Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (1993) [GEN/MD]

“Should Shinobi fail before completing the mission, he will disappear before the dawn and vanish forever”
-‘Secret Manual of Oboro Ninjitsu’

This is my first article ever to be written. I’ve never written professionally before, but I have a LOT of experience in games, as many of the readers here probably also do. With that said, there are a lot of games that I thought about as my first game to write about. Folks might want to go for the popular Mario series. Maybe Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy. I would love to write about those titles because I have a lot to say, like many of us do. I wanted something a little unique though. Something that some folks have played but probably not quite as many. 

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is what I’ve chosen and is a great 2D side-scroller that, like everything in the late 80’s and 90’s, is packed with ninjas, surfing, and aliens. Released in 1993 on the Genesis and Mega Drive, the game was met with critical acclaim. You play as Joe Musashi, the same player character in the previous Shinobi game. You are on a mission to stop Neo Zeed, the evil criminal syndicate, and their leader, the Shadow Master, from building their evil army of alien mutants, ninjas, and soldiers and taking over the world. Today I’ll take a look back at it and grade it on how I feel about it in 2024.

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 8/10

One of the better-looking games on the Genesis, Shinobi III has great animations, very fluid movements and even cut scenes for the player to enjoy. Everything is aesthetically pleasing and there is no real clashing of imagery or colors. Very well done by the developers considering this was developed in the early 90’s. While most everything in the 80’s and 90’s, especially around Ninjas, was extra colorful and bright, the developers took a chance and went into a bit more of a gritty look to it. Nothing like what we would see today with a dark and gritty tone, but a color palette that would accentuate the darker tone of a ninja game. I would compare it more closely to Contra on the NES, using bold dark colors to mark its game away from other similar games at the time. Shinobi III does exactly this. 

For additional aesthetics, the developers make use of the 2D space to create a more cinematic experience by placing background set pieces, like trees or pillars and sometimes enemies, in front of the player character to give it almost a movie feel to the experience. While at times it can get in the way of viewing traps, it is pretty cool to see what was capable on the system in the early 90’s. 

Audio: 9/10

Fast paced and upbeat, the in-game music is very well done. The midi music takes you back to a time when you didn’t have fully orchestrated musical scores, but one person and a midi keyboard probably strung out and needed to pump out something that would fit in a 90’s ninja movie with an open license. I love the music in this game. It keeps the pace of the game moving really well, and each stage has a unique sound. Your shuriken have a very satisfying hit collision sound, thudding on your enemies. When activating your magical Ninjitsu, you are treated to a unique sound for each. Each level has its own set piece and its own accompanying musical number, with the Genesis sound chip playing a reverb ninja house beat in each level. It definitely helps keep the pace of the game up.  

Gameplay: 8/10

Gameplay, I think for most retro players, is the big factor above all else on whether a game is worth revisiting. It’s why my 7-year-old plays Super Mario World almost every day. It’s why my oldest continues to play Dark Souls after he’s beaten it who knows how many times. It’s why my middle son plays Sonic 3 any chance that he gets. Gameplay for retro, or in Dark Souls’ case, older games, is king. Shinobi III takes the concept of being a stealthy ninja and throws it out the window for a whole other approach. You throw shuriken that can be powered up to have fire attached to them. You can run and slash your opponents. As the player, you have the ability to choose how you move through a level, either walking and throwing shuriken or feeling like a blazing ninja running through each stage doing running sword attacks on your enemies. You have a limited use magic attack that can do massive damage to a boss or clear a screen if you feel like you’re getting overwhelmed. In all cases, for each stage and each enemy you come across, you feel good as you move through each stage. For my most recent playthrough I ran through 80% of the stages doing my running sword attacks through each enemy and continuing to run after each one. 

Uniqueness: 7/10

I’m taking this one a little higher than I think it probably should be. Side Scrollers have been around since the Atari days. Ninja games too. Heck even Ninja Gaiden had the special attack aspect. Because of its blend of range and melee attacks, the ability to choose specific special attacks depending on the situation, and of course ninja surfing levels I’m giving it the rating that it has. Any game that has the stones to put surfing and ninjas in their game that isn’t Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles deserves the bump for it.  

Accessibility: 7/10

With such a limited set of commands that a player can do it’s pretty easy to get into the groove of what it is you need to do. Move right. Throw shurikens to kill baddies. Push C for special attack. Where it struggles, like most games from the 90’s, is that it never really explains some of the more in-depth stuff you can do. You have to either have the instruction manual, which may be rare in today’s market if you’re using original hardware or you have to accidentally figure it out. Luckily, because of the limited button set on a Genesis/Mega Drive, it was all pretty easy to figure out. 

Challenge: 6/10

Grading difficulty can be a tricky spot. Does it score high for being too easy or too difficult? I would grade it based on how much of a challenge a particular game was and how the difficulty changed as the player progressed through the game. Shinobi III stays within the realm of fairly easy for most of the game. There are sections that are tricky but never difficult. But the player never really feels the challenge until the very end of the game where the spike happens and it becomes very difficult. There are more projectiles from enemies, and the platforming becomes pretty punishing. Think the water level from the original TMNT and the disappearing blocks from Mega Man 2 were to have a baby. It would be the last level of Shinobi III. While the rest of the game is very tame comparatively, the last level wants you to make use of your Invisibility magic in certain spots to make it through.  It’s as punishing as many games from that time period were to ensure that you’d keep at it to continue to play.

Replayability: 7/10

As a product of its time, when arcade games still dominated much of the marketplace, and long extended games were fairly rare, this one you can beat in an afternoon. But it provides a non-stop action game from the beginning to the end, which makes it easy to come back to. Most arcade style games that end up being a score chase make it pretty easy to come back to. Games during this time didn’t have the extra depth that games now do. Outside of a handful, most were meant to be played and put down pretty quickly and then come back to it again when you’re ready to. Shinobi III teaches you the whole game in the first 30 seconds of the game by giving you the space to fool around with the controls. Each level is a simple side-scrolling point A to point B, and the score attack allows for you to try to do a level in specific ways to earn more points.   

Personal: 8/10

Personally, this was one of my favorite games on the Genesis. I initially played this when staying at a friend’s house. My parents at the time hated video games and hated how much I enjoyed them so every time I went over to a friend’s house that had a console, no matter the brand, it was a new experience for me. My friend showing me this made me want a Genesis. Everyone I knew that had one had MK2 or Street Fighter II, Sonic 2, and Ecco, but this was the first game that made me want a Genesis. It’s still one of the games that are my favorite on the system. TMNT: Hyperstone Heist, Sonic 3, Batman Returns, and Shinobi III are all high on my list on the system and love to play them with my kids whenever I can. The gameplay, music, and visuals all add to the experience and always recommend it to folks looking for a side scroller to play. 

Overall, this game is a wonderful game that any retro enthusiast should give an hour or two to. Fast gameplay, cool visuals, good music and ’90s ninja action, it’s a game that stands the test of time, and still worth playing 30 years after being released. 



Aggregated Score: 7.5

Jason Schad. First time writer. Gamer since 1988. You can follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/BaBibbz