Shadow of the Ninja Reborn Review

Shadow of the Ninja Reborn is a re-imagining of Natsume’s classic NES 2-player action game, Shadow of the Ninja, originally released in 1990. This remake features the return of both protagonists, Hayate and Kaede. The game is set in the year 2029 where the evil Emperor Garuda has invaded the USA and has established a stronghold in the middle of the nation’s largest city. It’s up to Hayate et Kaede to infiltrate it and stop Garuda once and for all.

Shadow of the Ninja Reborn is a 2D action platformer where players follow the typical pattern of going through levels, beating bosses and moving on to the next. Levels are separated in three areas; whch also include sub-bosses. As you go through levels, you’ll find breakable silver boxes that contains various power-ups. Along with you default sword attack, you have a Kusarigama whcih also for some mid-range attacks. And you can also jump and dash.

Power-ups can either be sub-weapons or health refills. The game does offer a decent variety in terms of consumable sub-weapons; shurikens, shotguns(!), two handed swords, bombs; just to name a few. They’ll have all some usages at various points. Some bosses are also weak to some of them; for example, the metallic worm in Stage 2 can be knocked down with 7 hits of the two handed sword; yet take forever with your default weapon.

Killing enemies also rewards players with coins that be used to purchase consumables in the game’s Options menu before jumping into the game. As you complete levels, you’ll unlock new items to purchase with your hard earned coins. And the development team also made sure to include the original game’s 2 player co-op mode.

Shadow of the Ninja Reborn’s visual presentation is a lot more cartoony than the original NES title but as a whole it does look great. Highly colorful levels and detailed characters and environments makes this game shine. Enemy design is also decent; enemy variety changes as you progress through the levels as they get progressively harder and more annoying. The soundtrack is a remixed version of the original soundtrack, but unfortunately falls flats and is quite forgettable as opposed to the memorable score crafted by Iku Mizutani & Kouichi Yamanishi. Mizutani returned for this remake, but it doesn’t hit the mark as much.

Unfortunately, these ninjas aren’t very nimble. Both of them, despite Kaede’s faster running animation, walk and move like they have cement boots which makes trying to move around and dodging enemy attacks/projectiles harder than it should be. Also makes platforming overly risky and makes you second guess every jump because you don’t know if you’ll make it. Also, the overall gameplay is made for slow progress; unlike the original where you can run and attack, this one bombards you with enemies and if you try to run for it, you won’t make it halfway through the first screen.

It’s always do a few steps, take out enemies, more steps, take out more enemies; rinse and repeat. It’s a bit of a nuisance given ninjas usually move fast and kill faster. Also the sub-weapon selection mechanic is a chore. If you press RB, you’ll get the first sub-item available; pressing it again re-assigns the original sword. But if you have multiple sub-items, you need to hold down RB and then select which one you want, but the game doesn’t stop so it leaves you vulnerable to attacks. The game’s biggest enemy is insanely wide gaps barely jumpable.

Do I recommend Shadow of the Ninja Reborn? Well it depends. While they did make a few good improvements like the variety of sub-items, they made levels too long, with an unforgiving checkpoint/continue system, and forces players, as ninjas, to take it slow. Bottom line is if you played the original and loved it, this will feel like a completely unnecessary re-imaging. But if you haven’t played the original, this is a decent action game if you can get around its flaws.