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Reader review by joseph_valencia
June 30, 2009 “Shadow Dancer” is an ugly abortion of a game. It is (allegedly) the sequel to the 1987 arcade classic “Shinobi”, and I imagine this is what inspired the so-called “Revenge of Shinobi”, because I would seek vengeance too if somebody associated me with this piece of garbage. Did Sega know what a terrible game they had on their hands? Was that why they called it “Shadow Dancer” instead of “Shinobi II”? I’d like to think that Joe Musashi himself jumped off the screen, pointed some throwing knives at the Sega executives, and demanded a name change to preserve the integrity of the title “Shinobi”. I’ve never played “Shinobi Legion” or whatever the Sega Saturn game was called, but I can’t imagine it being this bad. No, this is the worst of the “Shinobis”.On paper, “Shadow Dancer” sounds like a “slam dunk”. More of what made “Shinobi” good? Okay. Yeah, there’s jumping and ninja stars and melee attacks, but this time you have to disable bombs instead of rescuing hostages. Instead of the Mongols, we now have these cool shirtless dudes who throw their shields like projectiles. The graphics are BIGGER, to allow more detail and stuff. (Bummer that larger sprites means less space on-screen.) And now you have this wolf dog that does neat tricks, like jumping on enemies so you can get clear shots. Oh, did I mention the new ninja magic? It’s SOOOOOOOO awesome, because the screen shows a close-up of Joe Musashi as he chants the spell.
The problem is when you actually play the game. The first thing you notice is how ugly it is. The colors and the “texture” are all muddy, like someone smeared the screen with feces. The BIG characters look ridiculous. The original “Shinobi” wasn’t the prettiest game, but, darn it, it had a low-budget charm. The look here evokes “low-budget”, minus the charm. The sad thing is there’s a neat vision here of airports, train cars, boats, waterfalls, dank sewers…but it’s all for naught. The screen is too stuffed, claustrophobic to allow for dramatic vistas, and Musashi always looks a stone’s throw away from striking the Vulcan salute.
If you bother to look under the hood, to “see beyond” the ugliness, all you’ll find is a sluggish imitation of greatness. Joe Musashi’s jump is simply wrong. It’s been neutered. I often found myself trying to make a subtle leap over some incoming projectile only to land on them, because the game’s controls don’t allow the degree of freedom the original “Shinobi” had. The dog is a neat concept, but it’s poorly implemented. You activate him with “Down + Shoot”. What if you wanted to simply duck and shoot ninja stars, not sick the dog? Too bad, because you can only do both. All too often you will find yourself doing a ducking attack and your dog running straight into a trap, becoming “disabled”. Very unfortunate, since “Shadow Dancer” seems heavily designed around the dog, to the point that some areas are impractical to tread without “White Fang” at your side. With these awful controls, the game developers shoot their vision in the foot.
The “continue” screen even seems desperate. It tells me, “continue now and get two ninja magics!” I shrug. “Shadow Dancer” isn’t worth the effort. I can only muster the passion to write this review to warn others. Heed the warning, prudent reader.
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