump to reach higher ground. Twice you’ll cut through the sky on either a bird or a plane, tossing enemies to break obstacles in your way. You must often press B to ring magical bells to progress the story, and you’ll be constantly backtracking to Baguji’s Island from the larger world map to get more information and unlock new areas.

I would’ve liked to see the new mechanics expanded further to move the series forward.

While Klonoa 2’s worlds are noticeably bigger than before, the basic gameplay loop remains unchanged, and a lot of the same gimmicks return. You’ll be clearing gaps, using swinging, moving, and stationary platforms, activating lifts, and battling against conveyer belts in your quest. Klonoa 2’s “big” new gimmick are the many cannons dotted all over, which blast you across stages, up higher, or to and from the foreground. Often, you must toss enemies or Boomies to the background and then quickly rocket over to use them to blow up rocks to snag keys; othertimes, they simply lead to alternate paths and goodies. However, there are some new mechanics at work here, mainly in Mira-Mira’s “Maze of Memories” which includes twisted geometry, a maze of doors, and a feature when you rotate the screen to make the floor the ceiling. When in the endgame, you’ll revisit previous areas, now made more dangerous, and must stick close to Goddess statues to avoid choking to death on poisonous gas, toss Boomies into three engines and flee to safety before they explode, and get carried across a disturbing void. While it seems daunting dodging Spikers, flame bursts, and hopping to platforms or other handholds, you can just cling to whatever’s carrying you and take a hit without being knocked off, which makes it much easier. La-Lakoosha features a pendulum you must toss enemies at the destroy pillars to progress, the Mobile Tank Biskarsh chases you with a laser through the war-ravaged streets of Volk City, giant enemies also chase you in Mira-Mira, and players must grab Flolo to light up dark areas when traversing the nightmarish Dark Sea of Tears. Often, big springs blast you high up and you must direct Klonoa to land on other springs or platforms to progress, enemies sometimes chase you towards or away from the camera to add a little spice, spike pits threaten to end your run, and the funfair-like Joliant has you dodging rollercoasters, tossing enemies at a Nagapoko Egg shooting range, and smacking a pirate ship so it swings you to higher ground.

Presentation:
As mentioned, I was surprised to find Klonoa 2 barely deviates from the last game, recycling many of the same enemies and hazards and retaining the rigid 2.5D presentation. It does open out a little bit, though, offering more third-person sections through its hoverboard gimmick but, for the most part, everything looks, feels, and sounds as good as it did before. While much of the game’s colourful aesthetic still recalls NiGHTS into Dreams (Sonic Team, 1996), Klonoa 2 features a fantasy land being invaded by nightmares and doubts rather than taking place in a dream world. Though nothing’s changed about his abilities, Klonoa has had a bit of a visual downgrade, now wearing a hoodie rather than his cool buckle outfit and strangely having taunts mapped to the shoulder buttons. He’s still a fun character, though, and seems a touch more mature this time around, and still speaks in  gibberish and sound bites. Dialogue is thus related through speech bubbles and there are a few more happening here as Klonoa chases down the mischievous Tat, offers council to Lolo, and gets the lowdown on besmirched sky pirate Leorina from Baguji. Klonoa and his enemies still have large hit boxes that can make platforming tricky, but this time I noticed some odd distortion in the music at times, as though the hardware were struggling to keep the game running. Lunatea is a pretty varied world whose map opens up as you progress the story and has you backtracking to Baguji and even in some Visions to move things along. While Klonoa 2 only recalls the bizarre visuals of the first game at the end, each area has a lot to see in the backgrounds and many of them are mismatched and remixed for the endgame, where the King of Sorrow throws the land into chaos and makes previously simplistic areas more taxing with tougher enemies, trickier puzzles, and so many pits.

Things are as colourful and bizarre as the first game, though the tone is a touch darker at times.

Players begin in the Sea of Tears, a stormy, rainswept port where lightning flashes and waves crash against the rocks in the background. This area leads you through an ethereal coral cave and features a large priestess statue near the end. This brings you to La-Lakoosha, a town situated near a large waterfall where wind currents carry you between platforms, and Klonoa explores a mushroom cave and travels a spiral path to the Claire Moa Temple. While Joliant impresses with its carnival lights, sounds, rides, and fireworks, it’s also home to a funky haunted house that includes a haunted library, scary trees, a graveyard, and a spook working a giant cauldron. You’ll also board through a jungle-themed water slide stage and then drop into the rancid sewers beneath Volk City, which is on fire and under heavy bombardment that sees buildings crumble and flaming debris litter the streets. After avoiding insta kill sewage and molten metal in the city’s distinctly steampunk underground factory, you must activate and explore the ancient Ishras Ark. The vessel sits near towering mountains whose windmills and gears must be activated and their frigid peaks boarding past (and into) a gigantic dragon’s skeleton and down past a snowy village. All these areas are remixed by the King of Sorrow, often having you work backwards through previous areas or go from the left to the right, encountering more Ow-Gows and puzzles involving Boomies and Likuries. These more nightmarish, topsy-turvy levels can be daunting with their desolate, patchwork backgrounds and ominous music, and things only get more troublesome with how many pits, temporary platforms, and changes have been made. Previously stationary platforms will now swing, more insta-kill fire appears, tranquil caves will be full of toxic gas, and the very sea will have dried up, revealing only sand, floating islands, and an exposed coral palace whose statues try to crush you. Things get very surreal when you battle the corrupted Leorina and the maniacal King of Sorrow, with cosmic voids and swirling vortexes replacing the previously whimsical and cartoonish backgrounds, and the game again ends on an emotional note as Lolo learns to overcome her doubts thanks to Klonoa’s support.

Enemies and Bosses:
As far as I could see, almost every enemy encountered in the first game returns in Klonoa 2, completely unchanged in every way. Klonoa must grab and toss these constantly respawning enemies to defeat others or activate switches, or to reach higher ground, with all but the large ones and those wearing helmets dying in one hit. The various coloured Moos are still your most persistent enemy, with Red Moos patrolling back and forth, bird-like Green Moves hovering overhead, and Black, Gold, and Silver Moos hiding behind shields and/or carrying spears. Moos also jump on snowboards to chase you, Zippoes still run full tilt at you, some enemies toss spiked balls from the background and floating Spikers are a constant headache before you, and Slazzas still toss boomerangs (though appear far less frequently). Glibz return, still armed with twin cannons, Spindles must still be defeated by double jumping over them, and Boomies have a much expanded role as you toss them at switches or into engines. There are some new enemies here too, such as hornets that attack with their stingers, shark-like Digons who dive from the background, and Ow-Gows, who must be fed to keep them from munching on Klonoa. Just as Leorina acts as a dark opposite of Klonoa, wielding a makeshift magical ring, so too does her companion, Tat, act as a counterpart to Popka. You’ll chase Tat through Joliant’s fun park, tagging her either on foot or while boarding along, and even fight her in two mini boss battles. The first sees her (in a spooky disguise) rolling cannonballs along the floor in Joliant’s haunted house, where you must propeller fly up to pop the balloons. In the second, giant mechanical Tat’s pop from pipes in Volk City’s underground factory, again rolling cannonballs. This time, you must grab Moos and toss them at her constructs as they spiral around, kind of like a game of Whac-A-Mole. There are also six bosses to fight, each with two phases and two health bars, though this time the game at least mixes things up and sometimes has you boarding along instead of just running on a circular or stationary platform.

Bosses now have two phases each and are much bigger and require a little more strategy.

The “Armored Beast” Folgaran spins in the centre of a circular path, exposing its weak spot (its butt) as it rotates but spinning faster and extending its claw-like arms as the fight progresses. While this is extremely easy, Leptio can be trickier as you must throw Moos at him while avoiding his duplicates, hit him as he rolls around the ring, and knock over his drill-like enclosure, dodging his flailing robotic limbs. As he rolls in this mech, you must time a throw from across the stage to put him down. The Mobile Tank Biskarsh can also be difficult as you must grab a Green Moo and spring high up, dropping your projectile into the vent on the tank’s roof and avoiding its leap. It then jumps further and faster and drives at you from the background, meaning it can be difficult timing your shots. Polonte is fought as you snowboard down a mountain. You must jump over spike balls and ice formations, passing through gates to speed up and ram him. In the second phase, these are far harder to avoid and you must snag and toss snowboarding Moos (best done while jumping). When you finally face off with Leorina, she transforms into an insectile beast and stomps around a stage, only being vulnerable when you Erbils-jump into her underbelly. When she hides beneath the platform and you must blast away her orb and smash an enemy into the ground to damage her, finally finishing her off with another Erbils-jump as she charges her big attack. Finally, there’s the King of Sorrow, a much easier final fight than Nahatomb’s. First, you board through a swirling vortex, passing between spiked trails and tossing Nemo Moos at him. Though he’s a difficult target and bops you with his staff up close, he’s pretty easy to beat in this phase. In the second, he hides behind an energy shield, blasting flames and trying to hit you with the mechanical tips of his tentacles. You must snag these and toss them at the orbs on his shield a few times, easily ending his threat after a couple of rotations.

Additional Features:
This version of Klonoa 2 has ten Achievements up for grabs, with players earning one each time they defeat a boss and gaining an additional one if they get every Achievement in both games. You get another Achievement for finding all the Mommett Dolls, which also unlocks a couple of additional Visions to play. If you find all 150 Dream Stones in every Vision, you’ll also unlock a Picture Viewer at the Mommett House, where you can battle the bosses again (though you can also do this by revisiting the boss Visions). Completing the game on either difficulty unlocks “Hard” mode and the movie viewer, and this version also offers an awful pixel filter if you feel like making the game look like an early PlayStation title.

The Summary:
I was slightly hesitant about Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil as I was sure that it would’ve evolved the original game’s fun, if simplistic, 2.5D gameplay into something more akin to a 3D collectathon. Instead, the game is almost indistinguishable from the first, with no additional power-ups or abilities for its funky (but adorable) title character beyond a snowboard. This isn’t a bad thing as the game’s still fun to look at and play, it’s just surprising that the developers didn’t expand upon or change the formula for the jump to the PlayStation 2. I was glad to see that the janky double and triple jump sections were largely gone and I did enjoy the hoverboard sections, though the game still didn’t do as much as it could with its main throwing gimmick. I liked the expanded role given to Boomies and how the Likurie puzzles make you rethink your actions, though the reliance on cannons took a lot of control away from me and constantly returning to Baguji got annoying. Still, I liked that the Visions were much bigger, the bosses had more phases and strategy to them, and that the game was as colourful and quirky as before. I can’t say there’s anything in Klonoa 2 to make it any better or worse than the original as the differences are extremely minor. I ultimately had just as much fun with it as I did the first game, so it’s only fair to give it the same score, but it might’ve scored higher had those nightmarish remixes been giving more prominence and if the developers had expanded Klonoa’s abilities a bit more.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil? What did you think to the changes made for the Phantasy Reverie Series version? Were you surprised to see the game virtually unchanged from the first entry? What did you think to the boarding sections and new puzzles? Do you agree that Klonoa’s design isn’t as strong this time around? Did you find the bosses too easy, despite their additional phases? Which Klonoa game is your favourite and do you think the franchise needs a new entry? Tell me your thoughts on Klonoa in the comments and go support me on Ko-Fi for more reviews like this.

Game Corner: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 7 July 2022
Originally Released: 11 December 1997
Developer: Monkey Craft
Original Developer: Namco
Also Available For: PlayStation (Original Release); Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S (Phantasy Reverie Series)

The Background:
The massive success of Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991) helped make anthropomorphic mascots hugely popular in the videogame industry, resulting in memorable characters like a gun-toting jackrabbit, an acrobatic bat, a superpowered earthworm, an intergalactic adventurer, a sword singing possum with a rocket pack, and a bear-and-bird duo. Interestingly, however, director Hideo Yoshizawa originally envisioned Klonoa as a ceramic fighting robot named Amenti before Yoshihiko Arai designed the strange, rabbit-like creature who would lead the game. Yoshizawa sought to make Klonoa an action game that was appealing to kids and adults, while lead designer Tsuyoshi Kobayashi refined the fast-paced gameplay to be limited to two buttons. First revealed at the 1997 E3 trade fair as Namco’s first bid to create a marketable 3D mascot, Klonoa was widely praised for its simple controls, colourful environments, and cutesy visuals, though some criticised its short length and lack of innovation. Although Klonoa spawned a few sequels, the original game’s price skyrocketed and the series lay dormant for nearly fifteen years before Bandai Namco teamed with Monkey Craft for an unexpected remaster of the first two games. Based upon the oft-forgotten Wii revival, this remaster of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile was largely celebrated for its colourful overhaul and for breathing new life into the franchise.

The Plot:
After his dream about an airship crashing comes true, Klonoa and his friend, Huepow, journeys to keep the dark spirit Ghadius from turning Phantomile into a world of nightmares.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a 2.5D action platformer in which players control the cute little rabbit-thing Klonoa and explore six worlds (known as “Visions”), each with two levels apiece. While the game is geared towards solo play, a second player can jump in to have Huepow launch Klonoa into the air with Y, though you can disable this at any time. The game offers two control types and the ability to customise the controls, but they’re so simple I don’t see why you’d need to do this or need anything other than the default settings. These see Klonoa jumping with A or Y, fluttering his wings for some extra airtime if you hold the button, and shooting “Wind Bullets” from his magical ring with B or X. These latch onto nearby enemies so you can throw them, either at other enemies or to the background or foreground to activate switches, take out enemies, or smash Nagapoko Eggs for extra goodies. When holding an enemy, you can press the jump button twice for a double jump (which also destroys crates or enemies beneath you) and you must chain grabs and double jumps together in the game’s later Visions to reach higher areas. This can be extremely tricky as Klonoa and his enemies have large hit boxes, enemies constantly respawn so you never run out of “ammo”, and the timing required to execute these double and triple jumps can be aggravating. The game’s options offer numerous settings for you to play with, including disabling the onscreen timer and tutorials, and you can initially pick from two difficulty settings, with “Easy” offering infinite lives and more health while “Normal” limits your lives and reduces your maximum health. Klonoa’s quite durable unless he falls down a pit or into lava but can partially or fully restore his health with Small or Large Hearts, respectively. Memory Clocks act as checkpoints, Klonoa Coins grant extra lives, and you’ll also score extra tries for every 100 Dream Stones you collect.

Klonoa grabs enemies, flutter jumps, and hops about some colourful, drema-like worlds.

You can briefly double the value of Dream Stones if you spot a Mirror Spirit, toss enemies at Mysterious Seals to create new paths, and activate switches with your throws to open doors or new areas. Some of these are timed, while others must be hit in the correct order, which gets very irritating in Vision 6-2 thanks to the jump/grab requirements. Occasionally, Klonoa must obtain keys to open doors and these may be guarded by enemies, gifted by non-playable characters (NPCs), or hidden in crates and Nagapoko Eggs. Technically, your main goal (beyond reaching the exit) is rescuing the six Phantomiles hidden in each stage. These are held in bubbles that you must pop with your Wind Bullets or thrown enemies and they can be tricky to find as areas sport multiple paths, often leading to more Dream Stones and goodies alongside a Phantomile. You don’t need to rescue all the Phantomiles to progress, however, and can replay any Vision to find those you’ve lost. Each Vision also hides picture pieces to find, though this simply counts towards 100% completion rather than any tangible reward, and Klonoa can eventually ride Kara the fish, though only in cutscenes, so you’ll have to settle for sliding down water and sand slides and blasting across areas on water sprouts. While there are no additional power-ups, pick-ups, or upgrades to Klonoa’s repertoire, they’re not really needed as his basic abilities serve him well throughout. It might’ve been nice to have a 2.5D autoscrolling chase section where you ride Kara, however, or to perhaps extend or alter the nature of Klonoa’s Wind Bullets. Klonoa can use fans, wind currents, and springs to reach higher areas, though. These often test your flutter and double jump skills, which are further tested in brief sections where you ride moving platforms past enemies or flame bursts. Vision 3-1 also has you ride a log on a vine track as it speeds away from the camera, dodging spiked hazards and collecting Dream Stones.

What starts as a simple platformer soon becomes a surprisingly tricky gameplay experience.

For the most part, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a simple, whimsical adventure that asks little of you. You can backtrack to previous screens to explore alternative paths and most collectibles are out in the open. You’re faced with simple platforming challenges such as hopping over gaps, riding platforms over pits or electrified floors, dodging projectiles, and leaping to tilting, moving, or temporary platforms (which reappear very quickly). Klonoa’s main gimmick is throwing enemies, but this rarely tests your puzzle solving skills as it’s hard to miss the big targets in the background or right in front of you. The difficulty does slowly ramp up, however, with areas becoming larger, sporting more alternative paths, and even being looping mazes. You must activate gondolas to progress in Vision 3-1, watch your step in Vision 4-2’s slippery ice cavern, avoid burning alive in Vision 5-1’s steampunk factory, and tackle a door maze in Vision 6-1’s ethereal castle. Here, you must track down and smash coloured crystals to clear doorways, though it can be tricky remembering which way to go. Similarly, Vision 5-1 has you exploring multiple paths to track down coloured orbs, avoiding flames and molten steel, and dealing with the “Eclipse” effect in Vision 5-2. This sees day turn to night and enemies become incapable of being grabbed, though extra platforms do appear to help you progress. Sadly, this mechanic only appears in this stage; it would’ve been cool to implement it throughout or have it featured in the unlockable “Hard” mode. You’ll briefly ride mine carts in Vision 1-2, simply jumping to grab Dream Stones as it falls apart, clamber up a cliff face in Vision 2-1, and activate gears and moving platforms in the mechanical tree factory explored in Vision 3-2. Platforming also gets progressively difficult by the end, with pits in abundance and small, often disappearing platforms being commonplace, sometimes with enemies chase you across them.

Presentation:
I’d long been curious about Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. I’ve always been a fan of 3D and 2.5D platformers and this looked like a cute, whimsical adventure sadly locked behind an expensive price tag. Thankfully, the game didn’t disappoint in terms of its visuals and Klonoa is a joy to behold. The game incorporates a cutsey, anime-like aesthetic to its polygonal characters, who pop with a cel-shaded, cartoony flavour as a result. Klonoa is like an anime character come to life, sporting oversized shoes, a Pac-Man logo on his beret, fun flappy ears, and big, expressive eyes that give him a lot of character. While he (and all the characters) speak in gibberish sound bite, his dialogue is fully readable in speech bubbles and he lets out some fun little sounds as you play, even twirling his magical ring when left idle. While Klonoa and his enemies have big hit boxes, it’s not usually a problem if you get the timing of your jumps down and he battles some bizarre enemies and encounters some surreal NPCs along the way. Each Vision houses different natives, such as tree spirits and talking fish, who will help or must be freed from their corruption. The story (and overall aesthetic design) reminded me a lot of NiGHTS into Dreams (Sonic Team, 1996), with Klonoa exploring a dream-like fantasy land at risk from the distinctly Khonsu-like Ghadius, though Klonoa plays a hell of a lot better than that game and is far easier on the eyes. The game also sports a jaunty soundtrack, with fun little tunes accompanying each area, and features quite an intricate story. I was stunned when Klonoa’s beloved grandpa was killed protecting the necklace from Ghadius’s jester-like henchman, Joka, and the ending (which sees Klonoa tearfully depart the dream world after learning his memories of Huepow were fabricated) was much more shocking than I expected from what seemed to be a simple, colourful platformer.

A colourful, whimsical adventure with a lot of heart and visual appeal.

Each of Klonoa’s Visions is presented via a storybook-like world map, allowing you to freely select them between sessions or when reloading your save file. Klonoa’s seaside town of Breezegale sees you literally venturing from his house past giant windmills and cute, medieval-style houses, crossing bridges and heading up a spiral path before exploring Breezegale’s mine, where precious jewels glitter in the backgrounds and mine carts are scattered about. Vision 2-1 sees you traversing a dying forest full of abandoned tree houses, hollowed out tree trunks, and giant mushrooms. The second part places you in the fantastical Jugpot palace, made from a giant seashell, and features backwards-flowing waterfalls, marble platforms, and dank caves. Vision 3-1’s forest is thriving, with twisted vines all over and thick logs acting as your main path into a clockwork-like mechanical tree that you must activate to get its gears moving. Vision 4-1 sees you exploring the ruined Wind Kingdom, hopping to dropping stone platforms, passing a spooky graveyard, and slipping about in the ice cavern, where you smash rocks to progress. The visuals really pick up in the distinctly steampunk Temple of the Sun, where you traverse giant pipes and ride a platform across a track, collecting coloured orbs to venture within. The interior is made hazardous by the Eclipse gimmick, constant flame bursts, and you having to hit multiple switches to progress. Cress is mostly comprised of its beautiful, crystalline castle that’s full of mosaics, electrified floors, tricky platforming, and statues that need melting. It opens out into a gigantic, ornate cathedral with multiple doors, the void of the night sky in the background, and gives way to a swirling, nightmare void where players must battle the surprise final boss, Nahatomb. There’s a fair amount happening in each area, with each Vision showcasing different aspects of their environments. It’s quite fun taking a track or path one way and seeing the alternative paths stretch behind you, enticing you to try a different path and see what rewards and obstacles it yields.

Enemies and Bosses:
Klonoa must pick up and toss various strange enemies in his adventure, nearly all off which constantly respawn so you always have something to toss off (wait…). The most common enemy you’ll encounter are the spherical Moos and their variants: Red Moos simply walk back and forth and are easy cannon fodder, Green Moves flap their wings to fly and resemble birds, and Black, Gold, and Silver Moos hide behind shields. These can also have lances and charge you, or ride pogo sticks, forcing you to get behind them to snag and throw them. You’ll also encounter Monkey Moos, who swing from vines to knock you down pits, and helmeted Moos who must have their head gear knocked off before they can be nabbed. Knight-like Algores swing chain-whips with maces for a long-range attack, Pink Boins bounce up and down erratically, and cat (or maybe rabbit?)-like Mew-Mews do the same but release spiked balls as they land, and explosive, mouse-like Boomies must be tossed to destroy objects (while avoiding their blast radius). The will-o’-the-wisp-like Burnies are protected by a ring of flames that you must hop between to grab them and spider-like Dabbys spit spiked projectiles from their butts. Fish-like Fifis leap from water or up waterfalls to interrupt your platforming, but the indestructible Spikers are the worst for this, with you having to gingerly dash under or jump over them. Glibz hide behind their shells, giving you a small window to grab them before they unload with their twin cannons; spooky Plowms relentlessly chase you and appear out of thin air; and Slazzas toss boomerang-like projectiles. Smorks fly from the background of Vision 5-2 and can be difficult to grab thanks to the perspective, Zippoes charge at you, and Tetons will fly you higher if you grab onto them. Gigantic variants of many of these enemies also crop up, with them being stunned and inflated with your Wind Bullets to give your jumps a boost and only being destroyed when you toss enemies at them.

Big, bizarre bosses test your throwing skills and, by the end, your patience.

Each Vision ends with a boss battle fought on a circular path. Rongo Lango is the easiest, challenge as it jumps about producing shockwaves and slashing with its tail. Simply run under it, snag a Moo, and attack from behind to move on. I found the corrupted King Seadoph and his fish cohort, Pamela, trickier as the path is littered with spike balls and Pamela leaps from the water, occasionally raining bubbles that can be tricky to avoid. You must snag King Seadoph as he rides a ball and toss him at Pamela when she attacks, which can be tough with so much to deal with. Gelg Bolm was easier, but a touch tedious as you use springs to get above it and launch an enemy into its exposed core with the double jump, avoiding its giant seeds and slam attack. Baladium puts you on a swinging platform, which makes it difficult to snag enemies to throw at the coloured sections of its body. You must also avoid the explosive spheres, pillars, missiles, and Zagards Baladium spawns. When you finally confront Joka, he deflects your Moo projectiles with his twirling fists and becomes a thrashing, squid-like beast when the Eclipse hits until you turn floor blocks yellow, which can drag out the fight. Fighting Ghadius is all about speed and timing as you must avoid the teleporters (which reset the arena and see you dodging shockwaves) to toss Death Moos at him. These rain down, ricochet about, and are hidden inside a triangular energy field you must dodge and dispel by attacking a corner. By far the toughest and most tedious fight is the surprise final boss, Nahatomb. Nahatomb creates three rainbow shockwaves and ejects armoured Moos, which must be tossed to Phantomile’s leaders, who then blast Nahatomb with cannons. This isn’t too bad in the first phase (if you avoid his long, sticky tongue), but is compounded in the third by the leaders rotating beneath you and Nahatomb temporarily destroying your crystalline platforms. The second stage sees Nahatomb’s disembodied form firing eye lasers as you’re on a slanting platform, which you must avoid to toss Moos at flaming crystals in the background.

Additional Features:
There are fourteen Achievements to earn in this remastered version of Klonoa, with one gifted each time you defeat a boss and six more for finding and rescuing every Phantomile hidden in each Vision. This also unlocks the “Extra Vision” stage, which sees you scaling Balue’s tower and taking on the game’s most difficult platforming challenges, though there’s no new boss to face. You’ll also get an extra Achievement if you get every Achievement in this game and its sequel, and finishing Klonoa on either difficulty unlocks “Hard” mode, a time attack mode, and the movie viewer. This version of the game also gives you the option to turn on a pixel filter so it resembles the PlayStation original, but I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s very hard on the eyes compared to the slick, colourful glow up. While there are no Achievements or extras for finishing the game on the harder difficulties, you can unlock extra costumes, a character viewer, the option to play the game backwards, and a music test if you clear the Extra Vision.

The Summary:
I was really excited when Klonoa: Door to Phantomile was finally remastered for modern consoles. Both it and its sequel had been on my wish list for a while, but I couldn’t justify the cost, so it was a no-brainer for an avid platformer fan like me to pick the Phantasy Reverie Series up and finally give them a whirl. This version of Klonoa is absolutely stunning, with colourful visuals, eye-popping environments, and a main character so cute you’ll be close to tears. Klonoa is such a unique character, exuding an anime-excess while being adorable, and his world (while visually and thematically similar to NiGHTS into Dreams) is incredibly imaginative. The game felt very “Japanese”, if that makes any sense, with some bizarre enemies and concepts that had been tweaked just enough to appeal to Western gamers. The gameplay is simple but enjoyable, with the basic jumping, grabbing, and platforming being very satisfying. Things get much trickier as platforms become smaller, pits become deeper and wider, and your double jump prowess is tested, which can be frustrating. However, it’s fun searching across these deceptively large areas looking for collectibles and locals to rescue, though it’s a shame there weren’t any bonus stages or extra content to mix up the gameplay. The game is also disappointingly short, easily beaten in a few hours, but I didn’t mind that as it was a lot of fun to look at and a nice, cosy experience despite some aggravating sections and confusing boss battles. Ultimately, there’s a lot to like here, with a few unlockables to aim for and extra paths to explore. Fans of Klonoa should enjoy the stunning visual makeover and fans of 2.5D platformers should appreciate the visuals, tight controls, and memorable characters.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile? If you’ve played the original version, what did you think to the Phantasy Reverie Series glow up and enhancements? Did you also struggle with the double and triple jump sections? Which of the game’s large, bizarre bosses was your favourite? Did you ever rescue all the lost locals? Which Klonoa game is your favourite and would you like to see the franchise make a comeback Whatever your thoughts on Klonoa, please leave them below and drop a donation on Ko-Fi to see more reviews like this.

Game Corner: Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Nintendo Switch)

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 14 March 2018
Originally Released: 23 July 1993
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Ninjas were a big deal back in the day, whether they were mutated turtles, rainbow-coloured fighters, or mysterious assassins. Ninjas and videogames went hand in hand, resulting in titles so challenging that they defined a generation of players. Eager to have a piece of that pie, SEGA saw notable success with Shinobi (SEGA, 1987), a difficult but enjoyable arcade title later refined for home consoles. Director Noriyoshi Ohba aimed to make the sequel a technical showcase for the then-new Mega Drive hardware, one purpose-built for home consoles and which became notorious for including unlicensed appearances by pop culture icons. A widely praised release, The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA, 1989) is now regarded as a classic of its generation and inspired not just a semi-recurring comic strip in the United Kingdom, but also a third game. Originally scheduled for release in 1992, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master was vastly overhauled when the developers were dissatisfied with the original version, leading to a lot of content being cut and replaced with new mechanics. Though largely seen as being much easier than its predecessor, Shinobi III impressed with its refined gameplay mechanics and visual presentation, with many seeing it as the best of the classic Shinobi titles. This positive reception (and the lack of copyright issues compared to its predecessor) no doubt contributed to Shinobi III having a lucrative lifespan beyond the Mega Drive as the game was included in numerous SEGA collections, converted to 3D, and added to the Nintendo Switch’s online service in 2018, which eased the pain of how expensive an original copy can be.

The Plot:
When Neo Zeed returns under the command of the mysterious Shadow Master, the legendary Shinobi, Joe Musashi, fights to end their sinister bio- and cybernetic research.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is the last of the Shinobi titles released for the Mega Drive and, like its predecessor, is an action/platformer with a strong emphasis on projectile-based combat. Like in the last game, players take Joe Musashi through multiple levels (or “Rounds”), each with at least three stages, though this time there are only seven Rounds. As before, there are four difficulty settings to choose from, with the harder settings dramatically reducing your total life count, and players can continue their game a handful of times if they exhaust all their lives. Unlike in The Revenge of Shinobi, however, Shinobi III’s control scheme is locked to a preset that maps your jump to A, tosses shuriken with B, and activates your “ninjitsu” magic with Y. You can still set how many shuriken you start with, however, and you can still pull off a somersault by pressing A at the height of your jump. Press B when somersaulting to unleash a shuriken spread to take out multiple enemies or press down on the directional pad to pull off a flying kick. As before, Musashi can assume a “defensive pose” to deflect incoming projectiles, but this is now done manually by holding B and you can even do it while crouching and crouch-walking. Shinobi can also dash by quickly tapping left and right, dramatically speeding up the action, wall jump by…jumping off walls…and cross gaps and hazards or navigate stages while clinging to ceilings, pipes, and such by holding B. Various goodies are found by smashing crates, ranging from health-restoring hearts, rare extra lives and ninjitsu replenishments, to additional shuriken and the ever-annoying time bomb. Musashi is far faster and more versatile this time around, moving at a swifter pace and boasting a few additional tricks to make combat and gameplay smoother. It’s still tricky pulling off his somersault and the wall jump can be finicky, but I found Shinobi III far more forgiving than its predecessor and focusing more on action than platforming.

Musashi is faster and more deadly than ever, to say nothing of a master rider and surfer!

Players can once again collect “Power-Ups” to boost Shinobi’s attacks, adding his deadly sword to his melee attack and block and transforming his shuriken into flaming projectiles. Players also gain points for every enemy defeated and item collected, and the end of Round score tally also adds points depending on if you used your ninjutsu magic or your remaining health. By pausing the game, players select which ninjitsu technique to use with Y, with each functioning exactly like The Revenge of Shinobi: Jutsu of Ikazuchi temporarily protects Shinobi with an electrical shield, Jutsu of Kariu summons flaming pillars to damage all enemies, Jutsu of Fushin enhances your jumping speed and height, and Jutsu of Mijin has Shinobi self-destruct (costing him a life) to destroy enemies. Only one of these can be used per life but you gain additional uses by finding items, though I found less use for them this time around as Shinobi is largely grounded and the game encourages you to wall jump and spider-walk to clear gaps. Musashi gains two additional abilities, the first being a horse and the second some bitchin’ surfin’ skills! Round 2 sees you racing across a marsh-like field on horseback, jumping obstacles and taking out enemies with your shuriken or ninjutsu. Round 4 has you surging across the water, jumping off ramps to collect items and avoid mines while defeating waves of enemies, with both instances functioning like autoscrolling shooter. Round 6 also sees you in freefall down a canyon, forcing you to hop to falling boulders to keep from dropping to your doom, while many stages force you to clamber to higher levels by finding surfaces to cling to (which isn’t always obvious).

Though more forgiving, some new gimmicks and refined mechanics add to the challenge.

Shinobi III is much more challenging, overall, than its predecessor, throwing far more enemies and hazards at you but with the caveat that most stages keep you quite grounded and I found extra lives a touch more plentiful. Bottomless pits are commonplace, of course, and many times platforms will either be temporary or will require time bombs to destroy so you can progress, but insta-kill hazards are limited to crushing spikes rather than lava pits. Sometimes, you must time your wall jumps and spider-walk to avoid electrified walls and ceilings; others, you cling to or run across conveyers to progress. There are instances where you ride platforms either across a zig-zag-like track or directly upwards, with Round 2 featuring a vertical autoscroller that’ll see you crushed or left behind if you don’t pay attention. Round 3 dumps you in a disgusting, bio-organic nest where the sticky ground slows your movement and Round 4 sees you hopping to sinking barrels around an oil rig, leaping to firmer ground before you drown. Round 5 mimics a similar stage from The Revenge of Shinobi in that you can somersault over chain-link fences but, this time, you must also avoid hidden mines that eventually explode under your feet! Toxic goop, electrical sparks, and support beams hanging under Neo Zeed’s fancy blimp all make traversal an issue in their own way. Round 7 takes you inside the blimp, where drones attack as you ride a precarious moving platform, while the final area of this stage features platforming and skill-based challenges so troublesome that no enemies are required! As if tricky jumps weren’t bad enough, Round 6 puts you in a mist-filled pagoda where spikes jut from the ground and another damn door maze awaits! This was much simpler to figure out compared to the one in The Revenge of Shinobi (I simply guessed the route by taking the high ground), though made more challenging since enemies respawn each time you looped around!

Presentation:
Although Shinobi III is visually very similar to its predecessor, there have been a few improvements between the games. Musashi still doesn’t have an idle pose, but his sprite is much bigger, more detailed, and versatile thanks to his expanded move set. He now grabs the hilt of his sword when powered-up, cuts a mean pose when surfing, and blood splatters whenever he or his enemies take damage! While many sound effects are unchanged from The Revenge of Shinobi and enemies still explode in spectacular fashion, the soundtrack is overall inferior to the last game. Obviously, I have more nostalgia for The Revenge of Shinobi so I’m naturally biased towards that game, but Shinobi III really disappointed in its tracks, and in the less visually interesting enemies (especially compared to the beta version). However, larger enemies (such as samurai and various mechs) do appear more often, almost as mini bosses, and you’ll face far greater numbers and waves of enemies, with no visible slowdown or performance issues. I liked that the bombs now had a visual timer, the additional weather effects (such as rain, wind, and parts of the environment reacting to these elements), and the greater depth added to the backgrounds. Stages are far more detailed, lively, and have many more instances of parallax scrolling, making for a technically more impressive title. This is best felt in the expanded introduction (featuring a larger, more impressive, animated interpretation of Musashi), the new map screen, and the detailed artwork that pops up after you clear a Round. The game also features more story text at the start and end, and even end credits this time around (though there’s only one ending in Shinobi III).

The visuals and gameplay are vastly improved over the last game, resulting in a more impressive title.

Things start with a visual bang in Round 1’s dense forest, with grass and leaves rustling in the wind, which leads into a dank, dark cave filled with waterfalls and rippling water. I loved the marsh lands and docks that rush past in Round 2 and 4, respectively, which see clouds, kites, and tanks in the distance. The cyberpunk-like city of Round 2, the industrial factory/oil rig of Round 4, and the cybernetic research area seen in Round 5 were all worlds above the visuals offered in the last game, with foreground elements (mostly trees, pipes, and other machinery) bringing each area alive and never being too intimidating in how cluttered they were. While Round 6 was mostly relegated to a grey canyon, I loved the sense of speed as you fall to certain doom, though the night sky and full Moon are done far better in Round 7, where thick clouds rush past. Rounds 3 and 5 impressed me the most, however. Round 3 takes place in an ominous, high-tech bio-weapon facility where Neo Zeed’s bizarre abominations and brain-like experiments slumber or burst free from captivity. This leads to a revolting sewer where Neo Zeed dispose of their toxic waste and experiments, meaning the surfaces are teeming with sticky, biological sludges and malformed monsters lurk. Round 5 takes the military base from the last game and sets it against a raging inferno and explosive oil drums, then sees you slashing through another high-tech factory, this one with molten metal bubbling in the background and ominous, vaguely familiar mechanical dinosaurs waiting to be activated. The final battle occurs in a bizarre, cyberspace-like environment that really messes with your mind, while additional lighting effects and environmental details add a level of polish to the Shinobi formula that keeps it both traditional and bizarre and better showcases the Mega Drive’s power.

Enemies and Bosses:
Neo Zeed’s forces are once again primarily comprised of ninjas and soldiers, though these are noticeably cybernetically enhanced. Ninjas drop from trees, somersault over you, toss shuriken, and fly about on bat-like wings, as before, and come in different colours to indicate when you’re getting closer to the big bad. Larger samurai guard the tunnels in Round 1, slashing an energy wave and cutting with their large katana, though these are defeated as easily as the regular ninjas. The soldiers still fire machine guns, but now use mortals rather than grenades and there are no Marines bolstering their ranks, though red-clad female assassins still pop up. Ninjas now ride futuristic hoverbikes, pilot mechs, and are joined by odd, blowpipe-firing figures and floating kabuki-style warriors who emit flame bursts. Crawling brains and sludge monsters attack in the depths of Neo Zeed’s laboratory, soldiers wield laser rifles, shields, and boomerang-like projectiles, and mutated bugs, laser turrets, and persistent drones also await your presence. Steam bursts from vents, enemies crawl on ceilings like spiders, and more mini bosses appear during your playthrough. These include the return of the agile and Shadow Dancer (who now rains spears while jumping around), a gauntlet against an army of mutated brains as toxic goop bubbles nearby, large mechs that dash and attack with rapid-fire pulse cannons, and Karura, a lance-carrying bird man who attacks as you plummet in Round 6 and becomes invulnerable when seen as a whirring blur of feathers. You’ll also take on another supercomputer, though this one zaps you with an electrical field and fires explosive shells into the arena. Round 4 ends with a two-phase battle against an intimidating mech boss that begins as little more than a giant cannon in the water and soon takes to the air and requires you to blast away its cannon and shield before attacking its main body.

Some bizarre and gigantic bosses set the stage for the game’s formidable final challenge.

The first boss you face is another giant samurai, one mutated to sport four arms (two holding katana and two wielding a spear). Though you can’t hop to the high ground and this guy can dash, it’s easy enough to jump over him, use your somersault attack, or roast him with Jutsu of Kariu. Shinobi III takes a turn into the bizarre and macabre in Round 3, which sees Musashi targeted by a gigantic, malformed blob of mewling flesh while navigating the sewers and then facing off with the ghastly abomination. It lumbers in from the right or emerges from the disgusting ground, tossing chunks of flesh or swiping with its deformed hand, and noticeably degrades as you deal damage to its drooping eyes. While Shinobi III opts not to tow the line between parody and copyright infringement with its enemies and bosses, the developers couldn’t help but include an appearance from Mechagodzilla in Round 5. This gigantic, impressively detailed sprite emerges from the darkness and plods about in the background, breathing fire and raining debris. After destroying its head, it’ll unleash a barrage of projectiles from its chest, making this a tricky encounter even though touching it doesn’t hurt you. Round 6 ends with a rematch against Neo Zeed’s big boss, a squat, masked, demonic figure who whips his hair. This time, the fight occurs in a dark room full of doors that the masked fiend emerges from, tricking you with a duplicate. Though the fight is noticeably easier, it can be tough picking the right one and he becomes more aggressive, flinging a spread of darts after enough hits. This time, the final battle is against the Shadow Master, which is a two-phase affair fought in a psychedelic environment. The Shadow Master is super-fast and aggressive, leaping about, tossing kunai, teleporting, rushing at you with a sword, and delivering an explosive hit. After enough damage, he powers up and tosses energy projectiles, a flurry of blasts, and a charged shot from his arm.

Additional Features:
While Shinobi III is quite a challenge even on “Easy”, you can make things even more difficult by selecting harder difficulties, thus limiting your lives and continues. While you can accumulate points, there’s still no high score table to put your name on, though the “Options” menu has been expanded to include sound effects and voices. As in The Revenge of Shinobi, you can grant yourself unlimited shuriken with a simple trick but, even better, Shinobi III features an invincibility cheat activated by playing certain songs in the right order. Not that you really need that when playing this version of the game as the Nintendo Switch offers rewind and save state features to cut the challenge off at the knees. Finally, if you’re playing the version included in the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (Backbone Entertainment, 2009), you get an Achievement for finishing the first stage without a continue and, in the SEGA Mega Drive Classics collection (SEGA/D3T, 2018), you get an Achievement if you beat any level without tossing a shuriken.

The Summary:
I never grew up playing Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, so I don’t have the same level of nostalgia for it as for The Revenge of Shinobi. However, this did everything I’d expect from a sequel: it took what worked in the last game and expanded upon it. The visuals are greatly improved, with Joe Musashi being much faster and tighter to control. His additional moves and abilities were a welcome inclusion, mitigating my difficulties at mastering his somersault and adding an extra layer to the platforming and jumping challenges. I appreciated the added emphasis on fast-paced, hack-and-slash combat and the autoscrolling sections, which nicely broke up the gameplay and served as fun distractions. While the soundtrack was disappointing and I wasn’t blown away by the enemies, the bosses were a big step up from the last game. There are more of them, for starters, and the developers shied away from ripping off pop culture characters for some gruesome, intimidating, and fun affairs that better test your skills as a player. I did find the ninjitsu a bit wasted here, however, and it was a shame Musashi didn’t gain new magic or power-ups to use, but the visual variety offered by the stage design more than made up for it. I appreciated that the game veered more towards the surreal and science-fiction to try and mix things up, and that you were rewarded for playing well in stages. There are few cheap deaths and hazards here, and the game does get very challenging when you’re presented with small platforms, temporary ground, and tricky jumps. I can see this being aggravating on original hardware, but this version of the game makes it a breeze even without the invincibility code. Ultimately, while I would probably still choose to play The Revenge of Shinobi due to my nostalgia for that title, Shinobi III was a worthy follow-up that vastly improved almost every aspect of its sequel, making it equally good in my eyes.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master? How do you think it compares to The Revenge of Shinobi and what did you think to Musashi’s new abilities? Were you also disappointed by the soundtrack and the lack of new ninjutsu magic? What did you think to the new bosses and how bizarre some of them were? Did you enjoy the autoscrolling sections and manage to beat the game on original hardware? Which Shinobi game is your favourite? Let me know your thoughts and memories of Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other Shinobi reviews.

Mini Game Corner: Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 29 May 2018
Originally Released: 1 December 1990
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox One, Xbox Series S

A Brief Background:
Back in the day, for a while there, ninjas were the latest craze, appearing as mutated turtles, rainbow-coloured fighters, or mysterious assassins, especially in videogames, where the challenge of ninja-based titles defined a generation of gamers. SEGA’s bid to get involved in the fad resulted in notable success with Shinobi (SEGA, 1987), a taxing but praised arcade title that was improved for home consoles. While its Mega Drive sequel, The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA, 1989), was met with widespread praise, Shinobi’s first sequel was actually an arcade release just like the original game. Boasting improved graphics and teaming Joe Musashi with a canine companion, Shadow Dancer (ibid) released the same year as The Revenge of Shinobi and was largely praised, despite some aggravating mechanics. While a port was released for the Master System in some territories, the Mega Drive version was noticeably different, adding additional gameplay gimmicks while also being far more faithful to the arcade title than Shinobi’s previous home conversions. Well received at the time and standing the test of time as another classic title for the 16-bit powerhouse, Shadow Dancer was often included in subsequent collections, including the SEGA Mega Drive Classics collection that added a few quality of life mechanics to the game.

The Review:
I was all ready to do one of my regular lengthy reviews about Joe Musashi/Shinobi’s quest for revenge against the Union Lizard ninjas, only to find that Shadow Dancer adheres a little too closely to its arcade roots and therefore is too short to warrant a longer review. Like in the original arcade title, players run, jump, and toss shuriken though five levels (referred to as “Rounds”, with three stages each (the third being a boss battle). Players won’t need to worry about their health here as Musashi once again keels over and dies if he takes a single hit, though he can bounce and bump off enemies and some hazards so it’s only attacks that kill him. Like in The Revenge of Shinobi, players can set the game’s difficulty level, changing the title screen and increasing the number of enemies while decreasing the player’s continues, and will rescue hostages in each stage. Male hostages add to the player’s score, with a final tally adding additional points once a Round is cleared, while female hostages upgrade Musashi’s attacks and see him fling flaming projectiles and throw flaming kicks rather than using his sword for close-quarters combat. Players can add an additional challenge by disabling the shuriken (a death sentence if I ever saw one) and can pick from four different control types. I chose Type B, which mapped the jump to the A button, shuriken to the X button (with no rapid-fire option available), and Shinobi’s patented ninjutsu magic to the B button. Like in the original Shinobi, players are assigned different ninjutsu for each stage and only get one use per stage, earning a point bonus if they finish without using their magic. Musashi can conjure flaming pillars, whirling tornados, and a meteor storm to destroy all enemies, which is handy when you’re swarmed by ninjas. You’re also playing against a three-minute timer (though I always had plenty of time) and can occasionally collect extra lives by finding Union Lizard tokens.

Cut down repetitive ninjas alongside Shinobi’s near-useless canine companion in this challenging quest.

Though he lacks his somersault and shuriken spread and more versatile ninjutsu magic from The Revenge of Shinobi, Musashi can still duck, avoid projectiles using crates and boxes, and hop to higher ground or over fences by holding up and pressing the jump button. This is useful for evading enemies, finding hostages, and getting around some hazards and obstacles, though some enemies can follow you. The game’s big gimmick is the large white canine who fights alongside you. By holding the attack button, players charge a meter and, when released, Yamato pounces upon nearby enemies, distracting them so Shinobi can attack. If players don’t time the button press correctly, Yamato takes a hit and temporarily reverts to a useless puppy, though this mechanic was nowhere near as useful as it could’ve been. I found Yamato often wouldn’t attack and just yapped away uselessly. It would’ve been nice to see him have a more versatile move set, like giving you a jump boost, activating levers, collecting power-ups, or acting as a health bar of sorts so Shinobi can survive one measly hit! As ever, you must avoid bottomless pits and raging waters, though there are some interesting gimmicks that make Shadow Dancer stand out. Round 1-2 features a fun earthquake that splits the screen, for example, Round 3-2 takes place entirely on a rising elevator, Round 4-2 sees the environment and enemies obscured by sporadic shadows in a neat effect, and Round 5-1 is a multi-room gauntlet against swarms of the game’s toughest enemies. Shadow Dancer is incredibly unforgiving at times thanks to its one-hit-kill mechanic, with enemies circling and bouncing you around or knocking you down pits. However, you can hold the Left Trigger to rewind the game, hold “Home” to create or load a save state, and use the Right Trigger to fast forward the action. As in the original arcade Shinobi, a Bonus Round breaks up the action between Rounds. In this section, you frantically toss shuriken at ninjas as Shinobi dives from a skyscraper, earning additional points to claim a few more extra lives depending on how many you kill off.

Some cheap, weird-ass bosses block your path in this bizarre adventure.

Musashi battles a handful of enemies in his quest for revenge. Mercenaries fire laser pistols, taking cover to avoid your shuriken, while their larger commanders shield themselves and toss their shields at your head or shins. Four different coloured ninja grunts regularly throw punches, stab with knives, or carry spears. The claw-handed Iron Claws leap in and roll about, frog-like Geckos crawl around the environment, and an attack helicopter takes shots as you scale the Statue of Liberty. Colourful, nimble ninja also teleport in, wielding dual katana and somersaulting about, slashing at you and attacking in large groups, deflecting your shots and being tougher to kill depending on their colour (with black being the worst!) Each Round ends in a battle against the big bad Sauros’s “Aides” (though, ironically, the titular Shadow Master isn’t amongst them) not unlike those of the original Shinobi. Each appears in a flash of lightning, has a health bar, is fought in an enclosed arena, and players must fight without Yamato or Musashi’s powered-up attacks. Stomper is a giant, distinctly beetle-like samurai who, like Shinobi’s Ken-Oh, spits fireballs that are tricky to dodge. This is compounded by his massive hit box, the debris he rains down, and how tricky it can be to hit his helmet. Mirage is a nimble dominatrix who leaps off screen and tosses large buzzsaws, which she also uses to shield her vulnerable head. At the end of Round 3, Sauros brings a brick wall to life. This screaming monster randomly spawns across the background and attacks by extending and dropping its hands towards you, which are pretty difficult to avoid. Round 5 sees you battle Blade, a spinning, pentagram-like Catherine Wheel that circles your falling platform and tries to roast you, though you can easily spam your shuriken when it stays still. After battling past Sauros’s gauntlet, you face the main man reptile himself in a pretty anti-climactic confrontation. Sauros simply sits on his throne and spawns black ninjas to distract you, eventually detaching his helmet to rain fireballs into the throne room. This is your chance to attack the glowing orb that is his weak spot but be sure to position yourself between the flames!

A visually impressive but lacklustre and unfairly difficult arcade port.

Shadow Dancer looks pretty good, being about on par with The Revenge of Shinobi and featuring large, well detailed sprites. While Musashi doesn’t show much personality, Yamato helps add some visual variety, which the sprites need as there is only a handful of enemies and they’re constantly recycled. Things get off to a decent start with an impressive bit of sprite animation and story text. Each Round is introduced with a big, but partially obscured map and sees Shinobi leap into action, and players are initially dropped into a desolate, seemingly post-apocalyptic city. The background is in flames, the buildings are wrecked, ninja burst from the windows, fire spews from the sewers, and debris falls from the sky! Round 2 sees you first traversing a partially destroyed bridge and then battling across disused railroad tracks, hopping to a rail cart and over fences, while Round 4 takes place in a desolate cavern that tests your platforming skills. Although Round 5 is a largely unimpressive warehouse, Round 3 sees you scaling the Statue of Liberty, hopping up girders and supports, and taking a lift to the torch, with Lady Liberty and New York City in the background. The music is pretty upbeat and fitting for the action, though there’s nothing as memorable as in The Revenge of Shinobi, and players are treated to a bit of partially animated sprite art and ending text upon completion. This version of the game offers filters to recreate the good old 16-bit days, screen borders, a mirror mode for an additional challenge, and two special challenges. If you complete the first two stages without using your magic, you’ll get an Achievement and if you can beat a stage with Yamato in his puppy form, you’ll either earn another Achievement if that’s the first Challenge you completed or be one step towards another Achievement.

The Summary:  
Wow, I was so disappointed by Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi. I think I must’ve gotten the game confused with the far superior third game in the series as, while the game looks about on par with The Revenge of Shinobi, this is more like a visually improved version of the original, notoriously challenging arcade Shinobi. Joe Musashi lacks all of his improved moves and versatility from Revenge in favour of a cute canine who’s criminally underutilised. I barely used Yamato he was so useless, and it says a lot when your 16-bit, arcade-perfect videogame lacks mechanics that were included in the 8-bit port of Shinobi! Shadow Dancer would offer a decent challenge if not for the archaic and unfair one-hit-kills, which strangely carry over from the arcade version despite them being eliminated in other home console Shinobi games. While the game looks great and it can be fun searching for hostages, it’s pretty barebones, with only five Rounds and extremely limited ninjutsu magic, meaning you’re more likely to rely on your shuriken. Enemies were also painfully recycled, lacking any of the character and personality of those from The Revenge of Shinobi, and the plot is strangely bonkers, focusing on a lizard man with a ninja army? I’m not sure what the titular “secret” of Shinobi was supposed to be or why the game is called Shadow Dancer when that enemy doesn’t even appear, or why SEGA didn’t feel fit to enhance the arcade title to be more in line with the improvements made in The Revenge of Shinobi. If you’re going to play Shadow Dancer, this version is probably the best way since you can exploit the rewind and save state features, but this was a disappointingly hollow experience that didn’t do justice to what the Mega Drive – or the franchise – was capable of.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi? How do you think it compares to the arcade version and other 16-bit Shinobi titles? Were you also disappointed that it included one-hit kills and greatly limited your options? What did you think to Yamato and how useful did you find him? Which of the bosses was your favourite and what do you think the “secret” of Shinobi was? Which Shinobi game is your favourite? Let me know what you think about Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi in the comments, send me some coppers on Ko-Fi, and go read my other Shinobi reviews.

Game Corner: The Revenge of Shinobi (Mega Drive)

Dr. K5 Comments

Released: 2 December 1989
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Android, Mega/SEGA-CD, Mega-Tech, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Back in the 1980s, ninjas were a big deal. Mysterious, agile, swift-footed martial artists tossed shuriken and took movies, comic books, cartoons, and videogames by storm. We had everything from silent assassins working for the US government, mutated turtles, a slew of rainbow-coloured warriors, and games so iconic and so challenging that they defined a generation of players. SEGA saw considerable critical and commercial success with Shinobi (SEGA, 1987), a tough but rewarding arcade title later refined for its home console conversion. For the sequel, director Noriyoshi Ohba wished to showcase the then-new Mega Drive hardware through a more story-driven title, one better suited to the home console market. Thus, Shinobi gained a life bar and was purposely given a steep difficulty curve to encourage player experimentation. To balance things out, Shinobi was given a finite magic system to help in trickier situations, as well as a handy double jump for improved platforming. Of course, the game became notorious for including unlicensed appearances by major pop culture icons, leading to numerous revisions and graphical tweaks to avoid a lawsuit! One of the defining Mega Drive experiences of my childhood, The Revenge of Shinobi has stood the test of time as a classic of its generation, impressing with its visuals and gameplay variety as much as it frustrated with its mechanics and difficulty curve, and even directly inspired a semi-recurring comic strip here in the United Kingdom. The Revenge of Shinobi has had a tumultuous life post-Mega Drive, occasionally omitted from retrogame collections in favour of its sequel, though a remaster did briefly appear on digital stores (alongside some Trophies and quality-of-life features) in 2012.

The Plot:
When the criminal organisation Neo Zeed murders Joe Musashi’s master and kidnaps his bride-to-be, Musashi once again dons his Shinobi garb and sets out to rescue her.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
The Revenge of Shinobi is a sequel to the arcade, ninja-themed run-and-gun (more of a “walk-and-gun”, I suppose) Shinobi and, like its predecessor, is an action platformer that sees players guide Joe Musashi, the titular “Shinobi”, across eight stages (billed as “Rounds”), each with three parts (referred to as “Scenes” in the manual and comprised of two action stages and a battle against the game’s “Power Villains”). The Revenge of Shinobi incorporates a “continue” feature, limiting players to three continues per game, and allows players to choose from four difficulty settings (with the hardest settings limiting how many lives they have) and four control schemes. Personally, I prefer “Type 2”, which maps Musashi’s attack to the A button, jump to the B button, and “ninjitsu” magic to the C button. You can also customise how many shuriken Shinobi starts with, and I’d recommend setting it to the maximum amount as you’ll be chucking a lot of throwing stars in this challenging title. Musashi’s primary attack is to throw ninja stars, which he can do while walking, crouching, or jumping. When enemies get close, Musashi strikes with his Oborozuki blade or a kick, with most enemies literally exploding after just one hit. Musashi has a decent, if clunky jump that players can use to hop over simple obstacles (walls, crates, and junk cars) or onto moving platforms, but he can also perform a somersault to reach higher ground or flip over chain-link fences. Unfortunately, this somersault is extremely finnicky to perform as, rather than simply tapping B twice, players must awkwardly press B at the height of their jump, meaning the somersault is effectively useless in restrictive locations like hallways and interiors. This also means you can’t hop halfway across a gap and then activate the somersault; if you try this, you’ll plummet to your death. It’s worth pulling this move off, though, as you can press A when somersaulting to fire a spread of shuriken, though this quickly depletes your stock. Luckily, players can break wooden crates for more shuriken, health, and even extra lives. However, you must watch out for sneaky (often unfair) timed bombs that can whittle down your health or send you down a bottomless spit thanks to the game’s aggravating knockback.

Power up Musashi’s attacks or utilise his devastating ninja magic to clear out enemies.

Musashi can also collect “Power Packs” to increase the speed and power of his attacks, gaining his sword and changing his shuriken to flaming projectiles. When walking or crouch-walking while powered up, Shinobi holds his kunai before him to reflect projectiles, which is a handy feature. Defeating enemies and clearing stages also adds to your high score, with Musashi’s life bar increasing by two when players reach 100,000 points and earning extra lives whenever they clear a Round or reach first 50,000 and then 100,000 subsequent points. Pausing the game lets you select one of four ninjitsu techniques to use with the C button, with each having different pros and cons. Ikazuchi, the “Art of Thunder”, surrounds Shinobi with an electrical shield to protect him from damage and even seems to hurt enemies, though it fades after too many hits. Kariu, the “Art of the Fire Dragon”, summons great plumes of dragon-like fire to damage all enemies. Fushin, the “Art of Floating”, increases the speed, height, and length of your jumps and somersaults, allowing you to easily cross gaps. Though it lasts until the Scene ends and can be used alongside other ninjitsu, it can be unwieldy. Finally, Mijin, the “Art of Pulverising”, sees Shinobi self-destruct, costing a life but dealing big damage to enemies and bosses. You can use each ninjitsu twice per life and can earn additional uses by finding rare ninjitsu items in crates; if you perform the somersault attack, you may also find hidden items scattered through the environments. Unlike in the original game, there are no quasi-first-person sections in The Revenge of Shinobi and no hostages to rescue. You simply move from right to left, taking out any enemies and crossing deadly gaps, until you reach the exit or defeat a boss. However, you must occasionally step on switches to open doors or clear a path, crouch-walk through hidden passageways, Fushin-leap across gaps, and ride moving platforms or chains to bypass instant-death hazards.

A challenging title made all the more tricky thanks to some clunky controls.

The Revenge of Shinobi starts out quite fair, demanding little from players than to avoid projectiles and hazards, but quickly becomes a challenging title. Players must avoid being skewered by bamboo spikes, crushed by sliding crates, and scorched by bursts of fire. Molten steel, raging waters, and bottomless pits will cost you a life and you must also take care to not be sucked out of Round 3’s air locks. Fushin comes in handy when tackling Round 2’s waterfall, where you hop to dropping logs and high platforms, and your jumping prowess is tested when you hop to and from Round 5’s bridge avoiding speeding red cars. When in Round 3’s military airfield, players must somersault over the chain-link fence to avoid or take out the armed guards stationed there, while Round 5 sees you hopping to moving laser turrets to scale Neo Zeed’s skyscraper headquarters. When navigating the pier Scene in Round 7, you must hop to rubber dinghies, then avoid the massive turrets stationed in a similar Scene in Round 8. Some stages, like Round 2: Scene 2 and Round 6: Scene 1, see you using the rooftops to avoid enemies and pits, while Round 6: Scene 2 sees you ducking and jumping over hazards while plodding across a speeding train. While you’ll encounter enemies popping from hidden doors as early as Round 2: Scene 2, Round 8: Scene 2 presents a frustrating door maze, where you must choose the correct path, battling every enemy faced in previous stages, and thanking the gaming gods that The Revenge of Shinobi doesn’t have a timer and that online guides are a thing! Still, the game’s difficulty can be daunting at times. Musashi and his enemies have quite large hit boxes and Shinobi is a bit clunky to control, especially when jumping. You can’t scroll the screen up or down, making it easy to be blindsided by enemies; though, on the plus side, enemies don’t respawn. Those damn bombs also become a massive headache as you progress, to say nothing of enemies that deflect your shuriken or disguise themselves as nuns!

Presentation:
Although The Revenge of Shinobi was an early title for the SEGA Mega Drive, it’s still very impressive from a visual standpoint. Joe Musashi may not have any idle poses, but he strikes a dramatic pose with each ninjutsu, collapses in defeat when killed, and assumes a more aggressive stance when powered up. While the basic ninja enemies aren’t much to shout about, the samurai are far more detailed and I liked the agility of the Pink Dragon enemies, who fall to their knees after taking a few hits rather than exploding like Shinobi’s other enemies. These explosions are ridiculously fun and I liked how some enemies wield swords or other weapons that deflect your projectiles, forcing you to alternate between high and low attacks. While some stages can be a bit bland or cluttered at times and the game lacks the colourful, visual “pop” of the Mega Drive’s most popular titles, there’s a lot of detail in every area. Round 1: Scene 1 transitions from dusk to night, for example, waters rage in Round 7 and 8 (with the latter also including rain effects and a lighthouse in the background), and there’s some minor examples of parallax scrolling at work. The game’s introductory scene features a large, partially animated sprite of Sonny Chiba Musashi deflecting some shuriken and a still image of him holding his murdered sensei as the game’s plot appears in text. Between each Round, you’re treated to a world map that shows your progression and the game’s sound effects should be readily familiar to anyone who’s played the Streets of Rage trilogy (SEGA/Ancient, 1991 to 1994) since those games copied them, and some graphical elements, wholesale from The Revenge of Shinobi. The game is also a licensee’s nightmare, depending on which version you play, as Musashi encounters enemies clearly inspired by John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) and bosses either inspired by or blatantly ripping off Doctor Robert Bruce Banner/The Hulk, the T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Godzilla! It’s surreal encountering these enemies, even if you’re playing a version that recolours or alters their sprites, as they’re decidedly at odds with he game’s more grounded aesthetic.

There’s some decent visual variety and crazy moments, but it can be cluttered at times.

To be fair, though, The Revenge of Shinobi may start out rather mundane and traditional, with Musashi exploring a bamboo forest and guarded pagoda before hopping to the nighttime rooftops, he’s soon storming a well-armed military airfield, awkwardly navigating the claustrophobic interior of a steampunk-like airship, and somersaulting through the neon-drenched skyline of Chinatown. Equally, while his enemies start out as simple ninjas appearing in puffs of smoke or from hidden doorways, he’s soon taking on assassins disguised as nuns and dodging laser blasts from automated turrets. While the game’s soundtrack is practically burned into my memory, particularly the intro music and opening Scene, it is disappointing that The Revenge of Shinobi repeats a few of its tracks, especially considering the variety packed into each Round. This can also be a double-edged sword, to be fair: the train Scene, for example, starts off in a really bland tunnel and then jumps to the extreme with a cluttered and confusing background (though I liked seeing passengers mingling in the carriages). I enjoyed the chaos of the steel mill, however, and the busy bridge (despite how difficult it can be to avoid enemies and cars and not plummet to your death), and especially liked the detail in splashing waters in the pier Scenes. These effects were far more effective than in the waterfall Scene, where it can be difficult spotting enemies and even Musashi’s sprite due to the clashing colours. While the game strangely lacks an end credits sequence, there are two endings depending on how quickly you defeat the final boss and whether or not you rescue Naoko. I also liked that the Power Villains changed colours to visually indicate that you were dealing damage (though sound effects also helped with this), and how they dramatically exploded upon defeat, with some even breaking apart for added effect. While the game performs pretty well, never taxing the Mega Drive’s hardware too much, there can be some instances of slowdown and sprite flicker when a lot of big, moving sprites are present.

Enemies and Bosses:
There are only a handful of enemies in The Revenge of Shinobi, but the game eventually mixes and matches their combinations and offers palette swapped variants who are a bit tougher and more aggressive in their attacks. One of the most common enemies you’ll face are Neo Zeed’s ninjas (or Omote), who appear in a puff of smoke or from behind hidden doors or even flying about on bat-like wings! These guys can jump, somersault over you, and toss shuriken of their own, but explode in one hit. They’re bolstered by samurai (or Kabuto), who deflect your shuriken with their katana and have a long reach, and attack dogs that pounce at you. Neo Zeed’s reach extends to the American military, meaning you’ll often face off with soldiers armed with rifles, tossing grenades, or stationed behind machine guns. These guys can also lie on the ground and come in pairs to fill the screen with machine gun fire and are often accompanied by “Gunners”, the Rambo-esque brutes that carry flamethrowers. Kasumi (who win top price in the Elektra Natchios lookalike competition) fool you by disguising themselves as nuns and then leaping with a flying kick and sai in hand. The game’s Bruce Lee-like martial artists also utilise flying kicks, while the White Phoenix enemies have incredible reach with their spinning, bladed nunchaku. I really liked the Pink Dragon enemies, robed dancers who elegantly spin around, deflecting your shuriken, and take multiple hits to defeat before crumbling to their knees rather than exploding (a detail not mirrored by the Kasumi). These enemies eventually start mingling and you’ll encounter them all in Round 8: Scene 2, which can be especially aggravating as their projectiles and sprites take up screen space and box you in. It’s also worth remembering that the Gunner’s flames and the many bombs you encounter linger onscreen for a few seconds, so you must either take your time or execute a somersault to avoid damage. Hazards like jet flames, pits, molten steel, turrets, and lasers are also present, though you can use some of these to help upwards in some Scenes.

Some totally legal cameos pop up alongside the colourful and bizarre bosses.

Each Round ends with a battle against a “Power Villains”. The first, the Blue Lobster, is a large samurai who shields himself and has fantastic reach with his Masamune-like blade. However, by utilising the arena walls, you can avoid his attack and execute the somersault spread to whittle him down. Next, Shinobi encounters the super agile Shadow Dancer in a kaleidoscopic nightclub. This guy is essentially a supped-up Omote but he’s quite challenging as he can only be damaged when on the ground, fires a shuriken spread, and turns pitch-black near death to make him even harder to spot! Round 3 pits you against a heavily-armoured super computer, protected by ceiling lasers, that can only by damaged by targeting its exposed brain. At the end of Round 4, you battle the “Master Attacker” in the junkyard. This hulking brute tosses cars and debris, has a shoulder charge, and turns out to be a kamikaze robot, but you can again use the high ground and somersault attack (or Kariu) to damage him. Next, you’ll clamber over a massive, missile-carrying vehicle, attacking the red orbs when they pop up and avoiding shots, the blue spark that travels across the ground, and falling to your death. Round 6 sees you ambushed by Spider-Man and Batman (or a spider-like ninja and a menacing vampire) in a two-stage battle. Spidey crawls along the ceiling firing webs and descending on a web line (that also makes him invulnerable), while Batman swoops at you and is surrounded by bats (though these, like Spidey’s webs, can be destroyed). As if that wasn’t bonkers enough, either Godzilla or a fire-breathing Brontosaurus await in Round 7’s final Scene. Either way, you must again use the high ground to attack the beast’s head, watching for its atomic breath and large tail, and hopping from one side to the other to avoid damage. Finally, Shinobi battles “The Boss” for Naoko’s life. This squat, kabuki-like crime lord is mostly stationary but protected by a mane of impenetrable hair that he whips and flings at you. You must stay close, firing at his exposed belly, and utilise Ikazuchi (since all other magic seems ineffective) to outlast his attacks and finish the fight quickly, otherwise Naoko will be crushed!

Additional Features:
As mentioned, there are multiple difficulty settings in The Revenge of Shinobi. So, if you somehow find the game too easy on “Easy”, you can give yourself a harder challenge by limiting how many lives you have. There’s no real benefit to this other than bragging rights, though, as the ending you receive relies solely only how first you defeat The Boss and if you can keep Naoko from being killed. If the game proves too challenging, you can set the shuriken count to 0 in the game’s “Settings” menu and wait a few seconds for the number to change into an infinity symbol, granting you unlimited projectiles. Hidden extra lives can also be farmed in some Scenes, though there’s oddly no high score table to aim for (you must record your score in the manual like some kind of caveman!) If you’re lucky enough to still own the seventh-generation remaster, there are twelve Achievements/Trophies to obtain, with one being awarded for using all ninjutsu attacks, one for beating the game without a continue, and others for oddball tasks like deflecting ten attacks or falling down a waterfall. Other modern re-releases are oddly missing Achievement support but do come with save states and, often, rewind features, which make this challenging title far easier and much more enjoyable to playthrough.

The Summary:
Like many kids back in the day, I’m sure, The Revenge of Shinobi was an essential title in my Mega Drive library. This was probably the most challenging game I owned back then, yet I kept it and often revisited it time and again despite often running into a brick wall around Round 7. Years later, I picked up the remaster for the PlayStation 3 and finally finished the game for the first time, and I’m still a bit regretful that I ended up selling that console and losing that version of the game. Thanks to re-releases, The Revenge of Shinobi is more accessible than ever but there’s something magically nostalgic about revisiting it on original hardware. The game holds up pretty well, especially the soundtrack and some of the sprite work. It can be clunky at times (Joe Musashi is very slow and his jump, particularly his aggravating somersault, are difficult to master) and the environments lack a lot of the detail and variety you’d expect from later Mega Drive titles, but I appreciate that the developers tried to make each Scene stand out in their own way. I still get a thrill hearing that Round 1: Scene 1 beat kick in and laugh every time those blatantly ripped off enemies crop up, and I love how Musashi can hop behind chain-link fences and bolster his attacks with ninjutsu magic. The Power Villains are all large and suitably impressive, testing your jumping skill and forcing you to think about when and how best to use your ninjutsu, while the stage variety always keeps you on your toes. I may not enjoy the bridge, train, or many of the platforming mechanics and that damn door maze might’ve driven me mad, but I’m glad that the game tried to be a bit ambitious and mix things up. It’s a shame that the developers didn’t rejig the first-person-esque sequences for the first game or the hostage rescue mechanics into mini games or gimmicks for some Rounds, and that the screen area is unnecessarily restricted at times, but this is still a classic mega Drive title. It was undoubtably surpassed by its sequels, but there’s a special kind of magic to the Revenge of Shinobi that still gives me the feels to this day and I’m always glad to boot it up again, though I admit this blatant nostalgia is the reason it gets an extra fourth star as the awkward controls, slow pace, and difficulty curve do bog it down.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Was The Revenge of Shinobi a staple of your Mega Drive library back in the day? How do you think it compares to the first game, and its sequels? Which of Musashi’s ninjutsu attacks was your favourite and did you also struggle with his somersault attack? What did you think to the stage variety and the soundtrack? Which version of the game did you own and what did you think to the crazy bosses? Did you ever defeat The Boss and rescue Naoko? Which of the re-releases is your favourite and would you like to see a Shinobi collection released for modern consoles? Share your memories and opinions on The Revenge of Shinobi down in the comments, go support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other Shinobi reviews.

Mini Game Corner: Shinobi (Arcade)

Dr. K4 Comments

Released: 16 November 1987
Developer: SEGA AM1
Also Available For: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Master System, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Wii, PC Engine, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, ZX Spectrum

A Brief Background:
For quite a while, between the seventies and mid-nineties, ninjas were all the rage. Sneaky, costumed martial artists wielded katana and tossed shuriken and appeared in numerous cartoons, comic books, movies and videogames. Games were treated to everything from ninja turtles, rainbow-coloured warriors, and games so challenging that they defined a generation. Since ninjas were so prevalent in the gaming industry, it wasn’t that surprising that SEGA built an arcade game around a skilled ninja warrior. Although vastly surpassed by its Mega Drive sequel, the original Shinobi was a commercial success whose demanding gameplay proved extremely popular. When Shinobi came to the Master System, it received a noticeable downgrade in graphics yet some welcome quality of life features, such as a health bar and the elimination of one-hit deaths, which led to it being equally lauded. Shinobi kicked off a successful side franchise for SEGA, one sadly left to the wayside for many years, and saw numerous ports to other consoles, though many were since delisted.

The Review:
Joe Musashi’s debut as the shuriken-throwing Shinobi is a 2D, sidescrolling affair that’s essentially a ninja themed run-and gun. Players can either go it alone or play alongside a friend to fight their way through five stages (known as “Missions”), with three to four rounds per Mission (with the final round being a boss battle). While you’re playing against a three-minute time limit on the arcade version, I never experienced any time outs and you’re given plenty of time to play as each round is quite short. The Master System version lacks the timer but is noticeably harder, even though Musashi can take multiple hits before dying, since the controls are much clunkier and players have no continues. On the arcade version, your game lasts as long as you have pocket change, though there are no checkpoints mid-round. However, the game throws you a bone by not requiring you to rescue hostages each time you lose a life. Yes, Musashi’s goal is to rescue a handful of hostages in each area, with the captives generally guarded by street thugs, ninjas, Mongolian swordsmen, and bazooka-wielding goons. Rescuing hostages awards points, with players earning extra lives with enough points and landing their initials on the high score table at the end of the game, and upgrades Musashi’s attacks. Rescuing them is mandatory on the arcade version, with the exit only accessible once they’re rescued, but is optional on the Master System version, where they also refill your health. By default, Musashi tosses shuriken with one button, though he’s limited to tossing them in the direction he’s facing or while crouching rather than in any direction or off a somersault. When enemies get close, Musashi kicks or punches them (providing he doesn’t take a hit and die), but this is upgraded to a sword slash (and a nunchaku and a ball and chain on the Master System version). Shinobi’s shuriken are swapped out for a missile-firing pistol (very discreet!) and even grenades on the Master System.

Hop about, employ magic, and toss shuriken to rescue hostages and take down the baddies.

Shinobi’s big gimmick is Musashi’s ability to leap onto walls and into the background by holding up and pressing the jump button. These inputs also allow him to drop back down as well, and players must switch back and forth between the foreground and background to rescue hostages, take out or avoid enemies, and progress across stages. It can be clunky at times, and difficult to see where you’re supposed to jump, and some enemies are obnoxiously placed to sap your lives and pocket money. Musashi can duck or jump over crates to avoid incoming fire or progress further, and utilise “ninjitsu” magic at the press of a button. Unlike in later games, this magic is severely limited and changes depending on which Mission and version you’re playing. I saw Musashi duplicate himself and dart around the screen with flying kicks, summon a lightning storm, and conjure tornados, though I couldn’t figure out how to do the magic on the Master System version. After clearing a Mission, players are awarded point bonuses to add to their high score and must take on a first-person bonus round (accessibly by rescuing hostages on the Master System). Here, you frantically toss shuriken at ninjas as they hop from the background, with the round ending in failure if they reach you. While most of Shinobi is geared towards simple run-and-gun action, you’re often tasking with hopping to pillars, wading in water, clambering up and down pipes, or clearing gaps to progress. This can be a tricky prospect as Musashi is incredibly sluggish, has a large hit box, and jumps like he has lead in his shoes, meaning you’re far more likely to plummet down a pit than reach your intended destination. Unlike in later games, though, there are no additional hazards or gimmicks to worry about here, though the sheer number of enemies and projectiles means Shinobi is an incredibly challenging title regardless.

The game’s hit and miss in terms of visuals, but definitely at its strongest on the arcade.

Despite being a SEGA kid, and owning a Master System, I never played Shinobi growing up. I played The Cyber Shinobi (SEGA, 1991) and The Revenge of Shinobi (ibid, 1989), but never this one. Consequently, I can’t help but be disappointed with how the game looks. Sure, there are some fun voice samples and grunts, the distinctly Oriental music was certainly fitting, and the title screen showcasing Musashi’s animated head was somewhat impressive, but the game is very basic compared to its sequels. On the arcade, Musashi and his enemies are large, colourful sprites with limited animations and annoyingly big hit boxes. Musashi is garbed in black and has his face exposed here, and lacks some of his later abilities, but still strikes a dramatic pose when using magic, which fills the screen with fun, varied effects. Each Mission begins with a briefing document showing the boss and your place on a crude map, and the locations are somewhat varied. You’ll battle on the city streets, against a background of Marylin Monroe posters and simplistic skyscrapers, across the docks and inside a large ship, hop across a rocky mountainside, most likely get a headache from the dense and mangled bamboo forest, and finally battle inside a pagoda full of ninjas. I did like the water effects when you’re outside the docks, with enemies casting a shadow so you can anticipate their appearance, and the large structures at the end of most stages, such as caves and Oriental buildings. Bosses are fought in enclosed arenas that are given some visual flair, taking place on a balcony looking out on treetops or against a dragon mural, and the large sprite art and sprite manipulation in the bonus stages was certainly impressive. While your only reward for beating the game is some text regarding the ending and your place on the high score table, that’s more than Master System players get, as the game abruptly ends on home consoles! The Master System version is also far uglier, with loads of sprite flickering, clunkier controls, and a truly awful visual downgrade from the arcade that’s only echoed in other inferior ports.

While some bosses are fun, others are ridiculously cheap thanks to the one-hit-kill mechanic.

Musashi is attacked by knife- and gun-wielding street punks, bazooka-firing troopers, and a slew of colourful ninjas. Some resemble Peter Parker/Spider-Man and pop from water, fly from the thick bamboo forest, or appear in a puff of smoke to flip about with katana. Kabuki-masked enemies toss bones, Mongolian warriors swing or throw their blades, weird little hunchbacks leap about, and bo-swinging monks hop between the foreground and background. Most are defeated in one hit, but their projectiles fire high and low, enemies are often perched right where you need to jump, and some deflect your shuriken. Ken-Oh, a hulking ninja garbed in black armour, is the first boss you face. He launches fires fireballs that can be extremely difficult to avoid as they fill the screen and easily sap your lives as you frantically try to jump and toss your shuriken at his helmet. The Black Turtle attack helicopter was much easier, despite its gatling gun and the ninjas it spawns. You can deal a lot of damage with your ninjutsu magic, and the helicopter even displays battle damage and goes down in an impressive explosion. The Mandara was a crippling step up in difficulty, however, being a two-stage boss battle that features an insta-kill wall of electricity and starts with an advancing troop of boddhisatvas that must be destroyed before they reach you. You must then avoid the Mandara Master’s bouncing projectiles and hit the jewel on its forehead to win. The Lobster, a massive, armoured samurai, was the easiest boss, providing you get your timing down. All this guy does is slowly advance and swing his sword, but he’ll stun-lock you if you’re not careful. To defeat him, you must time your jumps to hit his head, forcing him back and easily besting him if you’re quick enough. Finally, Musashi faces Nakahara, the “Masked Ninja”, in a four-phase challenge. First, the Masked Ninja jumps at you, leaping off the walls, and you must time your shots to land when his shield is briefly gone. Then, he turns into a tornado and flings blades at you, before hopping about while shadowed by duplicates, and finally rushing in to land melee attacks, all of which can be tough to avoid and it’s even hard to know if you’re done damage!

The Summary:
Despite my love and nostalgia for The Revenge of Shinobi, and my appreciation for the Master System, I’ve never been that enthused by the original Shinobi. I could tell just from screenshots and a bit of gameplay that it was a clunky and demanding experience, and my opinion has only been cemented after this playthrough. I played through both the arcade and the Master System version and, while there are subtle differences and some tweaks for the home console version, both were unforgiving at times and a chore to get through. Joe Musashi is ridiculously difficult to control, awkwardly leaping to and from the background and being far too big a target for this mission. Enemies are relentless, constantly spawning and tossing projectiles and causing cheap deaths thanks to the outrageous one-hit-kill system. This is mitigated on the Master System, but the game’s still an uphill battle thanks to the awful visuals and problematic controls. Musashi isn’t as spry as I’d like and drops like a stone when trying to clear gaps, and isn’t acrobatic enough to avoid the simplistic bosses’ attacks. His ninjutsu magic, while impressive, is incredibly limited and almost useless against bosses, and you’re barely given a chance to learn enemy patterns or level layouts before you’re pumping in more coins and replaying the same sections over and over. I liked the variety and aesthetic of the game, and the first-person bonus rounds, and that you have to rescue hostages, though these were better implemented in the home console ports. It’s amazing to me that Shinobi was as popular as it was at the time as I find it very difficult to believe anyone got very far in this unforgiving piece of jank, which punishes you at almost every turn, even when playing on the Master System (where some cheat codes ease the pain). I’m honestly glad I started with its superior 16-bit sequel, which outclasses this offering in every way.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you ever play Shinobi in the arcade, or own it on home console? Were you impressed with the game and its unique jumping mechanic? Did you also struggle with the one-hit kills and Musashi’s large hit box? Which of the bosses was the most troublesome for you and did you ever clear all the bonus rounds? Did you prefer the changes made for the home console release? Would you like to see a new Shinobi collection? Whatever your memories and experiences of Shinobi, share them in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other Shinobi reviews.

Game Corner: Ninja Gaiden (Nintendo Switch)

Dr. K5 Comments

Released: 12 December 2018
Originally Released: 9 December 1988
Developer: Tecmo
Also Available For: Mobile, Nintendo 3DS (Virtual Console), Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Wii (Virtual Console), Nintendo Wii U (Virtual Console), PC Engine, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES; remake), Xbox (Unlocked in Ninja Gaiden (Team Ninja, 2004))

The Background:
Whether they were silent assassins working for the US government, mutated turtles, or rainbow-coloured warriors fighting for and against our world, ninjas were a staple of the 1980s, especially in videogames. While often depicted as agile foes, ninjas also made up some of gaming’s most memorable characters and, in 1988, a very particular ninja effectively defined the difficulty of 8-bit games for a generation of players. Developed alongside a beat-‘em-up arcade title of the same name, Ninja Giaden was specifically created to capitalise on the ninja craze of the eighties and marked developer Masato Kato’s first full-time project as a video game designer. Inspired by some of Nintendo’s most popular titles, director Hideo Yoshizawa sought to create both an iconic protagonist and truly challenge players to give them their money’s worth. The game stood out by emphasising story as much as action through impressive, anime-style cutscenes and was re-titled for its North American release. Ninja Gaiden’s difficulty was a major talking point upon release and this reputation grew into legend over the years, with many reviews and online personalities ranking it as one of the most challenging retrogames of all time. Regardless (or, perhaps, because of this), Ninja Gaiden is also noted as one of the best of its era, despite some drawbacks in its design, and it even inspired some well-regarded sequels back in the day, to say nothing of challenging a new generation of gamers through 3D reboots decades later.

The Plot:
When ninja Ryu Hayabusa’s father is seemingly killed in a duel by an unknown assailant, he sets out on a quest for revenge that soon pits him against a demonic entity known as Jaquio.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Ninja Gaiden, one of the most notorious and quintessential titles for the classic NES, is a 2D, sidescrolling action adventure in which players assume the role of Ryu Hayabusa, a black clad, katana-wielding ninja who battles his way through six levels (referred to as “Acts”), each with as many as four different screens (or “Areas”), to avenge the supposed death of his father. There are no difficulty options here; instead, you must endure one of the games that defined the term “NES Hard” with only unlimited continues and your own perseverance. Well, that’s not quite true. Ryu Hayabusa is extremely fast, agile, and capable, quickly slashing and defeating most enemies with one hit with a press of B or X and nimbly hopping across gaps, to platforms, and to ladders with A. Each enemy you defeat awards points (though there’s no high score table and these don’t seem to grant you extra lives) or a special jar to restore some health. These are must-have items as you’ll be bombarded by respawning enemies (seriously, they often spawn the second you kill one!) and destructible projectiles. You must also be mindful of the timer, which pushes you to keep moving and risk plummeting your death across the game’s many chasms. Oh, and be wary of the extreme knockback Ryu suffers when hit, which often sends him careening to his death. If you lose all your lives and have to continue, you must start from the first Area of the last Act you played, though the game throws you a bone in Act IV by not forcing you to battle past the penultimate boss more than once.

Slash, wall jump, and toss projectiles at an endless swarm of enemies in this tough platformer!

While Ryu is quick and agile, he can be cumbersome in mid-air and is prone to falling through platforms that are otherwise solid, so you must time your jumps properly, which is easier said than done with the sheer amount of chaos on screen! Ninja Gaiden’s big gimmick is Ryu’s wall-spring jump ability, which allows players to hop between walls and vertical sections by tapping A. This is super fun and utilised perfectly, with Ryu clinging to the wall until you press A and easily hopping to higher ground. However, Ryu’s strangely unable to climb over edges, forcing you to jump to a nearby platform and then jump back to progress, and also cannot drop down a pit even if he climbed up it. These sections never outlive their welcome, however, and, if anything, I would’ve liked to see more of them as opposed to the tricky jumps across bottomless pits! Ryu can also utilise special items, usually by pressing up and B, though these are tied to a “Spiritual Strength” ammo count and are usually best saved for bosses or more hectic sections. Ryu can toss shuriken for a ranged attack and utilise boomerang shuriken, blast a fire wheel in a spread attack, and turn his jump into a bladed somersault with the “jump and slash technique”, which instantly kills all bosses! Each of these costs a different amount of Spiritual Strength, so you must smash lanterns and defeat birds to increase your ammo. I’d also recommend holding down and B when you have the jump-slash since it must be saved for the final boss and costs the most Spiritual Power to use. Players may also find the odd extra life, protect themselves with a rare flaming shield, and even freeze all onscreen enemies with a sand timer, though it’s best to time this just right as you don’t want to take damage from the frozen enemies! Any power-ups are lost between Acts, forcing you to get yourself up to strength for each boss, though every projectile can be destroyed if you time your attack just right and many enemies can be tricked into falling to their deaths or despawning if you can manipulate the screen correctly.

Ninja Gaiden does not let up for an instant and constantly screws you over at every turn.

Ninja Gaiden fully deserves its reputation. I played on the Nintendo Switch, so I had the advantage of save states and rewinds, and even then I could see how challenging this game would be back in the day. Things start off quite tame, to be fair, and you’re introduced to Ryu’s wall-spring jump and the platforming challenges in a way that eases you into the gameplay loop. However, it’s not long before birds are swooping in, ninjas are leaping from offscreen, and enemies and projectiles are filling the screen, screwing up your jumps, knocking you down pits, or whittling down your health bar as you hop and climb about. There isn’t much to the game, technically speaking, with no environmental hazards to worry about save for some dragon-themed turrets and the many pits that fill the stages. there is no lava, for example, no toxic funk, and Act III doesn’t include slippery platforms or icicles. Platforms don’t even move or crumble beneath your feet; they’re just spaced further apart, get gradually smaller or have enemies perched on them, and the game tasks you to clamber up ladders or hop up vertical shafts to progress. Some Areas do have you moving from the right side of the screen to the left, to be fair; each Act has different destructible gimmicks to drop items and power-ups; and you occasionally climb long-ass ladders, avoiding birds as you go. There are no bonus stages to break up the action, however, though the game places a surprising emphasis on story, more so than most games of its era. Ninja Gaiden’s difficulty is in its platforming challenges and the sheer influx of enemies, who constantly fly at you and spawn in no matter how many times you defeat them. They linger right where you need to drop, guard small platforms over pits, and rain down in large numbers, mocking your attacks as you struggle to be quick enough to clear some breathing space. There’s always something else up ahead and you’re constantly being tested, with the game requiring split second decisions and punishing you severely if you hesitate or don’t take risks. The special items certainly help in these situations, but it’s a calculated risk as you don’t want to be left on empty when the boss appears!

Presentation:
I was honestly blown away by Ninja Gaiden. While the game’s a little too zoomed out at times, making the sprites a bit too small and reducing their detail, this greatly benefits the gameplay as you can always see the entire screen and get a better idea of what’s coming at you. Every sprite and projectile stands out against the different, colourful backgrounds and I never lost track of Ryu, even when the game noticeably struggled to keep up with the action. Sprite flickering and screen tearing is common in the later stages of Ninja Gaiden, where the enemy numbers increase, you’re more likely to be tossing projectiles, and the bosses get bigger and more ambitious. Still, I can forgive this as it’s a product of its era and adds to the charm and my progress was never impeded by these issues, just the damn knockback, Ryu’s stiff mid-air movement, and the cacophony of hazards onscreen! While enemies are somewhat basic and Ryu doesn’t have an idle animation, he exudes a lot of personality in his swift movements and fun wall jump and is fleshed out beyond most other 8-bit protagonists thanks to the many anime-style cutscenes that relate the game’s story. These were incredibly impressive, boasting large, partially animated sprite art and a lot of dialogue, even if there were some translation errors. Ryu’s battle sees him accosted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), fall for the beautiful and mysterious Irene Law, learn of an ancient curse on some statues, and get mixed up with demonic forces! Cutscenes occasionally interrupt the gameplay, providing a dramatic view of the ominous Temple of Darkness and seeing Ryu challenged by Bloody Malth, to say nothing of detailing Ryu’s quest for revenge and some unexpected revelations regarding his father! This is all set up from the opening cutscene, which includes some parallax scrolling and sets the standard of the anime aesthetic for the game, though I admit that I wasn’t blown away by the game’s soundtrack, which was fitting for the action but not exactly memorable.

The game’s anime-style cutscenes and impressive visuals were a surprising highlight.

Players battle across some varied, if uninspired, environments throughout Ninja Gaiden, including the city streets (with alleyways, buildings in the foreground, basic skyscrapers in the background, and neon signs to jump to), battle the first boss in a seedy bar, and hop to girders against the rocky walls of a spawling factory. This leads to an outside location where you must hop to stone platforms and pillars against a mountain range, a flowing river with wooden platforms dotted across its surface, and the aforementioned snowy mountaintop where Ryu must climb vines as makeshift ladders. Act IV sees Ryu parachut into an Amazon rainforest, where the background is a mess of tangled greenery and the swamp-like water spells instant death if you slip from the log platforms. This ends with you scaling another mountain and magically infiltrating the Temple of Darkness, a suitably gothic castle full of tracks, mine carts, and featuring a long stone bridge, with dark brick work contrasting the orange foreground. When you venture into the Temple of Darkness, you’re faced with an excruciating grey backdrop, one dotted with demonic statues and imagery, that’s rivalled by Act V’s purple brick background and stone-grey platforms. Thankfully, this eventually gives way to a looming mountainside, and you’re tasked with hopping across some of the game’s trickiest jumps and heading up the mountain, which stretches high into the sky and ends with a castle rooftop set against a cloudy night sky. What really impressed me about this final Area was that it returns as the first Area of Act VI, with you now going to the left for Ryu’s toughest challenge yet! As you venture deeper into the gothic structure, you’re faced with columns, tall walls, and demonic imagery. With more surfaces to cling to, you may find your jumps or progress impeded as Ryu accidentally clings to walls you weren’t aiming for, which is just another headache to contend with as enemies fill the screen and tax the 8-bit hardware to its limit.

Enemies and Bosses:
There are a handful of enemies that stand between Ryu Hayabusa and his vengeance, with most of them being recycled again and again and only becoming more troublesome due to their sheer number and annoying placement. At first, you’re slaughtering street punks who rush you with baseball bats, toss knives, or fist-fight you while wearing boxing gloves. Dogs scramble across the floor at high speed, bats and various birds fill the airspace and screw up your jumps, and even tigers take a shot at you once you land in the rainforest! You’ll come across soldiers who charge at you, fire bursts from machine guns, and wield bazookas, sword-wielding baddies, martial artists who fly at you with a propeller kick, and even brutes swinging maces! Green-clad ninjas rain from the sky and slice at you with katana, Halloween-themed killers toss machetes and axes in sporadic arcs that seem to always hit you thanks to the game’s janky hit boxes, and dragon-themed cannons spit fireballs. Ninjas fly overhead on jetpacks, tossing a spread of shuriken that are all-but-impossible to avoid, gaunt corpses slink about, and Grim Reaper-like banshees chuck wooden swords (or possibly crosses). By far the worst of the regular enemies, in my opinion, are the scythe-tossing minions whose blades fly like boomerangs and are incredibly difficult to avoid or destroy, especially when other enemies leap from offscreen or they respawn half a second after being destroyed! As you play, you’ll inevitably spot the “Enemy” health bar in the heads-up display. This is reserved for encounters with the game’s bosses, the “Malice Four”, and shows you’re doing damage to your tougher foes even if your health is dropping dangerously low.

While some bosses are easily exploited, you’ll need specific special weapons for the final challenges.

The first of the four is the hulking Barbarian, who slowly stalks you in a dive bar and swings a cutlass-like sword up close. You must use your speed and wall-spring jump to outmanoeuvre him, which is easier said than done due to his hit box. The masked Bomberhead awaits in Act II and carries a chain blade that he twirls around and flings your way. This can be tricky to avoid as its direction is seemingly random, but your projectiles serve you well here and you can toss everything since you lose it all anyway. Act III’s Basaquer is much more daunting since he’s far more mobile and harder to hit. He somersaults overhead and kicks up a slew of destructible stones upon impact, but the flame wheel makes short work of him. Act IV forces you to battle two foes at once, each with their own health bar, in an enclosed space, with sprites flickering and the hardware limping along. The large, dog-like Kelbeross hop around and ruin your health bar, but you can position yourself under the pillars to stay safe and whittle them away at your leisure. Bloody Malth certainly cuts an intimidating figure with his ceremonial armour and lightning, but his shield is purely for show so just toss your projectiles until he’s done and don’t fall off the roof! The difficulty really spikes at the end of Act VI, where you face three bosses back-to-back, starting with Ryu’s brainwashed father, attacking an orb rather than his sprite to undo his brainwashing. Then, the demonic wraith Guardia de Mieux/Jaquio attacks, floating above and spitting two fireballs that are virtually impossible to avoid! Honestly, without the insta-kill jump-slash, I have no idea how you’re supposed to beat this guy so be sure to have that item when you reach him or you’ll have to play through Act VI again! Finally, a Xenomorph-like demon represents your final challenge. This is a far easier battle, however, as all you must do is avoid or destroy the fireballs he rains down and attack his dome-like head and spiked tail to reveal his glowing heart, which must be destroyed to gain victory.

Additional Features:
There’s nothing else on offer in Ninja Gaiden, unfortunately. Not even a high score table or additional difficulty modes, which is very rare for a game of this era. There are no cheat codes for the NES version, either, so the only additional features of note are the save state and rewind features offered by the Nintendo Switch. These are a godsend for this game and dramatically reduce the difficulty, replacing it with frustration as you constantly rewind back to undo mistakes, though it’ll be no help at all if you reach Jaquio with anything but the jump-slash!

The Summary:
I’d heard all about Ninja Gaiden and was well aware of its reputation as one of the hardest games of the 8-bit era of gaming. It was a daunting prospect, one I doubt I would’ve tackled without the Nintendo Switch’s modern-day features, but I’m glad that I did. The game is very visually impressive, making the most of the NES hardware and being particularly ambitious with its anime-style cutscenes and story-based narrative. While his sprite is very basic, Ryu Hayabusa exudes a lot of personality and has a remarkable range of movement. There are a lot of special attacks on offer to help keep the game interesting and fun, though it’s incredibly satisfying to slash enemies into an explosion of fireworks with your katana. The wall-spring mechanic was inspired, adding an extra layer of verticality and fun to the otherwise simplistic platforming, with my only note being that I would’ve liked to see more of it! The enemies wore out their welcome very quickly, unfortunately, both visually and with the slew of enemies and projectiles reaching obnoxious levels simply to frustrate players and encourage further rentals. I much preferred the big, more fearsome bosses, though even they are handicapped by a lack of attacks and animation frames. While environments aren’t anything too innovative, I liked how the game emphasised high walls and pillars at times, even if many were purely there to mess up your jumps. The challenge offered by the platforming is truly taxing and I’m sure it tested many NES kids back in the day. The rewind and save states help with this, but you still need a lot of skill, luck, and trial and error to deal with everything happening on the screen. I had a lot of fun with Ninja Gaiden, even in its more frustrating moments, and I was impressed by a lot of it, even when the hardware struggles at times. However, I would’ve liked to see a bit more from the game, be it a bonus round, difficulty options, or more emphasis on the jumping and climbing.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Was Ninja Gaiden a beloved addition to your NES library? How did you fare with the game’s challenge and did you ever beat it on original hardware? What did you think to Ryu’s wall-spring jump and special attacks? Did you struggle in the penultimate battle against Jaquio? Which game in the franchise is your favourite and would you like to see the original series re-released on modern consoles? Let me know your memories and thoughts on Ninja Gaiden in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other retrogame reviews on the site.