Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

The Good
It's crisp, it's fast and it's sharp. The controls, the Genesis' strong point at the time, are a breeze. You can make your character on the screen hop around, bounce against walls and perform mid-air flips while throwing shurikens without a pain.

Great! The gameplay? Flawless.

Different levels, different enemies with different attack patterns. Very little repetition. Your character can perform "kias" that'll wipe everything off the screen, he can ride a horse and is surf-savvy too.

But above everything else... it's fast!

The Bad
Nothing I can think of. Well... the sound is what you'd expect from a Genesis game: It's all "Shwoof" and "Pwoof" (If you've ever owned a Genesis, you know what I mean.)

Besides that, there's nothing to complain about. The game is very well balanced. Not too hard, not too easy.

The Bottom Line
It's basically pure Genesis-bliss: It's fast, looks good and leaves your gamepad all sweaty.

When you're a kid, you're very dogmatic about the selection of games you rent. This one I wanted to rent all the time. I play it today and remember why I did.

The Good
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, is not only the best in the series, but quite possibly the best ninja game ever made. Furthermore it is one of the best games of the 16-bit era. In Shinobi III, the evil syndicate Neo Zeed is back and out for our favorite ninja’s blood, it’s up to Joe Musashi, to stop there evil schemes and save Neo Tokyo.

The game play’s wonderfully, even 10 years later. Shinobi, runs, jumps, casts magic, slices, and dices. It all controls perfectly. And even gets to ride a horse and surf. In classic Shinobi style you fight your way through stages that all end with a boss battle. And a cool manga style scene of Joe finishing the job.

The music and sound is all good, while the score is not composed by Yuzo Koshiro, it is still good, the sound effects are all on track as well.

The graphics were good for the time and are still impressive. It is one of the best looking Genesis games and 16-bit games in general.

The Bad
The bad, well other it being to short and particularly tough in some spots, nothing else stands out.

The Bottom Line
The one ninja game to rule them all. Shinobi III, was and still is a blast to play, if you own a Genesis and do not own this game then you have to pick it up. Play the rom if you have to just play it.