zavias
Wonderboy
I am error
Posts: 815
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Post by zavias on Nov 19, 2011 19:26:08 GMT
Just finished playing The Cyber Shinobi - the initial impression sure isn't good with a chunky framerate, wonky collision detection and the shortest reach ever for a weapon, but you know what, with time the game ended up being pretty fun. After the first two levels that seemed pretty straightforward, the game broke out with a few different perspectives and kinds of levels, like the one where you'd falling through the waterfall or the one where you have to keep running and jumping to take out a chopper. Yes, the collision detection sucks, but the game at least plays it in your favor - it's pretty tough to get hit in this game when you're in close quarters with someone. The difficulty level is just about right, there are some frustrating deaths early on and the timer has some issues but after you figure it all out it becomes fairly easy to complete. My issue with the timer is that it kind of goes against the fact that the game gives you multiple lives - if you die three times say, and are on your last life, the timer just continuously counts down from your first life. It doesn't reset every time you die, so you could be doing great on each life before you die, but once you get to the 4th life you'll find that you have almost zero time life in the game so there's no point in even trying. May as well just die to get the game over and have your timer reset. I've never experienced a game with such a frugal time clock. But whatevz, I liked the layout of the rest of the top console items, like having power, weapons and an allotment of shots for each. Upgrading your power is not a must but it makes the game so much less cumbersome to complete and adds kind of a fun search and find element to the game. I don't know guys, I actually came out liking this game quite a bit. By most accounts the original Shinobi is a much better game on the SMS, but with the difficulty level and the non-existent ending, it's tough to warm to it like it is to this raggedy little console exclusive. Plus, this one actually has an ENDING, and a pretty decent one in that regard. So far I'm going out on a limb and giving The Cyber Shinobi the edge here, but I still need to play Shadow Dancer fully. Early impressions are not so good though...one hit deaths with a super slow frame rate? Ugh. I hate games that are so harsh on you, especially when the programming isn't up to snuff (you'd think they'd make it easier then!). Personally, I always liked Cyber Shinobi when I was a kid. I don't really get the hatred for it here on the forum, but maybe it is just my nostalgia that makes me like it. Or maybe its the fact that it is compared to an almost perfect platformer like the original Shinobi. I agree with you on the Shadow Dancer though. It is impossible to play on a 60Hz system. I've only made it past the first couple levels before, and that was playing it on 50Hz. Haven't really given it a proper playthrough though. The one hit kills drive me mad, just like they do on any game that has that limitation. Even 2 or 3 hits would have made this game much more enjoyable in my opinion.
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Nov 19, 2011 20:33:28 GMT
Cyber Shinobi is a terrible game! The bouncing rocks have black boxes around them, whilst brown blob at the end of the waterfall stage (it's meant to be a big cat or something I recall from the manual?) has a blue box around it. Parts of the game look downright hilarious (kick that forklift in the cab until it blow up!) and the framerate means you have to know what's going to happen before it happens. Meaning those random falling platforms at the docks are just downright unfair until you've memorised them.
I mean, there are worse games out there for sure because Cyber Shinobi is at least playable. But play Revenge of Shinobi even once and Cyber Shinobi is enough to reduce a sane person to tears in comparison.
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Post by grolt on Nov 19, 2011 20:56:04 GMT
and the framerate means you have to know what's going to happen before it happens. Meaning those random falling platforms at the docks are just downright unfair until you've memorised them. I wouldn't blame the problem on the frame rate, but yeah, those falling platforms on the first two levels are poorly executed. No visual indicators whatsoever that the platforms will fall. At least in the later levels the wood beams that fall are telegraphed by having a different pattern. The first few, though, yep, it's trial and error. Still, it's all more than playable, and I actually liked how, even when the platforms fell, there was still a window of opportunity for you to jump off to safety.
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Post by grolt on Nov 19, 2011 23:33:19 GMT
Okay, just finished Shadow Dancer. Yes, the one hit deaths are so frustrating, especially since it takes you back to the start of the level no matter what. I can tolerate that a lot of times, but when it really drives me crazy is when it happens for bosses, since sometimes you have no clue where or what to hit or what to do and when you die that quickly sometimes it's impossible to even just discover the patten that you need to follow. At least, in this game, when you instant death on the boss you can start the boss level over rather than go back to the start of the entire level a la Ninja Gaiden NES. The lack of a continue feature is a pain too, but thankfully there's an easy level skip code at the start menu (like in Shinobi) that makes the game bearable for today's audience who doesn't have time to master a flawless complete game run. I used the cheat to get to each level and made sure I passed the level before going forward. To my surprise the game almost gets easier as it goes along - the last two levels are a cake walk (although the bosses remain challenging).
So what did I think? You know, it's not half bad. The frame rate is better than I thought it would be, especially compared to Cyber Shinobi, and it looks pretty good with some nice animations throughout. This is a memorization game, but you're rewarded with success if you do, you don't have to worry about any cheap shots or unpredictable variables if you play smart. The music is riling and does its job, and I liked how each boss had a different weakness and attack scheme. The third boss was just decimating me time and again until I figured out the proper attack pattern (crouching from the start really helped). The final boss has two forms, which makes for a fittingly more challenging finale. The ending has some animation, but the story is non-existent, which is puzzling since the game adds the sub-title "The Secret of Shinobi" compared to the arcade release (which was just Shadow Dancer). So SEGA, what the hell's the secret!? There is no text story whatsoever, not at the start, end or in any other part of the game. Amusingly, the only introduction we get to the game are a couple frames of a dog barking - that really clears things up, thanks SEGA! Seeing as the game was supposed to be a prequel, it would have been nice to get a little bit of back story. Cyber Shinobi did a good job of making sure the game was canon with text linking the futuristic game to the past of the original. To be fair, the ending is the exact same in the arcade version, but that still doesn't excuse it for sucking so hard.
Aside from the horribly muffled dog bark, there's also another bit of digitized sound whenever you do a power-up. It's kind of a lot of time, animation and fanfare for what essentially just kills one dude from the screen. It's designed to clear the whole screen, but there's never more than one enemy on screen at once, so it becomes a hassle if you use it very much (which you won't, really, outside of the first level). You can also summon the dog to take out enemies (but only a couple kinds of enemies, I guess the dog is a picky eater!) and that comes in handy when they're at tough to reach areas. While mostly I was just hurtling shurikens as I inched forward on every level (there's a sword based attack when you're in close proximity and I didn't even know that until the very final boss because otherwise I was always killing enemies from far away), there were times when the power-up and the dog came in handy, so it was good of SEGA to include a couple enjoyable variations.
It's a short game at only four levels, but each one has a boss and in between levels there are two different bonus sections that are a lot of fun. The bonus sections play better than the main part of the game and are quite enjoyable. I wish there was a way to just menu select those levels as you can the rest in the game. One involves a 3D first person perspective (like in the first game) where you chuck shurikens at approaching enemies as they jump down a building and the other plays kind of like a vertical shooter, with you falling down the screen and just blasting a barrage of ninjas as they come up from the bottom. The 3D one is like in the arcade version, while the vertical shooter one is inspired by a level from the Genesis port, so essentially you get the best of both worlds here! Even with those fun levels though, the game feels pretty marginal and that's because it retains only a portion of the arcade version. The arcade game has 2 stages for the first level (plus boss), while the remaining three levels have 3 stages. So that makes a total of 11 stages (plus 4 bosses). In the SMS port, there are only 4 stages (with all 4 bosses). While I think they picked the best stages from each level to port (1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-3) they still left a lot out.
Overall, once you overcome the initial frustration and just work through the game, this is actually a pretty sound port and one I think deserves a bit more love than it gets. I think I still had more fun playing Cyber Shinobi because it was longer and not as tedious with the one hit deaths, but there's no question that graphically Shadow Dancer is the best Shinobi on the system. As for which is the best game...I think each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Outside of the ending, Shinobi should win out overall, but something makes me want to warm up to the underdog that is Cyber Shinobi. All fun, nonetheless.
Now time to try the first GG game that I got from playgen last year. I don't have the second though, so I'll have to track that down one of these days!
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Post by armonigann on Nov 23, 2011 2:33:02 GMT
I voted Cyber Shinobi, as stated earlier I never understood the hate for it. I never played it as a kid but I know if I did I would've loved the hell out of it. The OG Shinobi is just fine but its extreme difficulty turns me off as well as Shadow Dancer.
I've never played the GG versions so I can't speak on those. Glad to finally see some love for Cyber Shinobi because if you can look past a few quirks it's actually an enjoyable game!
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Post by demonoidtentacle on Dec 4, 2011 0:33:31 GMT
My vote went to Shinobi on the Game Gear. Damn fun.
I don't like any of the other Shinobi games on the list, but I do like Alex Kidd in Shinobi World.
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