Shinobi Preview
Sega revives its classic ninja franchise on the PlayStation 2.
Back in the days before games took a realistic approach in portraying ninjas, the Japanese assassins were represented as aggressive killing machines with all the subtlety of the soldiers in Contra. One of the most memorable ninja franchises was Sega's Shinobi, which appeared in arcades, on Sega's home consoles, and on a few non-Sega consoles such as the TurboGrafx-16 . The games centered around Joe Musashi, a ninja out to fight against the forces of evil, and featured side-scrolling gameplay with some vehicle sequences thrown in for variety. Despite its various incarnations, the series went quiet and appeared to fade into the annals of gaming history following the the Saturn game in 1995. Fortunately, as Sega mines its catalog of games for multiplatform development, the series is being reborn courtesy of Overworks. We had a chance to try out a previewable build of the game to see how the series was making the leap to 3D.
Shinobi's makeover involves more than a simple cosmetic switch to the third dimension and extends to every facet of the game. Rather than feature the return of Joe Musashi, the game focuses on a new ninja named Hotsuma, who's having a really bad run of luck. The poor guy is the last surviving member of the Oboro clan, which was unceremoniously wiped out, and he's being tapped to investigate some seriously bizarre occurrences in Tokyo. As if that weren't bad enough, the evil forces behind the strange goings-on have reanimated his clan and are using them to stop Hotsuma. The final kick in the pants comes when Hotsuma's sword is cursed. While you'd think a powerful ninja sword with a curse would come in handy when you're facing off against your undead brothers, the fact that it will drain your life if not fed the energy from a kill makes it a dubious comfort at best.
Shinobi's structure is pretty straightforward and stays true to the previous Shinobi games. You'll go through a linear series of themed levels that are broken up into at least two smaller segments by barriers that drop once you've cleared the area of all enemies. As you progress through each level you'll find a boss character that will have to be dispatched before you can go any further. Along the way, slain enemies will drop shuriken, energy to be absorbed by your sword once it's cursed, and health power-ups. You'll also be able to find scrolls that let you use magic and Oboro clan coins that will unlock extras in the game.
While the road to the truth will be a challenging one, Hotsuma has a respectable set of skills tailor-made to dispatch the forces of evil. Luckily you won't need to be too much of a ninja to get a handle on them. You'll move Hotsuma with the left analog stick and jump with the O button. The R1 button will lock you on to your enemies and keep your movement relative to them as long as the lock is active. R2 will let you cycle between enemies once you've locked on to one. You'll have two attack options to choose from during a fight: The square button will let you use Hotsuma's sword to slash at enemies, while the triangle button will pitch shuriken at your foes. As in the 2D installments in the series, you'll be able to fire off a wide arc of shuriken by hitting the triangle button during a double jump. The L2 button will trigger whatever spell Hotsuma currently has selected, and you'll be able to cycle through your stock by using the D-pad. A new addition to gameplay is the dash move, which is triggered by the X button.
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