Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master was developed by Sega for the Mega Drive back in 1993. Being third in the series (duh), has this ninja slowed down to a screeching halt?

Back in Feudal Japan, the evil crime syndicate Neo Zeed has come back to threaten mankind with the Shadow Master leading the pack. Our Shinobi protagonist, Joe Musashi senses their presence and is ready to fight his evil arch-nemesis once again. This is a pretty cliche storyline, but it was told through a short cutscene which made it sound quite interesting. Sorry to say I can’t say that about the game itself.

From what I’ve been reading, Shinobi III was known to be visually outstanding and fast-paced. Up until now, I believe that is only half correct. The game is all about side scrolling action, pitting you against hoards of enemies that look quite similar to one another. Musashi is armed with several weapons, though some can only be activated (sorry for incorrect verb preferences) at certain distances of an enemy. For the latter of the game, players will be using shurikens, which are lethal projectile weapons. From the main menu’s option, you can choose how many you can arm yourself with, but it maybe questionable why the game even has this option (you even have the option to have none, which isn’t practical decision in my opinion). Musashi also has close-quarter weapons, but they seem useless compared to the shurikens.

Why are they useless you say? Despite given a couple options to eliminate a enemy, the game feels more lenient on one method and that’s the shurikens. With those, you can avoid enemy contact completely by just killing them at their camping spots. Same can be said about bosses which have patterns of attacks and defenses. It makes the game much more repetitive, but it’ll be a lot easier. Swords and martial arts is admittedly more fun, but it doesn’t work well in Shinobi 3. Nearly all the enemies have shurikens as well, so trying to reach them without getting hit may take some time. Even worse is how close you have to be in order to activate a close-quarter move. Since the shuriken and sword share the same button, you could potentially hit them with a projectile before you sword gets coated with blood. Also, you get stunned for a second when you touch them.

Shinobi III also has rail side scrolling levels which can become even more painful than ordinary missions. Riding on a horseback, enemies will be literally flying at you and you must make quick decisions on how to take them out. Bosses will woefully destroy you because of how tight horse mechanics can be in this game.

Visually, this game looks quite nice. Making good use of sprites and dynamic weather, Shinobi III is pretty and definitely has a dark tone, which makes sense looking at the story. Character models are detailed well, but I wish they varied more, since you’ll see repetitious enemies.

Shinobi III is a mediocre side scrolling game that isn’t bad, but sure is questionable. Because of some poor combat mechanics, the experience becomes repetitive and downright tedious. The game is passable, but no way can it be recommendable.

Overall Score: 6/10