Shadow of the Ninja - Reborn Steam Charts & Stats

Love it!

The pixel graphics are well-designed,the characters have a few movements that feel satisfying to use. For instance, there’s a katana and a multi-directional hook that can push enemies, alongside many weapons you can pick up throughout the levels, which add plenty of variety. However, the movement feels a bit stiff, and the characters seem slightly heavy. The game starts off enjoyable, but the experience takes a frustrating turn starting from level 3. The level design becomes difficult to enjoy, with enemy placement and platforms that don't seem to complement the characters' movements. It turns into a constant trial-and-error situation. While I appreciate challenging games and tried to practice these levels, I quickly became frustrated and gave up. I recommend trying the game, but only if it’s on a deep discount.

Too Hard even first 5 minutes of the game! oh hell no. at least let people get use to the control and everything, let people have a chance to like your game first. good graphic, but bad choice ruined the game!

It hurts me to do a somewhat negative review. I absolutely loved the NES game and considered it a bit of a hidden gem. When I saw there was a remake, I got super excited. I didn't really love the art direction but it didn't look bad per se. Actually playing the game, it won me over a bit. It's still not the art direction I would have went in but it's not bad. The music is also solid and feels a bit closer to the NES game which isn't a bad thing. Where it suffers though is the controls. They just aren't good. The controls are slippery, the hit box feels sloppy and there are numerous moments which require precision but the controls aren't precise. Even after beating the game and putting 4 hours into it, I never felt like I had a handle on the controls. The grabbing ledges, the short jumps and everything feeling delayed just made the game more difficult than it should be. Enemies are cheap and a lot of the deaths you'll run into are due to the controls rather than the difficulty of the game which just isn't good. I was invested enough to beat the game and I do appreciate that every new section you make it to allows you to continue from there. If I had to replay the entire level after dying, I wouldn't have even bothered. It's too difficult and frustrating for that. Due to the saves, it at least made me want to beat it. It's still very challenging though but it's all about memorizing the levels and what's coming next. So I hate to say it but I don't recommend the game. I'd say if you are a fan of Shadow of the Ninja on the NES, it's worth checking out for curiosity sake but if you are looking for a quick, precisely controlled ninja game like Ninja Gaiden, Cyber Shadow or the Messenger, this won't satisfy.

Currently working through it on Hard mode, skipping Normal because I hate myself. This is a very different game from the one it's ostensibly a remake of, but that's not a complaint; apparently some of the original game's dev team worked on this, and they [i]get[/i] it. This is how you bring back the spirit of old platformers while incorporating more modern sensibilities, but not so much that the game loses its identity. This is [i]not[/i] a Metroidvania with "build variety" or anything of that nature. This is a old-school-adjacent platformer you have to approach the way [i]it wants to be played[/i], which means getting accustomed to how the basic controls, character kits, weapons, etc. all handle. Failure to do so will be met with swift punishment. Panicking and pressing buttons will result in a doubling-down of the aforementioned swift punishment. And you only have one life, so make it count; while you can continue from a checkpoint if you die, you lose everything including items and sword power-ups, so if something was able to kill you, you're probably not gonna do any better with nothing but the wits that got you killed in the first place. This is not a game you play to make numbers go up for hours on end. It's not a game with battle passes, or seasonal content, or all those other buzzwords that make me taste vomit when I read them. You git gud or you get filtered, and with a title like this, the gitting gud part is the meat and bones of the """content""". Then you start to see how hard you can break it. The only thing I can say I don't like is how the inventory swapping works. I get [i]why[/i] the devs implemented it the way it is, but it's quite clunky. That's not going to stop me from enjoying the game, though. In many ways, this game seems less like its namesake and more to have taken inspiration from the higher-quality late-in-life platformers on the NES. Like Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, or Shatterhand*, but with an inventory system. It's well-designed, and the game doesn't ask anything impossible of you, but be prepared for pain if you slip up. It's as much a puzzle game at times as it is a classic platformer. If we're making first-person-shooter comparisons, it's built with the intentional jackassery that something like The Plutonia Experiment was designed around, where it [i]wants[/i] you to work for your reward but you feel like a god once everything clicks. If that all sounds up your alley, get this now. (Speaking of Shatterhand...pretty please, NatsumeAtari?)