Shinobi: Art of Vengeance review — The real deal

Good news: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is the real deal. Whenever an older series like Shinobi rises from its grave, long-time fans such as myself get a little anxious. Will it stick to its roots, will it just retread what works for nostalgia, will it be completely unrecognizable, will it even be good? All these concerns and more haunt me far more than any real life problem could ever hope to. What a “real” retro video game revival could or should be will likely be debated by scholars for eons to come. Luckily, they’re all wrong. Only my opinion matters, and in my opinion, Art of Vengeance brings Shinobi back in the exact right way: it captures the innovative spirit of Sega while retaining just enough of the series fundamentals to satisfy someone like me.

The Sega that spawned Shinobi and its sequels knew that it isn’t cool to be complacent. They regularly created experimental titles and often took sequels in totally different directions from their predecessors. Rarely would they simply retread the past. That innovative drive defines the spirit of Sega. A true successor in the Sega spirit looks less like a Sonic Mania and more like a Sonic Rush; something that takes basic building blocks of a concept and takes it in exciting new directions. 

Truthfully, then, I knew ahead of time that Art of Vengeance would be good. The developer behind Art of Vengeance, Lizardcube, also worked on Streets of Rage 4, and their work on that project thoroughly demonstrated that they “get it.” Streets of Rage 4 took the fundamental appeal of its predecessors and pushed it in new directions visually and mechanically. Art of Vengeance does the same for Shinobi. It’s not Shinobi III again, but it is Shinobi. 

Lizardcube’s distinct visual presentation immediately separates Art of Vengeance from its predecessors. Their bold linework pops in stills and explodes in motion. While this game brings back familiar characters and environments from past Shinobi titles, it all feels fresh when viewed through the lens of this new artistic interpretation. Our leading ninja, Joe Musashi, translates beautifully into the style. Some might say that Art of Vengeance’s look is an acquired taste and I have to agree – if you don’t like it you should indeed acquire some taste. 

The advantage of this modern approach becomes especially apparent in its ability to depict scale. Whether it’s for gameplay convenience or simply to show cool-looking giant monsters, the camera regularly zooms in and out naturally as needed without disrupting the visual language of the game. Lighting reflects off characters in real-time, giving a dynamic flair to each of the already detailed environments of each stage. I love pixel art as much as the next person, but it’s equally impressive to see what a more modern approach like this can add to a game.

Art of Vengeance distinguishes itself at a gameplay level by mixing platforming, combat, and exploration elements into a rather unique blend of action. While the game technically follows a level-by-level structure, it features far larger areas than prior games. These maps can send you left, right, up, down, and all around in a way that captures the feeling of something like Metroid without fully immersing itself into the formula. The majority of path branches are entirely optional and hide things like money or powerups, so one way to think about it is like the developers greatly expanded all those hidden nooks and crannies where extra lives would be hidden in previous games. 

While the two often blend together, this more open structure also creates distinct areas for the platforming and combat mechanics to shine individually. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in an extended platforming gauntlet dodging impractically placed buzzsaws, while at other times you’ll be stuck in arenas fighting off waves of enemies. In-between areas give you a bit of both, placing enemies between platforms or spaces, which makes it so that a full transition to either focus never feels too jarring.

Historically, platforming in Shinobi has less to do with the difficulty of navigating the platforms and more with the difficulty of jumping at all. Basic actions like double jumps or leaping off of walls required strict timing befitting of ninja athleticism. Love them or hate them, these tricky mechanical nuances defined a major part of Shinobi’s identity. 

Obviously in the year 2025, locking the basic movement of your character behind a skill barrier won’t make it past one round of playtesting. Double jumping in this game is as simple as pressing jump twice whenever you find most convenient – preferably when you’re still in the air. The basic controls in general feel ridiculously smooth. At times, I wondered if they were almost too responsive. Whereas in past titles I’d be worried if my inputs would manifest at all, in Art of Vengeance I had to train myself to avoid overcorrecting my jumps or holding things down for too long. This new, more nimble Joe Musashi feels undeniably different from what I’m used to. 

Yet despite its base mechanics being far easier to grasp, Art of Vengeance finds ways to capture the old school sense of tricky mechanics with an expanding arsenal of traversal abilities that you slowly unlock throughout the game. From grapple hooks to giant leaf parachutes, these abilities introduce some subtle elements of mechanical mastery little by little. As the amount of mechanics to master grows, the platforming challenges intensify to match. Some of the optional rooms can get slightly sadistic, introducing a level of difficulty that feels appropriate to Shinobi’s legacy. 

You can also find hints of Shinobi’s tricky mechanical nuances in its combat system. What was once a series primarily about throwing shurikens from a distance (with perhaps a sword slash and jump kick sprinkled in here and there for good measure) has now greatly expanded into a pseudo fighting game in Art of Vengeance. Combos, air juggles, and special moves can be used to annihilate foes quickly and efficiently. 

Despite how flashy and impactful your moves feel to perform, I like the combat primarily because it focuses on the quickness and efficiency of your actions. You do combos less for the sake of looking cool (that’s just a bonus) and more to keep enemies from overwhelming you. Skillful play involves deftly dashing across the screen in long chains of attacks, dodging enemies while grouping as many as possible into your swings. Efficiency gets further emphasized by a chaining system, where using certain attacks with a stunning property can result in the ability to instantly kill enemies on-screen. 

Although the variety of moves available makes the combat look complicated, in practice it’s simple to engage with and fun to master. Most button presses easily combo into each other once you’ve expanded your moveset, which gives the game a natural flow that makes it fun to experiment with. The speed and flow of combat channels the essence of past Shinobi games, even if the underlying systems between these games differ greatly. It also helps that the jump kick and shuriken remain some of the most lethal options in your arsenal, too. 

The variety of enemy types keeps things interesting, pressing buttons feels fun, and once you’re good at fighting, encounters can be completed in a flash. Never did I imagine that a genuinely great version of the ideas presented in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero would someday exist, but it’s here and it’s awesome. 

The one glaring weakness in Art of Vengeance’s overall game design comes from the fact that its flirtations with Metroid don’t always serve the game well. While I like the more open maps, I don’t like that it also attempts to force you to backtrack through previously completed levels. Optional paths will often be inaccessible until you unlock one of the aforementioned traversal abilities in a later level, which means that it’s impossible to grab everything the first time you play through the majority of the game. 

Maybe it’s because I played Art of Vengeance’s demo before the main game, but I found this design quirk completely unnecessary. In that demo, you had Joe’s expanded capabilities from the start, so you could go through all of the optional paths in one run if you were so inclined. That system fits far better conceptually for a level-based platformer like this. It’s an awkward pace-killer to have to circle back through most of the game for 100% completion. 

While I can understand the argument that perhaps the developers didn’t want to overwhelm newer players with all the mechanics at once, I don’t agree that the trade-off makes sense. The current design feels like unnecessary padding for a game that doesn’t particularly need it since it’s fairly long for an action platformer anyway. If not padding, then perhaps even more cynically this is a weak attempt to confuse people into thinking the game is more of a Metroid game than it really is. 

Yet I also can’t hold this bizarre design decision against the game too much. After completing the story, you unlock an “Arcade Mode” for most stages. In Arcade Mode, you have access to every ability you’ve unlocked and can now play for score, which includes a ranking system. This mode is obviously how the game is meant to be replayed, so the fake Metroid issue only really arises if you care about playing on a fresh save. 

That said, I also don’t love how Arcade Mode scores you. High scores and S ranks seem to be heavily biased towards obtaining the “No damage” bonus for completing a level, to the point that you can actually skip all of the optional challenges and still get a top rank as long as you never get hit. Is this massive bonus true to how prior games score you? Sure, but Shinobi III levels also often take less than half the amount of time it takes to complete any level in Art of Vengeance (while going fast). 

We should be realistic here – it sucks to be ten minutes into a level only to accidentally get clipped by a random buzzsaw and have to restart the whole thing. I appreciate that the game has so much content that the levels end up being long. However, it was a mistake to not split that content up into smaller chunks if the post-game was going to revolve primarily around damageless runs. 

As a fair and unbiased gamer, I should note that you can obtain an unlockable rechargeable shield item that dramatically decreases the difficulty of S ranks. Unfortunately, there are two problems with that solution: (1) having to rely on an optional cheat item is lame, and (2) it doesn’t excuse the fact that the ranking system still ends up not being nearly as interesting as it could be.

I’d much rather have a system that emphasizes chaining the instant kill executions or finding a good balance between speed and secrets. With the current system, those things barely matter. Maybe if I really try, it turns out that you can also get an S rank by thoroughly and efficiently clearing out every secret in a level while still taking damage, but my attempts so far were all unsuccessful. Damageless seems to be the way to go, and the levels are simply too long for that to be anything but overly punishing.

Of course, the fact that I care about the game’s ranking system at all attests to Art of Vengeance’s quality. It’s fast-paced, fun, and most importantly, something fresh for the series. It does not play too hard on nostalgia and genuinely pushes Shinobi forward into interesting territory.