Natsume Atari’s remake of Shadow of a Ninja now known as Shadow of a Ninja Reborn (but also known as Blue Shadow) is a beautiful pixel art tribute to the glory days of action platforming. Shadow of a Ninja Reborn is a tough-as-nails action-fest but is it worth checking out?
Players in Shadow of a Ninja Reborn will take on the role of either Hayate or Kaede as they set out to defeat an evil dictator in New York City. Both Hayate and Kaede both play very similarly with some small differences in the way they move in-game. Shadow of a Ninja Reborn is an action platformer and because of this fact, the game’s control scheme is one of the most important things in the entire game.
This however is also where the game will either frustrate and infuriate players or it will feel challenging and rewarding. If you lack patience, this game is going to anger you. If however, you put in some time to learn the controls and get used to them, you’ll be able to handle everything the game throws at you and will be able to complete it. The game features an Arcade mode and a Time Attack mode and players can play either single-player or multiplayer.
Shadow of a Ninja Reborn is extremely punishing. Make a wrong move and you will be met with a “Game Over” screen. In fact, within the first hour of playing the game, I probably ended up dying at least 20 times because of platforming mishaps or simply not being able to defeat some enemies.
For example, an early enemy fires off a spinning saw blade at you. If you’re in the wrong position at the wrong time, that saw blade will eat away at your HP and push you back. You will then have to put yourself at risk again before being able to attack the enemy. Angle yourself correctly though and unleash a flurry of sword slashes or range attacks and you’ll make short work of the enemy.
Shadow of the Ninja Reborn plays out like that throughout the entire game. It’s all about precision dodging, being in the right place at the right time and timing your attacks incredibly well.
This is also the game’s greatest flaw. The jump mechanic in the game feels extremely strange. Especially when trying to traverse platforms and climbing up or down different floors in the game. If you’ve played other side-scroller titles, you’ll understand how frustrating it is to have a game which seemingly throws logic out the window when it comes to vertical movement. Natsume Atari need to address this issue with the game’s control scheme because as it stands right now, it will definitely put a lot of gamers off wanting to continue with the game if they purchase it on Steam.
With that said, it’s not a complete disaster. With some trial and error, you will get used to it but in 2024, there really shouldn’t be any excuse for this. Especially not since modern gamers expect a lot more from games.
Another quality-of-life aspect that would immensely improve the game is a quick rewind feature. With the number of times you die in the game, having the ability to quickly rewind your actions would be a game changer and would infinitely improve a player’s level of enjoyment of the game. The downtime of viewing the “Game Over” screen and then having to restart from a checkpoint and slog through multiple enemies every time just to get back to where you were becomes extremely off-putting, especially when there are some really nasty enemies along the way.
Shadow of the Ninja Reborn emphasizes the use of healing items to keep you alive. This is made quite clear to you by the way that your characters take quite a bit of damage from enemies and will have to rely on healing items to sustain themselves as they go deeper into the game’s six different levels. Picking up additional weapons also helps quite a bit with some being incredibly useful because of their effects. Bombs and shurikens really help to take out pesky enemies from a longer range and are quite handy in a pinch.
The game features a great soundtrack with some adrenaline-pumping electro music and the sound effects are on-point. Graphically Shadow of a Ninja Reborn is visually stunning with a beautiful modernized pixel art style and top-notch sprite work filled with flashy effects.
Overall, Natsume Atari has created a fun, action-packed side-scrolling platforming game in Shadow of a Ninja Reborn but it lacks quality of life features that are present in some competing titles in the genre. The game definitely needs a quality-of-life update to iron out some minor grievances and fix the jumping controls but other than that, this is a title that’s great fun to play Co-Op with a friend or family member. Find yourself a co-op buddy and give the game a try. You might end up having a blast but do be weary of the control scheme that feels sub-optimal right now.
Shadow of a Ninja Reborn Trailer
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