Finally decided to rent Shinobi a couple days ago. I wasn' t expecting much, after all, the game didn' t exactly win over too many gamers when it came out. But I figured hey, what the heck, it' s a free rental.

After popping in the disc, it didn' t take long before I realized just how ungodly FUN this game is. Much like Contra or Gunvalkyrie, Shinobi has that old school flava that few games just generation can match.

Hotsuma movements are everything that I like to see in a ninja game. He' s fast, the animation is fluid and allows for quick transition between moves, the combat system is not overly complicated, and best of all he has that kick ass dash move to.

Compared to some other action adventure titles that try to incorporate way too much into the gameplay, Shinobi was simple but loveable. It wasn' t too old school to be considered outdated, but was just old school enough to bring back the memories.

I was simple loving this game.

. . . . .then I got to the 4th level and it all went downhill from there. It' s not that it started to become a bad game. It' s not like what was fun before wasn' t fun now. But MY GOD. . . ! This game is WAY more difficult than what any game needs to be.

I just had to stop and think to myself, " WTF was you smoking Sega???" I don' t know if I would consider this game harder than Contra, but even second place to Contra is still pretty damn hard.

Hotsuma has very few attacks that cover a wide area, and it seems like you' re always getting hit from all sides. Extra life is few and far between, magic is scarce, the enemies are ruthless, and hot damn are these some hard bosses.

I like an old school game, but man, even this is pushing my gaming abilities farther than what I want to take them. I want to atleast relax a little bit when playing. Even Halo on lengendary seems like a cakewalk to Shinobi on just normal. I just can' t stress enough how hard this game is.

If the game was easier, this would be one of the more enjoyable games I' ve played this generation. But I' m only on level 7A and I feel like I' m going to break from the difficulty.

I know you have a tendecy to make hard games, but geez, try lettin' up next time Sega.

I' m hearing similar things avout Veiwtiful Joe.

Actually Viewtiful Joe is moderately easy throughout the entire game. The only difficult part of the game to me was fighting Leo the fire lion the first 50 times I fought him. Once I figured out how to put a dent in his armor, the rest was almost a cakewalk ;)

But isn' t there an issue because the save points are so few and far between? I' m hearing a lot of the bosses are also super difficult.

Save Points?
Man, some of those gamers must NOT have been around during the 8 and 16 bit eras where save points were pretty much exclusive to RPGs only ;)

But seriously, getting back to what you said, I thought the Save points were quite generous. There are save points at the end and sometimes in the middle of some levels. The majority, if not all of the bosses have patterns and if you utilize the VFX effects throughout the entire game then it should not be that difficult.

Admittedly the only boss I had a hard time with was the Fire Lion, I even lost a Gamecube over it, lol.. Left it on for several days on Pause cause I was fighting this damm boss non-stop and didn' t want to start over at the beginning of that boss fighting level. Finally when I finally figured out how to inflict some damage on him, the Cube' s drive died so I got another one right away cause the game was just too good. But in a nutshell, every boss and enemy character in the game has a pattern. Some a little more random than others but it only forces gamers to remain awake during battle :)

Plus beating it unlocks some of the other playable characters in the game, providing it with super replay value :)

SLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW is your friend!

Actually haven' t played Viewtiful Joe, just relaying what I heard.

Shinobi is hard though. Haven' t played much of it because of that. I' ve had my time taken by a bunch of other games that I have to review for my own site.

Dude you are scaring me!!!! I just picked up Shinobi 2 days ago from EB for $10. I havent popped it in yet, but now that I read your post..... Thats ok though, I love a tough challange. Ive beaten some of the hardest games this generation [Contra, Maximo, Enclave, Gunvalkryie], so I think I can handle this game. But we will see.....

Dude, I hope you shaved your head bald, because once you get to that last boss, trust me, you' re going to be pulling your ends out.

Before Shinobi I even thought Gunvalkyrie was easy. Now I can' t look at Gunvalkyrie without chuckling a little bit.