Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (1990)

at August 22, 2023

 

Shadow Dancer, fully titled Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, was released on December 1, 1990 in Japan, with subsequent releases in North America and Europe. The Mega Drive version was rereleased as Virtual Console game for the Wii and is included in the Sega Genesis Collection for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

The main character's identity, originally a nameless ninja in the coin-op game, differs between the supplement materials of the Mega Drive version. In the Japanese version, the ninja was given the name Hayate, who is identified as the biological son of Joe Musashi from the original Shinobi, whereas in the English localization the ninja is actually Joe Musashi himself. The companion dog is named Yamato in both versions. According to the back-story of both versions, the main character sought to avenge the death of a man named Kato, who was Hayate's mentor in the Japanese version and Musashi's student in the English version.

While the basic gameplay remained basically unchanged from the original coin-op game, the Mega Drive features all new stages and bosses, and a slightly different objective: instead of looking for time bombs, the player must now rescue hostages scattered around each stage. The bonus rounds were also changed from a first-person minigame to one in which the player must shoot down ninjas below them while skydiving from a building.