Poll What's The Best Shinobi Game?

shinobi 3 imo. doesn't have the weird difficulty spikes shadow dancer has, it's movement is much more refined and smooth compared to revenge or the game gear games, and it's simply one of the best looking and sounding genesis games. It's such a banger standout game that almost any 16 bit ninja game that came after it whether on real hardware or a newer indie game tends to take influence from it's foundations.

I’d have to revisit it, but I remember being pretty enthralled by Shinobi (PS2). The movement and attacks felt super fluid, from the bits I recall.

@Damo No Shadow Dancer on Master System?
I forget which is what, but I do recall between Genesis and Master System, one port was based on the arcade and the other was a new game with the same title.
Weird, it would seem the Game Gear Shinobi games have a title inconsistency. The two games are known as "The GG Shinobi" In Japan and retain the in-game titles in the west, yes? But the western boxarts drop "The GG" from the title.
Are they not Good Games?

@Damo But you have 3 versions of the OG Shinobi that are near identical? Are those being consolidated into one?

Personally I like Shinobi III the best. The surfing level just screams '90s and the controls feel the most refined in III. The early games (particularly the arcade game) feel like a reskin of Rolling Thunder, and just don't seem to control as fluidly as the later games.

GG Shinobi deserves a shout out too for the great way each ninja has their own special abilities. I need to get around to trying the sequel...

1. PS2
2. 3
3. 3DS

PS2 is just a really good action game, and then 3ds was really good but really hard, so I never had a positive score. I basically hate single run games without saves, and I think iirc shinobi 3 was that. But they made it a good difficulty, and it's just really fun. Contemporary critics complained about how easy it was, but those designers were forward thinking and focused on making an accessible experience.

I know 3 gets a lot of love in these, but I have a really soft spot for Revenge of Shinobi. It was a system seller to me for the Genesis. I played so much of it; especially the earlier levels LOL. It just had an edge that was very different from what was on SNES at the time. I remember feeling the opening 2 levels did a really good job of letting you feel like you were capable of doing awesome things before cranking up the difficulty and showing you just how lazy your timing and memory was.

Personally I think Shinobi 3 is the pinnacle of the series.

The PS2 Shinobi is also excellent, definitely one of the most stylish ninja games around. It's so satisfying when you take out like 5 guys at once and they all just fall to bits. It is damn hard tho, I've never completed it.

Never really was a Shinobi fan. Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 on the NES were sublime experiences for me and when i finally played Revenge of Shinobi on the genny, it differed too much from what i loved.
I never did play Shinobi 3 back then and recently had a go.
Shinobi 3 is incredible.

Alex Kidd in Shinobi World! I jest, but I do love that game. Shinobi III is my favourite though.

Not sure why the GBA game The Revenge of Shinobi is on here. Pretty sure that game has nothing to do with the series!

@Daggot Revenge of Shinobi is head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion as well. While I do like Shadow Dancer and Shinobi 3, all the elements line up with Revenge. The intro, the music(!), the pixel art, the level design, the sound fx. The Ninja Master laughing at you when you have to continue.

As weird as it may sound I was disappointed when I rented Shinobi 3 and it didn't have the same look and feel as Revenge. Shinobi 3 is a great game though, the huge bosses are really something else.

@Hexapus Now that you mention it, I had a similar initial reaction like that too. "Is this the right game?" Jumps in art direction and all.

Shinobi III is the obvious answer, but Shadow Dancer and especially Revenge of Shinobi have a special place in my heart. The latter is really tough, but satisfying to get right. And where else can you fight blatant rip-offs of Rambo, Batman, Spider-Man, Godzilla, and the Terminator, all in one game?

(Er, I mean, bald flamethrower dude, devil dude, Marvel™ Spider-Man™, a dinosaur skeleton, and an inexplicably uncensored Terminator... at least that's how it is in my copy.)

Still need to give the GG and PS2 games a proper try- they both look good!

I'll say Shinobi III but, I never played any of the Shinobi games after the Genesis era.

For me it's Shinobi 3. It's such a great game and I play it often. It's amazing it turned out so well as it got off the a rocky start and they scrapped a lot of it. At least they had the right people on it to fix it. I missed its release at first and was surprised to see it when I bought some used games from a friend. That was one of the games I played most on my Nomad.

But the Shinobi series is very good overall. I had some trouble getting into Revenge of Shinobi at first, but I came to appreciate it. I used to watch that game's attract mode in stores before I had a Genesis. It was mesmerizing. I played some Shadow Dancer in the arcades, but I think the Genesis version is a better game and I enjoy that a lot as well. The original arcade Shinobi is still very good. I had the Master System version when it was new and that's worth playing as well. And then the two GG Shinobi games are excellent, and may both be the best games on that platform.

I did play some Shinobi Legions, but after Shinobi 3, something seemed off about it, but it wasn't bad. And I've sampled a bit of the PS2 Shinobi, and its spin off Nightshade. I liked what I experienced of the concept and would like to play more.

As much as Shinobi 3 improved the gameplay over Revenge, I still give Revenge the nod - the music, enemy and stage variety just give it the edge imo.

After originally being disappointed with Shadow Dancer (Genesis) when it first came out, I find myself like it even more than 3 now.
As a fan of the original Shinobi arcade, I’ve come to appreciate all the callbacks it does to that and the arcade version of Shadow Dancer (hostages, 1 hit kills, etc). It’s one of those games where, once you get good - it really shines.

All 3 Shinobi games on the Genesis are top tier - but i guess i like them best in the order they were released!

Only played The Revenge of Shinobi / The Super Shinobi to be honest so I will say that as after that I moved on to the Super Nintendo.
Though I may try Shinobi III in the future considering how many people seem to love it and have recommend it here.

The four main early games are all masterpieces:

Shinobi (Arcade)
Revenge of Shinobi (SMD)
Shinobi III (SMD)
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (SMD)

And fans of those should also check out the following brilliant Shinobi clones:

Shadow Gangs (Switch)
Surprise Attack (Switch)

Surprise Attack is actually a 1990 arcade game by Konami that was released yesterday for the Switch! Great game - it's Shinobi in outer space.

It also must be said that Shinobi itself is a clone of Namco's spy action masterpiece Rolling Thunder. That game and its awesome sequel Rolling Thunder 2 are on the Namco Museum collection for Switch, as well as Sly Spy, which is a great clone.

@BionicDodo You mean GBA, not 3DS

@TheWingedAvenger Ah yes, not sure where that 3DS came from! Edit made, thanks.