The best ninja game of the '80's.
Shinobi's gameplay is actually similar to Namco's Rolling Thunder. You play as Ninja Joe and it's his goal to rescue all the kid hostages on each stage and fight the boss at the end of each mission. Joe can shoot out shruiken at defeat the enemies, and use his beastly ninja jumping skills to jump over a fence or on top of a platform. Joe can upgrade his shuriken to gun shots if he rescues enough kids on a stage. There's a timer, so you'd better be quick about finishing that stage if you want a good time bonus! Joe also has a special attack which he can use only once which is ideal if you're dealing with a troublesome boss.
The game is rather tough, as one hit can send Joe falling to the ground. When he dies, he goes right back to the beginning of the stage, so this game is definitely no cakewalk!
At the end of each round there's a bonus stage where Joe must shoot all the ninjas before they get too close. Shoot all the ninjas and you get an extra life.
The controls are pretty solid. Three buttons to jump, shoot a weapon and use a special attack. Pushing Up and Jump allows Joe to jump really high while pushing Down and Jump allows him to jump off a platform or on the other side of a fence.
The graphics overall are pretty good for 1987. Everything is animated fairly well and the game is fairly colorful. The music is also pretty good as well.
In the end, Shinobi turns out to be a pretty fun game. While the difficulty will put some people off, old-school arcade fans will love this game to death.