A secret legend in the making
Shinobi sequel barks up the right tree with new canine companion
Before Sonic the Hedgehog and Yakuza, Sega had established game franchises and mascots for the arcade and home console market. One of those mascots was very popular and came out on the scene at a time when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were blowing up across the country. His name was Joe Musashi, and his adventures were detailed in the game series “Shinobi.” Ever since its 1987 release, Joe fought a one-ninja war on crime against the evil Zeed organization, which plotted global dominance with their style of ninja arts. Time after time, through various Sega games, Joe defeated Zeed and kept the world at peace. However, in Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, Joe would once again take up his sword against evil.
Shadow Dancer takes place one year after Joe’s most recent battle with Zeed. In 1997, New York City comes under attack by a cult organization called Union Lizard. NYC is laid to waste with survivors captured as UL hostages. One of Joe’s students, Kaito, hears about UL’s assaults on a neighborhood and sets out to free its residents. Unfortunately, Kaito falls in battle. Enraged, Joe heads to NYC to battle, accompanied by Yamato, Kaito’s canine companion. With a new ally, Joe enters this latest conflict determined to free NYC from UL clutches and avenge his student’s death.
Shadow Dancer’s controls are simple. While I was impressed with the game-ready default setup, I also appreciated that there are other configurations. You also have the option of using normal or non-shuriken mode, which takes away the ability to throw shuriken from a distance. I also appreciated that Joe can also call upon three types of ninjutsu in the forms of fire, tornado, and meteorites. The most vital weapon that Joe has in his latest battle is Yamato, who can be used to attack on-screen enemies without hesitation, truly giving credit to the phrase “take a bite out of crime.” Every time I unleashed Yamato aka Kuma-puppy TM, I loved seeing the bad guys cry in pain as they thought that nothing could stop them. Jokes on them that a ninja dog brings them instant terror.
The graphics were pretty decent as if Sega pulled the game from the actual arcade cabinet. The music is ’90s genre fitting for Sega games and will make you feel a special fondness for the nostalgic days of arcades. I also like that with each stage the music blended with the scenery, especially at the Statue of Liberty.
While I do love Shadow Dancer, I have a few gripes. The ability to control Yamato is determined by having no enemies on screen; if Yamato or other enemies are on different levels of stages or when an enemy can avoid him by jumping up or down out of his reach, it can get frustrating. I also don’t care for the imposed time limit that makes you rush to the end of the stage. My final grievance with Shadow Dancer is that at the end of each stage, there is a bonus stage where you must hit as many enemy ninjas as you can with shuriken. I threw a ton of shuriken at ninja but got low scores for my efforts. It’s a lot of work for little reward and seems like a waste of time, honestly.
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is a game that helped cement Sega’s legacy in the video game industry. Sega is reintroducing classic games in various forms for a new generation of gamers. Sega would be wise to reintroduce Joe Musashi as the undisputed member of video game royalty and legend in video game hero history that he is.
undeniably cool when you get down to it: Jet Grind Radio is the future.
looks phenomenal. It’s the first game to use this technique, and it set the standard in 2000 in terms of presentation. The backgrounds are also well done and inspire runs through the game. It’s clearly an early 2000s game, but that only portends good things about the Dreamcast and what it was capable of.
While everything is great in terms of presentation and control, I’d be remiss in mentioning that there is one bothersome flaw with Jet Grind Radio. While the controls are easily analogous to early Tony Hawk games, it wasn’t easy to pick up the game and know what’s going on immediately. It’s a little too inaccessible at first, like it’s asking you to have some in-depth knowledge ahead of playing for the first time. You may not be familiar with the concepts the game is throwing at you, and it’s the game’s responsibility to ease you into the fray. Thankfully, the surrounding game is so good that you’ll come back to get more in-depth with the trappings of Tokyo-to.
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. 
directions. The color palette is beautiful and the character animation shines. And, yes, even though Psikyo carried over Morrigan’s dog-tired sprite from Darkstalkers it still works here. You immediately know who she is, and it doesn’t look to terrible against the backdrops of bullet hell. The other characters look good for late ’90s animation. While the animation is good, the soundtrack is passing, if not a bit late ’90s mediocre. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t standout. A single track caught our attention, which is 
you a choice of three warriors: Ax Battler, who wields a broadsword; Gilius Thunderhead, a dwarf warrior with a battle ax; and, an Amazonian warrior, Tyris Flare, whose weapon of choice is a longsword. These warriors were brought together by twist of fate thanks to an evil entity known as Death Adder, who has captured the kingdom of Yuria along with its king and his daughter. The three heroes have also lost loved ones at Death Adder’s hands and set off on their quest to destroy Death Adder and restore hope and peace to Yuria. 
Tyris have is their unique ability to cast magic spells that does serious damage to all enemies on screen. However, this special attack comes with two caveats: magic energy has a high cost and protecting your necessary magic potions from thieving elves is a chore. Now, this is the part where you ask, “what’s the payoff with the character’s magic attacks?” Good question! Tyris wields fire magic, Ax’s specialty is earth spells and my favorite character, Gilius, literally brings the thunder with lighting spells. It’s easy to understand the mechanics and use everything in the heat of battle. 
fighting, and climb to reach higher areas. Hiryu also has use of his plasma sword, Falchion, to assist in removing enemies from any direction on the screen. I also found that Hiryu has two reliable techniques that are game-changers: a sliding move that gets him in tight areas, and a cartwheel move that allows you to glide from surface to surface while in a spinning wheel, making Hiryu unpredictable when he lands. Hiryu also can perform a vertical jump, hanging and squatting attacks with Falchion. Hiryu will also get some mission support from three battle robots: Dipodal Saucer, which fires lighting bolts wherever Hiryu swings Falchion; RoboPanther, which covers Hiryu from frontal attacks; and, Robot Hawk, which assists Hiryu by severely attacking airborne enemies. Apart from the usual powerups in hack-and-slash games, there’s also a powerup that increases Falchion’s power.
basics, progressing to combos and various weapons such as handguns, automatic rifles and katanas. There was liberal food and other power-ups such as cash, gold bars and diamonds that increased my score and restored health since the amount of enemies coming at me was nonstop. 
some famous mafia movies and television series are being developed into video games, Sega’s Yakuza series is already a perfect combination of action, adventure, and the mafia. I was thrilled to combine my love for the series with zombie elements in Yakuza: Dead Souls.
clan have arisen to take advantage of Kamurochō’s suffering. The fate of Kamurochō and Japan rests in the hands of four men: Shun Akiyama, a loan shark trying to save his sick receptionist; Goro Majima, a feared yakuza and construction company owner who is fighting his own infection; Ryuji Goda, a disgraced yakuza and takoyaki chef whose clan has a tie to the outbreak; and, series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma, who runs a children’s orphanage and returns to Kamurochō when his adoptive daughter is kidnapped.
though there’s room for improvement. Though, compared to other games at the time, Yakuza: Dead Souls doesn’t necessarily outshine the competition; it just merely competes.