Shinobi

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Shinobi
System(s): PC Engine
Publisher: Asmik
Developer: Dual
Licensor: Sega
Developer(s) of original games: Sega
Original system(s): Arcade (Sega System 16)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1989-12-08 ¥6,8006,800 AS01001
Non-NEC versions Arcade Amiga Amstrad CPC Atari ST Commodore 64 IBM PC Master System MSX Nintendo Entertainment System ZX Spectrum

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Shinobi (忍) is originally a Sega System 16 arcade game developed by Sega and released in 1987. Asmik ported the game to the PC Engine exclusively for the Japanese market in 1989.

Story

In the modern day, a crime syndicate called Zeed is kidnapping the children of a ninja clan. A young ninja named Joe Musashi has been tasked with retrieving the children and infiltrating the secret base of this evil organization.

Gameplay

The game is a side-scrolling action platformer in which the player controls ninja Joe Musashi, who is on a mission to stop the Zeed terrorist organization, which has been kidnapping students of his clan. Musashi must rescue all of the hostage children in each stage (by finding and touching them), then find the exit. Because Musashi can only sustain one hit before dying, the player is encouraged to move through each stage and clear enemies deliberately and methodically.

Musashi walks with ← or →. He can crouch with ↓ or perform a crouching walk with ↙ or ↘, which allows him to sneak under enemy projectiles. He jumps with Ⅰ. Stages are designed with multiple vertical levels, and Musashi can jump between them with ↑+Ⅰ and ↓+Ⅰ. Musashi cannot interact with a level unless he is standing on it (including attacking or being attacked by enemies or rescuing hostages). Musashi fights using an unlimited supply of shurikens, which he throws with Ⅱ. He can use his ninja magic once per stage by pressing  SELECT , which attacks every enemy on screen at once.

Hostages are guarded by enemies that include mohawked punks, mercenary thugs wielding knives or guns, other ninjas, and Mongolian swordsmen. If Musashi touches most enemies, he is bumped back without being harmed (with ninjas being a notable exception because of their katanas). However, he is killed in one hit if he is struck by an enemy's weapon (including projectile attacks) or killed instantly if he falls into a bottomless pit. Then the stage restarts with the same enemies as before but with the hostages remaining rescued. When the player runs out of lives, the game can be continued from the start of the same level up to four times. Extra lives are awarded for every 30,000 points earned.

Ninjutsu spells

Ninjutsu techniques can only be used once per stage and clear the screen of all enemies or greatly damage a boss. A different technique is chosen for the player on each stage.

	分身の術 (Jutsu of Alter Ego)
	Summons duplicates of Musashi to attack all enemies on screen.
	稲妻の術 (Jutsu of Lightning)
	Summons bolts of lightning to destroy all enemies on screen.
	竜巻の術 (Jutsu of Tornado)
	Summons whirlwinds to destroy all enemies on screen.

Missions

The first mission has three stages, but all the subsequent missions have four stages. The last stage of each mission is a boss encounter.

	Slums
	Boss: Ken Oh
	Weapons Factory
	Boss: Mandara
	Outpost
	Boss: Lobster
	Enemy Base
	Boss: Masked Ninja

Versions

The PC Engine version is closer to the arcade original than the Sega Master System version (and in turn, more faithful to the arcade version than the Nintendo Famicom version, which is based on the Master System version) in both gameplay and graphical fidelity. It retains one-hit deaths rather than adding a health gauge, and the player must rescue all of the children in the stage before exiting. However, Musashi loses his melee attacks and the ability to power-up his weapons by rescuing certain hostages (which upgrades his shurikens to a gun and his punches and kicks to a katana in the arcade version). Because of the removal of melee attacks, Musashi can no longer hit enemies in close range when they are guarding and must instead wait for them to drop their guard to hit them with a shuriken. This version of the game also omits the entire second mission in the harbor and the first-person shuriken-throwing bonus stages, which are retained in the other ports. The player is awarded extra lives at certain point thresholds since they can no longer be earned in bonus stages.

Magazine articles

Main article: Shinobi/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

PC Engine, JP
Cover
Card File:Shinobi PCE HuCard JP Manual.pdf Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 bc655cf3 MD5 1659d9fa2ed7628d342fd7c7fbe6d439 SHA-1 c219f8477dc2b34b53c25a419332595835d1f5ec	384kB		Card (JP)

References

Sega Retro has more information related to Shinobi