Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi

The Good
Shadow Dancer had superb graphics and gameplay and the levels were very interesting. The programmers were smart enough to make it different than the arcade version by giving it more elaborate levels and different graphics.

Some complained about the graphics being different than the arcade version. However, I've played the arcade version and in my opinion the arcade version is all about eye candy and little to do with replay value. Arcade games tended not to have deep play mechanics. If it had been exactly like the arcade most players would have played it a few times and never come back to it.

Shadow Dancer on the Genesis actually takes some skill and strategy and has more imaginative graphics and levels than the arcade version. Its more fun.

The Bad
Its very annoying that your character drops dead upon being hit one time by any projectile, when the character in Revenge of Shinobi could take several hits before dying.

Revenge of Shinobi had great play mechanics, such as being able to double jump and shoot multiple shurikens. This ninja can't do that. He couldn't do it in the arcade either, but its strange that he would have lost such advantages in a sequel.

The Wolf who accompanies you in the game is completely worthless. It actually only served to distract me and get me killed when I played the game.

The American and UK version of the cover art is the single worst example of cover art for any video game I have ever seen. Many people avoided this game simply because of it. Sega of America did some weird things.

The Bottom Line
If Revenge of Shinobi hadn't been so wonderful this game would have been more popular. Its still an awesome game and should not be missed.

8 out 10

If you like this one you'll probably like Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III.