Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (1990 Video Game) User Reviews

Way too easy!

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 6/10 · 19 April 2005]

Shadow Dancer is the story of Joe Mushashi and his faithful dog Yamoto. Together they go out and beat up the ruthless thugs of the Neo Zeed Corporation and it's boss the Union Lizard. It's a load of confusing nonsense and in the journey from Arcade to Genesis the plot seems to have been erased and events taking place in the game just seem like gobbledygook. All you really do in this game is jump around taking strange-looking villains out with Surikens.

To be honest, the arcade version of Shadow Dancer was much better. The graphics were far superior, the levels were cooler (levels such as the airport and junkyard are missing in this version) and the bad guys less weird.

Plus it's very, very short with only 5 levels all over in a few minutes. As it was such a cool arcade game it's shocking that a game so easy and tepid could end up on the Genesis. It was capable of much more than this and Shadow Dancer is really only a game for Shinobi completist.

It would seem that the 'Secret of Shinobi' was that Joe Musashi was in a really, really crap game

[Billyx7 · 30 May 2005]

Shinobi was always a hot license for Sega. After Joe Musashi's initial appearance in the Arcades in 1986, everyone wanted a piece of him. Shinobi was released on almost all of the major formats, and sold like hotcakes. Shinobi made his MegaDrive debut in 1989 with the Revenge of Shinobi, which, in terms of Shinobi games, was pretty good (especially compared to the god awful mess that was Cyber Shinobi).

And then Sega tarnished the name of Shinobi again. Poor Joe Musashi is being tossed around like a rag doll, and now he has been tossed into a large pile of turds. Which is exactly what Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is....nothing but a big, fat, steaming, stinky pile of turds. This game reeks. Get it away. It is a stain on what would have been a great MegaDrive game collection (mine that is, don't let it stain yours) I once suffered the curse of being an impulse buyer. Whenever I had money, I'd buy a game, I didn't care what game it was, as long as it was a new game. I bought this heap of turds for £20 along with other games at car boot sale. of course, once I got home, I was immediately in denial over whether it was crap or not. Shadow Dancer is the runt of the series. It's easy as hell, and it sucks to play. The Secret of Shinobi was that Joe Musashi was in a really, really crap game.

It makes Cyber Shinobi seem good Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is a bit of a graphical mess. It doesn't look as good as Revenge of the Shinobi, which came out a whole year earlier, yet, it uses a lot more colour. Joe himself looks stupid now, more like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man than the ninja he was in Revenge of Shinobi. Enemies are ugly and generic, no imagination put to work here at all. Backgrounds are nice and colourful, which is a bonus, except for the fact you don't want to play the game for more than 20 minutes. The game does, however, run a little smoother than it's older brother. A complete shame.

The soundtrack of Shadow Dancer isn't too shabby, being compiled of techno-ish toons which are easy on the ears, but then again, it's nothing memorable. Sound effects are bland and outright disgusting. To make things worse, they are limited too, so you'll be hearing the same awful sounds over and over and over again.

'So what is this supposed stinking heap of turds all about, stoney? I hear you cry. Well, for starters, Joe Musashi doesn't really have any big secrets. All the game is really about is a rather angry lizardman creatures taking over New York City, and taking various citizens of the Big Apple captive. Seeing Joe is the hero sort, he decides to rid the streets of the ninja scum, and be praised and such. Nothing to write home about.

Shadow Dancer screws part of the Shinobi formula up...you can only take one hit. In a cheap attempt to give the game higher difficulty, all Sega have done is increase the frustration level. So here we have Joe, who has obviously been weakened by staring in a bad game, taking on the bad ass ninjas of NYC. He has the edge over the average ninja these days...he has a dog. This white pooch is quite handy, but as weak as Joe, one hit, and you're canine friend is turned back into a lovable puppy. Joe still has his stock standard magical powers, but now, he can only handle one at a time, and you'd better not waste it.

Don't expect this one to last you long folks. Apart from the fact that it plays quite horrendously, it's also pretty short, and easy game. The cheap system of only letting you have one hit won't worry you too much after long. After you finish it, I guess you can always try to get 100% on the bonus stages, but why you would want to play through it again is beyond me.

Avoid it in any way you can. It drags the name of Shinobi through dirt, and then hangs it out to dry. Even Cyber Shinobi was better, and it was pretty damn bad.

1hko, needs full re-balance

[agof · 4/10 · 11 June 2023]

It's a re-make of the arcade game Shadow Dancer: kage no mai. As in, some of the mechanics are the same, but even Sega Mark III port has more in common with the arcade original. The original doesn't have shinobu kanji anywhere, so does it mean that that game is not a part of the shinobu series?

It's a short action platformer where you run, jump and attack. You throw stars but at point blank your character uses melee on the same button. There's also a screen-wide magicks. Your main goal is to save hostages until the time runs out, so killing all the enemies is not necessary. There is a cool gimmick that you can send your dog to distract, but since most of the enemies are immune to it it's barely useful. Especially since it is only contextual and slow to execute. The bonus levels give an amount of lives. If you just shoot near a wall you can get three.

It's a 1HKO game, but at least the saved hostages remain saved. Another cool thing is that enemies are not made of lava and you can bump into them, so you both stagger. That is a necessary mechanic if you want to play it like in the old days. You'll lose. Even if you memorize everything the combat is still purely RNG driven. Sometimes you hit enemies, sometimes you die, sometimes you bump, sometimes you die, sometimes you die, sometimes you die.

Playing this with the rewind functionality was kinda cool. At first. Because during the statue stage the game spawns multiple ninjas against you and they are utmost random and take a lot of beating. The boss of this stage is super annoying because of the mismatching heights. Then there's a dark level that you have to play blind. And then the last stage has a room full of the dumb-posterior ninjas, and then a room full of the dumb-posterior black ninjas and then the final boss spawns a ton of dumb-posterior ninjas. I was actually having fun playing with the rewind and i didn't even had to use it that often. Meaning that if there was a robust HP system it would be a solid game. But 3 rooms filled with RNG ninjas in a row really killed my enjoyment.

The hard mode turns off shurikens, but they don't matter anyway because everyone past the first level is immune. So the throwing stars don't matter, the dog doesn't matter and your life doesn't matter. This short game really needs a full re-balance, then it can be enjoyable. But as is, even with the rewind you will probably waste more runtime on fighting the last three unfair rooms, than on the whole game before it.

I also did the challenge and the achievement.