Shadow of the Ninja Reborn review — Change of Plans

Ninjas need plans. I know this not due to personal experience (as far as you know), but the NES classic, Shadow of the Ninja. Your survival in that ninja platformer required having the right plan: good routes through obstacles and optimal power ups will win the day. If Shadow of the Ninja were to be reborn in say, a game called Shadow of the Ninja Reborn, then you might expect it to follow the same plan. You’d be wrong. Shadow of the Ninja Reborn changes the plan so thoroughly it might as well be an entirely different one, even if it stems from the same roots.

No developer excels more at changing plans than Tengo Project. These guys have been quietly revisiting classics ranging from Wild Guns to Pocky & Rocky and evolving them to the next level. This team knows what works about their subjects, both to make them shine and then expand upon them in interesting ways. Shadow of the Ninja Returns marks their most dramatic expansion yet.

This particular rebirth supercharges everything about the original. Highly detailed and beautifully animated sprite work brings previously 8-bit pixels into the modern day. The basic moveset of one weapon at a time expands to having the sword, a hook shot, and a power up item simultaneously. New acrobatic maneuvers like the hover and Shadow step increase your versatility. What once was a fairly straightforward platformer has expanded into a fairly complicated game where every enemy and hazard can stop you in your tracks.

Actually, just touching the controls will do that. Not only does Reborn not control like its NES counterpart, it does not control like virtually any other game. Every action requires commitment. Your ninja jumps with a delay. Their attacks leave them in a lengthy recovery state. Every move takes some getting used to, so it’s worth experimenting with your options. The controls encourage a look before you leap approach. This is a slow, deliberate game – one that plays best when you go into each challenge with a plan.

If you don’t plan things out, you’ll die. Reborn does not pull its punches. Each enemy, obstacle, and platforming challenge is carefully placed to eventually drive you insane if you don’t know what you’re doing. Poorly timed actions will leave you vulnerable to enemies. Some will jump out to hit you unexpectedly, giving little time to react, while others stand menacingly on the far side of the screen as you approach and inevitably make the wrong move. Every problem requires different strategies and careful maneuvers to escape unscathed.

Luckily, Reborn gives you plenty of options to work with. The expanded movesets combine with an even more expanded power up system to create a wealth of plans to concoct. Not only can you grab one power up, you can actually hold several at a time. Each power up serves a different purpose, so clever hoarding will allow you to bring just the right tool for each job. Various firearms help clear out those menacing, faraway enemies while health items keep you alive from attacks you may not have seen coming. Some power ups clearly offer more benefits than others, but virtually all of them can be applied usefully to a situation.

Putting the pieces together isn’t easy. The use for a power up won’t always be immediately obvious and the best way to defeat an enemy won’t always be clear. You need to be a ninja with a PhD, a scientist conducting experiments to figure out how best to approach any given situation. You will be dying a lot anyway, so you might as well make the most of each attempt.

The genius of the level design lies in the fact that while it requires careful planning to navigate, it isn’t rigid in the kinds of plans it will accept. Each level caters to all kinds of playstyles. Every level can be beaten with default moveset and some skill, yet can easily be optimized in a variety of ways by planning out your power up use. Hidden power ups encourage you to go off the beaten path for an extra challenge but provide you with powerful secret power ups that can further alter your approach. Slow, steady progression will keep you aware of the next hazard while speeding through stages may help you avoid potential ruts altogether.

Few games reward mastery so thoroughly. Whatever power-ups you bring into the end of the level will be unlocked as a permanent potential loadout addition whenever you start the game up next. This system indirectly encourages you to complete levels without dying so that you can hold onto whatever you pick up. Further, the power ups you can bring with you each run are purchased with a set amount of points that increases based on the highest score you rack up. This system feeds into itself – playing well gives you more options and points, and more options and points increase your chances of further pushing your score to its limits.

Everything ties together neatly in the package that is Reborn, which is surprising because it’s a deceptively stuffed one. I can and did spend hours just playing through the normal mode, which serves an excellent, highly replayable score-focused arcade experience. A hard mode further pushes the game’s boundaries, and a dedicated speedrun mode shifts the focus from scoring to speed for another angle to replay the game from. Don’t be fooled by there only being six stages – there’s a lot of game here for those willing to dig into Reborn’s depths.

If there are any problems with Reborn’s meticulous planning, it would be in some of the execution. The controls, to be precise. Not the slowness of the game so much as making sure your ninja performs the right action at the right time, since the consequences for wrong moves can be devastating. It all makes sense when you spend some time with the game, but the learning curve can be pretty excruciating. Anything to do with walls or hanging can create awkward control scenarios where it’s just a little too easy to do the wrong thing. A personal peeve, but the power up selection menu scrolls in a direction that my brain struggles to wrap around. Perhaps some optional control adjustments would iron out the confusion.

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