Franchise Reboots Entry #31: Shinobi (3DS)

The reaction
to Shinobi for 3DS after its
announcement was one of the most pathetic knee-jerk reactions to a game no
one played yet this year.

 

This
happened for multiple reasons, though one of them was at least slightly valid. Feel free to criticize
the game’s looks, because it’s far from one of the most graphically impressive
titles to release for 3DS. In fact, yes, it’s pretty damned ugly. Anyone who
takes one glance at it can immediately tell it was originally intended for DS,
but was likely moved to 3DS because of the former’s dwindling software market
(though there were still game’s releasing for it). Dismissing the gameplay because of that, though, is the
height of inanity; especially from a group of individuals who should know
better at this point.

 

That’s
because there was talent behind this game. Griptonite Games, who previously
handled some of the handheld Marvel Comics tie-ins from Activision, was responsible
for this Shinobi reboot. The console iterations of those games, which include
titles like X-Men Origins: Wolverine
and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, were
of varying quality, but their handheld counterparts were usually a good time —
sometimes even more than their big brothers. Griptonite abided by the
Metroidvania style of design for them, which always work well on a handheld.

 

Of course,
we also had some sillies basing the 3DS’ capabilities off of this game. These
are your usual internet crazies, so feel free to ignore these people lest their
inanity becomes toxic.

 

Now that the
game has released, it’s possible to gauge how good it is through reliable
opinions. The general consensus? It’s a pretty good game. My, who would have
thought!? The combat admittedly looked a little iffy in the trailers Sega
provided, but that’s not a good way of gauging the feel and flow of the action,
by far the most important factor. Being skeptical of how it will turn out is
fine; being a step short of saying “keep those dirty Gaijins away from my
Shinobi!” is silly talk. It already looked better than The Revenge of Shinobi (the GBA game) and Shinobi Legions, for instance. And the latter of those two came
from a Japanese developer, and was mediocre enough that Sega didn’t bother
publishing it in America (Vic Tokai released it here).

 

Griptonite
already started on the right foot with using the superlative Shinobi
III as the template for Shinobi (the art style notwithstanding). The
environments, attacking techniques, and mechanics are all inspired by that game’s
approach, though it takes inspiration from other games in the franchise too —
the 3D shuriken-throwing mini-game is right out of the old arcade game, for
instance. Attacking enemies themselves, though, is a little different — it
feels inspired by the PS2 reboot (which might be featured in a future entry).
It makes enemy encounters slower than in the older 2D games, but fortunately
not slow enough to hamper the pace. It also borrows the sword deflecting
mechanic from the aforementioned Legions. It was an interesting mechanic in an
otherwise unremarkable game, but the developers figured out a way to use it
here to give the game more depth.

 

The level
design is what really what stands out here, though. They’re designed to give
the player a tough-but-not unfair challenge that rewards skill, but it mostly
doesn’t feel punishing when they fail; “mostly” because if the player dies at a
boss, the game will force them to do the entire level over again. The game is
also pretty short, making it fortuitously about as long as Shinobi III. That
makes it a tough sell at $40, with a number of people claiming they could buy a
game with similar visual fidelity on iOS for $5 or less. That’s kind of a
terrible argument. It’s about $10 too high, but 2D games with the kind of
gameplay offered here aren’t exactly commonplace on iOS. Not to mention it’s
the kind of game that’s clearly played better with buttons.

 

Hopefully the
few gamers that purchase Shinobi for 3DS enjoy it, because for all we know it
might be Griptonite’s last “core” game. The
developer was purchased by Glu Mobile Inc. in August, which, as you could
have guessed from the name, is focused on mobile phone titles. It’s unlikely
that they’ll be able to provide anymore titles for dedicated handhelds, so we
may have lost another company to the other admittedly more profitable realm.
That’s a shame.