Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance review – revenge of the ninja

Sega brings back one of its classic arcade and Mega Drive franchises, with a brand new entry made by the creators of Streets Of Rage 4.

For years now Sega has been promising to revive its classic arcade and Mega Drive franchises, with talk of new games based on Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, and more besides. Not to mention the unexplained ‘super game’ initiative with Xbox, which hasn’t been mentioned again in some time.

It’s all been going on for so long, with so little being shown in public, that it’s become hard to imagine it ever becoming a reality. And yet here we are, with the first Shinobi game on a home console since the PlayStation 2 era. Which somehow has managed to come out at exactly the same time as Koei Tecmo revive Ninja Gaiden, also with a 2D action adventure reminiscent of the series’ glory years.

That’s a weird coincidence but while Ninja Gaiden also has a new 3D sequel on the way, Shinobi is purposefully old school in its approach. That’s a risk, as few younger gamers will know the franchise nowadays, so it has little nostalgia to rely on for anyone under 40. But hopefully, the fact that it’s simply a very good game will be enough to appeal to everyone.

The Shinobi franchise originated with a 1987 coin-op that itself was inspired by Namco’s Rolling Thunder. So while it was a relatively straightforward action game there was a little more nuance to it than normal, as you picked your way carefully through the levels and jumped up and down between two vertical levels of scenery – although like most ninja themed games of the time there was no actual stealth involved.

Shadow Dancer, where you were joined by a pet dog, was the only arcade sequel and the series is arguably best known for original Mega Drive titles such as The Revenge Of Shinobi. These expanded the platform elements and added increasingly more fantastical enemies and backdrops but were still the same basic idea. It’s from these games that Art Of Vengeance takes most of its inspiration, including levels and enemies directly inspired by the older titles.

The new game is authentic enough that its story is of no consequence whatsoever, as you fight a vaguely defined private military company out to take over the world and massacre all your ninja students. Since it’s the first one, there’s little clue here as to how Sega will handle the rest of its revivals, with some rumoured to be big budget titles and others more modest projects such as this.

Art Of Vengeance hasn’t been developed by Sega but by Lizardcube, who also made the excellent Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap and Streets Of Rage 4. The French developer is clearly a safe pair of hands, when it comes to working with Sega classics, although they always use their own in-house art style, rather than anything inspired by the original games. We do feel that’s a shame, but the animation is very nice so it’s not a major problem.

The platforming action is pretty much exactly as you’d expect, with a dash move allowing you to reach distant areas and a fair amount of leeway given for making difficult jumps, without the game being overly easy. There must’ve been a temptation to turn it into a Metroidvania, which it resembles visually, but in gameplay terms it’s not a role-player and while there’s a little backtracking it’s usually just to retrieve optional bonus items.

You do gradually add to your repartee of skills though, with the ability to climb up walls, use a grapple hook, and break through walls all being added over time. Going back to earlier levels to collect previously inaccessible items is where the game edges closest into Metroidvania territory, but again it’s all entirely optional, so the genre description doesn’t really fit.

Where the game deviates most from its forebears is in terms of combat, which is very carefully balanced in terms of providing depth but not getting bogged down in unwanted complications. It’s based around the usual light and heavy attacks, but you can also dodge and juggle enemies, while building up combos, and trying to execute a finisher that can take out multiple opponents at once. One of the optional sets of secrets in each level is encounters with extra hard enemies and fighting these is very satisfying once you get the hang of the combat.

To add to the variety, there are two tiers of ninja magic, the most powerful of which are things like smart bombs, akin to how the older games used to work. There’re also less powerful but more nuanced abilities that let you shoot fireballs or use water to parry attacks. These can be powered up relatively quickly and you eventually acquire enough that you have to choose which four to take into battle, alongside amulets that confer passive buffs.

It’s a finely tuned collection of familiar concepts and while it’s not really doing anything new it does manage to restate the Shinobi formula very well. What it doesn’t do though is give any indication of how the series could move forward in the future. Is it forever doomed to be a 2D action game? Are the majority of other classic Sega franchises in the same position?

Art Of Vengeance offers no hint of an answer to any of these questions but for those that fondly remember the older games this is an excellent continuation of those same ideas, and for those that have never heard of Shinobi before this is just a really cool ninja game.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £24.99
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Lizardcube
Release Date: 29th August 2025
Age Rating: 12

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