Some times you see a trailer or screenshot and you immediately know who made the game. Such was the case with Shadow of the Ninja Reborn. I’ve been a fan of every single re-release of Tengo Project and their unmistakeable style, so I was extremely excited when I saw my first glimpse into what would be a new Tengo Project game.
However, unlike the rest of Tengo Project’s games, my experience wasn’t all sunshines and rainbows from the get go. Shadow of the Ninja Reborn is vastly different from the NES source material. With it came some intentional design choices that rubbed me the wrong way at the beginning. But over time, I peeled the different layers and discovered the treasure underneath it all. So join me, as I peel the layers for you and hopefully convince you to give this game a go!
Developer: NatsumeAtari
Platform: Steam
Release date: August 29, 2024
Price: $19.99
Shadow of the Ninja was a NES title released in 1990. It was a lauded action platformer that many consider a hidden gem. Often praised for it’s multiplayer experience and a challenging but fair difficulty level. Despite it’s high praise, it went under the radar for the most part. What makes it exciting is that we got a remake after 34 years!
Remastering a Classic
Shadow of the Ninja Reborn is a fully fledged remake of the original NES title. Stages, enemies and even weapons have been reimagined in the trademark Tengo Project style. Not only that, but a whole new level has been added as well as some additional mechanics.
Immediately apparent is the Tengo Project graphical style. The game is filled to the brim with gorgeous pixel art. Enemies, stages and the player have been completely reimagined to a more modern style. This is especially impressive when you consider that Tengo Project’s previous titles were all 16-bit era games, so the improvements weren’t as noticeable as the ones in this game.
Shadow of the Ninja Reborn went through an extensive glow up and at points even a complete redesign. The original game used black backgrounds extensively, but in Reborn, many of those were swapped with completely new background art. Some enemies even increased in size dramatically! Like the shield gunner which is now a hulking robot reminiscent of the first boss of Wild Guns.
90s Gameplay in 2024
If there is a potential dealbreaker in this title, it is definitely the controls. Modern action titles are considerably faster. They typically feature fast and responsive controls. It is also common for them to feature ways to seamlessly link your actions into each other, or even to cancel one into another such as cancelling an attack into a dash.
Instead, Shadow of the Ninja Reborn opts for a more deliberate commitment based style. Performing an action locks you into said action until it finishes. It feels slow and clunky at first, but you eventually understand how each action was designed with a clear cost and benefit. An example being the chain which has great range and hits multiple times, but locks you in place until the chain finishes contracting.
And when you dabble in more advanced mechanics, you understand even more the intentions behind each action. Back to the chain example, while it has good range and hits multiple times, it’s more useful when hitting at close range because it will score more hits, but also puts you closer to danger. It’s a risk you need to assess, and without animation cancels, your decision is final. Then you notice how you enemies appear under you whole on thin platforms and your chain won’t hit down. Or that’s what you might think at first, because in reality, you can quickly press jump and chain in quick succession to do an instant air attack.
The Floor is Glue
The best way I can describe how the platforming feels would be to say it’s weighty and sticky. You can feel with each jump the weight if your character. It feels off at first, especially compared to more modern instant jumps, but over time you get used to the timing of your jumps. Landing is a little sluggish as well, with your character needing to land instead of being able to run instantly.
But the one thing that really messes me up is how your character always latches into ceilings and thin floors. If you’re unfortunate enough to jump close to a pipe or platform, your character will automatically latch into it. This is especially bad if you were trying to jump and attack, as your only attack while latched is a kick that’s both weak and short. Grabable surfaces end up being as much of a threat as the enemies themselves. Luckily, you won’t latch if you were already in the middle of an attack, which once again goes to show that this was intentional.
Could You Not Stick to Surfaces for One Second?
The same goes for ledge grabs. Your character has a tendency to stick to these when you don’t want to, and ignore them when you do want to. Even worse is that clambering will make you overshoot the ledge, which sometimes means falling if the floor wasn’t wide enough or even bump into enemies that weren’t even close to begin with. You do have some control after the initial jump arc, but sometimes that’s too late.
I have mixed feelings about this because the platforming feels snappy when you intend to, especially on vertical spaces. However, in every other scenario it just feels like you are desperately avoiding hard surfaces. A good compromise would have been to only latch while you hold a direction, like Up for the ceilings. You can already phase through them a little if you were in the middle of a slash, so I don’t see why not expand that to give the player more agency as to when and where they want to grab.
Reviewer BTS
Usually when I’m reviewing games, I like to play them with pen and paper in hand to take notes. During my first couple of hours, my notes consisted mostly of my gripes with the movement and the feeling of the combat. “I HATE THIS GAME” was one of the notes that I had. Can’t really blame myself too much though, as a fan of action platformers I was caught off guard by how little I can play the blazing fast style that I’m accustomed to.
Dashing felt slow and I couldn’t cancel out of attacks. Attacks couldn’t be linked to each other, like how a jump slash locks you out of a downward thrust for a period of time. Even the beautiful Tengo sprite work started getting in the way with backgrounds that were hard to discern from the foreground.
Truth to be told, the only reason I kept playing was because I was committed to writing this review. Without this incentive, I would have just walked away from the game. But I kept playing, and eventually it all started to make sense. I went from having rage sessions to genuinely being addicted to the gameplay. My mind went from “This is Tengo’s worst game” to “This is another amazing Tengo game!”.
I know it’s a hard ask for most players to ask them to be miserable for a couple of hours until the game clicks. Game time is precious and meant to bring you joy. But what I can say is that behind this brutal learning curve, there is a fantastic game!
Get Equipped
With everything mentioned so far, it would be enough to create a complete game, however, Tengo decided to add a completely new system to this remake: the equipment system.
Throughout the stages, you will find item pick-ups and some of them will be equipment. Equipment comes in all shapes and sizes! From good and reliable shurikens, to laser and chainguns, to even consumable healing items. There’s a great variety of weapons to experiment with, and you can carry 7 or so at a time, so you build your own custom loadout.
The catch is that the equipment system, much like the basic combat and movement systems, feels clunky to use at first. The difference being that unlike everything else, this one stays clunky. One reason being that the weapons used have heavier animation commitments than your regular attacks without a proportionate payoff. But the real reason is that equipping them is a slow process that requires you to hold the equipment button and see your character go through his bag and pull up the item. While the animation is charming, the wait time isn’t. And it gets longer if are trying to find an item from your list, as that requires you to hold the button and scroll through your list of items until you find the one you need.
Experts Only
While seeing the different kinds of weapons is amusing, the entire system feels like something that only the most hardcore players will appreciate. Speed runners come to mind, seeing as how they specialize in finding the optimal tools for the job. While the equipment in general didn’t do much to improve my experience, I look forward to seeing how expert players utilize them.
Funny enough, I think that’s a sentiment that is quietly shared amongst the many reviewers of this game. While not explicitly mentioned, don’t think that I haven’t noticed your weapon loadouts on the later levels! Most of us opt to stock up on healing items, and I’d wager a vast majority of the players will do so as well.
In a way, it makes me think of my own experience with Mega Man 11 and how my play throughs became much better once I saw the experts play. The double gear system had so many cool applications that I wouldn’t have found by myself. In a similar vein to Assault Suits Valken Declassified, I hope this game gets a sort of “super play” movie included at some point to showcase the equipment system!
Shopping for Loadouts
Even though I couldn’t fully utilize the equipment system, I did enjoy some of the nuances of collecting it! The weapons are scattered and sometimes hidden in secret boxes. This makes hunting for them fun in itself. But acquiring them isn’t enough! If you make it to the end of a stage with a weapon in your possession, that weapon will be unlocked for future play throughs! Given that this game has infinite continues, it gives players a good reason to try their best to make it through stages unscathed.
When you start a new game, you are given the option of choosing from your unlocked equipment to build your own loadout. The quality and quantity of the weapons you can bring is determined by your prep money. Money is earned by defeating enemies, clearing stages, and having high value equipment on your bag at the end of a stage. Your prep money will be the highest amount of money you’ve been able to collect before dying, or clearing the game!
If it sound like a fancy way of keeping track of score, that’s because it is! Or I’d say it is a more practical usage of score! Simply put, the higher you score, the better you can equip yourself next time.
Miscellaneous Things That I Liked
I couldn’t find a logical place to put all these, so I’m just gonna happy ramble for a bit!
I loved the consistency of the boss fights! They are not easy by any means, but bosses have strong and telegraphed tells that make the encounters more engaging. Getting hit never feels cheap or unfair. Pattern recognition is still king, but attentiveness will be rewarded. An example being Stage 5’s boss and his background swipe attack. During my hard mode play through, I noticed that while flying on the background he flew higher than usual, so I assumed I’d have to duck instead of jumping like the usual pattern and I was right!
Out of the 2 characters, Hayate felt better to play for me. His maneuverability in the air helped me feel at home, unlike Kaede who runs faster but moves slowly in the air. And the thing is, I saw many other reviewers play as Kaede. The fact that both characters found their target audience is really cool!
The music is amazing! I don’t think this was ever in doubt. Just like in previous Tengo projects, the soundtrack is just a joy to hear! A rare soundtrack that’s memorable and purchase worthy!
Closing Thoughts
Shadow of the Ninja Reborn really feels like a classic game. It offers a bold philosophy where everything is deliberate and mistakes have consequences. For better or for worse, it is a game that becomes more fun the better you are at it, and I believe this is the make or break point. It asks you to do things with a reason rather then mindlessly swing. It feels very different from modern games where almost every action has an emergency break.
But even then, Tengo is not as merciless as it appears to be. The checkpoint system is extremely generous. You have unlimited continues and your only punishment is to respawn without weapons or equipment. Even when you continually die, the game offers a helping hand and keeps upgrading your healing gear. It really is rooting for you to get better and discover the treasure at the end of the rainbow. And believe me, it is absolutely worth it!
Additional note: Tengo Project developers mentioned during a Q&A that they are considering adding an “assist option”. It might add cancels and grant invincibility on your sprint. Said mode hasn’t been implemented at the time of writing.
