Review Mazinkaiser 5/5 · Apr 14, 2019
GG Shinobi: A Colorful Cast
Game Gear Shinobi is another attempt to put Shinobi on a smaller system, this time the Game Gear. However where Cyber Shinobi failed GG Shinobi makes what is probably one of the finest of the franchise on a small little system.
Joe Musashi and his fellow color-coded Shinobi must stop Neo City from...doing bad things, I guess. The main character …
Game Gear Shinobi is another attempt to put Shinobi on a smaller system, this time the Game Gear. However where Cyber Shinobi failed GG Shinobi makes what is probably one of the finest of the franchise on a small little system.
Joe Musashi and his fellow color-coded Shinobi must stop Neo City from...doing bad things, I guess. The main character starts as Joe (Red) and proceeds to save the other colors in a nonlinear fashion. Much like the Mega Man series, each ninja acts as a type the player can turn into and has their own unique ninjutsu, attack, and passive abilities. Whether it's Pink's ability to cling to ceilings and chuck bombs, Green's ability to double jump (even better than Revenge of Shinobi?!) and fire shuriken, and Blue's ability to grapple and become a tornado - each ninja has their own role to play and the player can switch between them as easily as a pause menu selection. It's been done in games before but it's an incredibly welcome change in the Shinobi series.
Like the other games, the GG Shinobi is fairly difficult, but more in the slow-and-steady with quick reflexes style 8-bit platforming (much like a Mega Man game) and rewards careful knowledge of each of the ninjas' abilities.
The visuals are much better than Cyber Shinobi and don't try to push the palette any further than colorful and pleasing areas. The chiptunes are pretty catchy this time and get plenty of excitement.
GG Shinobi is easily one of the best games on the Game Gear and one of the best Shinobi games. For all the experiments Shinobi does with its formula, this one sticks.