Shinobi III a fine sendoff
I recently delved into a game starring one of the GOATS in video game history, Joe Musashi, with Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi. Sega’s own master ninja is one of video game’s greatest protagonists who has earned his bones fighting crime and the low-level henchmen belong to his greatest enemy, the Neo Zeed organization. I will give Neo Zeed credit: Every time Joe beats the living daylights out of them, they always come back wanting all the ninja smoke and hands that they can eat, repeating defeat after defeat. The notorious crime syndicate has returned with a strong second wind and a sinister plan to obtain their great revenge in Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master.
After his latest battle against the nefarious cult known as Union Lizard, Musashi aka “the Shadow Master” returned to Japan to recover and sharpen his superior techniques. While our hero trains in the mountains to acquire new skills, Neo Zeed has nearly recovered near its previous level. They’ve obtained more nefarious warriors who are motivated by penalty of death via the most brutal leaders of the group or riches and power beyond comprehension via victory over Musashi. With the world in peril once more, our heroic ninja heads out to fight Neo Zeed hoping that this latest encounter will be the last with this criminal cancer that threatens the world’s peace.
The graphics in Shinobi III follow the previous design of other games in the series. They have a balance of natural, rugged terrain with elements of current industrial settings and futuristic concepts in some stages. Battles happen in various forests and caves throughout Japan in fighting with various ninjas and mercenaries to reach the level boss. These stage range from dim-lighted caves to open fields, a secret weapon factory, a secret biological laboratory, a lab developing Gundam-type mecha with a trap-laden canyon leading to a massive air fortress (a first for a Shinobi game). My only problem is that while Sega was going for a fresh take on stage design, they used the same template with the exception to the biology lab and passed it off as arcade quality.
The controls are simple to use, but you will need to take time to master Joe’s new skills such as the Death Kick and Ninja Death Strike, which allows you to strike an enemy out of range and deliver a finishing blow with a sword. Though Joe has a myriad of other attacks, they are all easy to use in the heat of battle. Shinobi, as a series, shows serious growth in the controls as an action-adventure title.
As much as I love the game, I have some dislikes as well. Sega went with newcomer composers Hirofumi Murasaki, Morihiko Akiyama and Masayuki Nagao to handle the 
game’s music. While acceptable, Yuzo Koshiro should have been used since he has the most experience developing music that’s worthy of the Shinobi name. The music was choppy in some areas but still suitable for the game. Another problem I have is the supply of shuriken that you must conserve. By paying so much attention to maintaining your supply, you might miss other crucial elements and expose yourself to enemies unnecessarily. Joe should have endless shuriken to fight evil.
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is a 16-bit swan song for ninja legend Joe Musashi. Although Sega has continued the harrowing adventures of Joe and his descendants through games on numerous next-generation consoles, the Ninja Master is expected to return sometime this year in various projects. Though he’s not around prominently right now, do not count on him staying vanished for long.
parkour-type jumps to get to other parts of some stages. In some parts of the game where Ayane is called upon, she is a little more flexible than Ryu, but that doesn’t make the controls more difficult. I did have a few issues with controls regarding battles with bosses that require more focus to strike various spots. Also, when Ryu is required to use his kunai to climb, timing to focus on climbing is needed while various enemies fiercely attempt to eliminate you. It taxed my patience and was kind of tedious. 
increases with the anime-inspired designs of heroes and villains, which encourages replay of all the collection’s games. This first disc also has a lot of interesting elements that include presenting 16-bit and anime-style intermission screens that were included when the games were originally released. Capcom also introduced a high-resolution filter, giving the game’s graphics a streamlined yet colorful approach and a unique box frame for each game. A music player containing all the music from the original games also rounds out the presentation extras, which were nice. 
One of the other cool additions is the X Challenge, which pits you against two legendary bosses of the series while choosing three weapons to use. This requires some forethought and understanding of the series’ mechanics, which is a welcome change of pace when you want something different from the story modes. I also thought that the art gallery and the animated movie focusing on Sigma was a nice touch. 
establishes itself on the island of Vie de Marli. Arius’ true goal is to find holy relics called Arcanas so that he can obtain the powers of the ancient demon Argosax. Now locked in a race against time, Dante and Lucia must battle against Argosax and put an end to Arius’ madness before the world is plunged into eternal darkness. 
in and out oddly in underground areas. And, it was too rigid when it needed to move with Dante. The controls were tank-like — Capcom’s normal standard operational procedure — but it was more annoying when I was shooting at enemies long distance and wasting ammo and mobility. The tanking of Dante is counter to him being agile, which was a major selling point that catapulted him to stardom. Another issue was that the in-game store sold various skill and weapon upgrades including health items but were ridiculously expensive despite me having the ability to gather more coins seamlessly here than in the original game. That’s a major turnoff because it’s a chore. More work for more expensive rewards is not fun.
the demon world, a civil war erupted with Firebrand as the victor claiming the crests of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Time. Firebrand fought another demon named Somulo, who held the crest of Heaven, and secured a victory over the rival demon. However, another demon named Phalanx attacked Firebrand while he had low health, taking possession of all the crests. This allowed Phalanx to summon another crest that controls infinity. While Firebrand recovered, he was imprisoned in an arena guarded by the revived Somulo. After defeating Somulo, Firebrand begins his quest for vengeance and recovery of his well-earned spoils of war. 
While I love most parts of Demon’s Crest, there are some not-so-good nitpicks to make. Certain stages where perfect timing is needed to land on floating platforms across killer obstacles are annoying. The precision isn’t there and it’s frustrating to attempt it multiple times. Another strike comes when you play the bonus game. You must time your head-butting attack against demon skulls in a Whack-a-Mole-style game with a time limit. Considering that if you lose, you also lose money, this is a problem with the in-game economy. It makes you not want to play the mini-game at all. I also had issues with the Mode 7 view in Demon’s Crest. Although awesome most of the time you use it in navigating the demon realm, it weirdly affects your vision if you fly around for a prolonged time. 
Each level or “act” (there are 20 in total) will have you bashing enemies and avoiding various hazards such as spikes and bottomless pits. While dashing through you must utilize some patience and timing to avoid these various obstacles. Sonic is still easy to control but he now also has a cool new trick called the Spin Dash. This lets him go even faster and take down more enemies. Tails has the same skills, but his two tails give him a little more flair. 
that gives temporary protection against hits. 
games, I instantly took to the basic punch, kick and jump mechanics. As you go through each enemy, you’ll get a power-up orb that literally says “Power-up!”; this made me think that Zeus came down and gave commands. On the third power-up, you’ll go into your actual beast mode, which consists of forms such as a dragon, werewolf, werebear, weretiger, and a golden werewolf, each with their own unique powers. At this point, I’m thinking that this game is the origin for the popular phase “Beast Mode.” At the end of each level, you battle Neff in various forms.