Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance | REVIEW | PC/STEAM

''THE RETURN AT LAST''

---

Developed: Lizard Cube

Published: SEGA

Genre: Action

Release Date: August 29th, 2025

Platforms: PS5/PS4/XBOX FAMILY/PC/Switch

Shinbo Art Of Vengeance is the first title in the reboot initiative from SEGA and it is developed by Lizard Cube and published by of course, SEGA. With SEGA aiming to bring back and reboot classics like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set and Streets Of Rage - with the first of the bunch to actually come out now being Shinobi Art Of Vengeance, SEGA hopes this is the jump start they need to that initiative. But is it the success they hoped for? or does it paint a dreary picture for all future titles that are upcoming? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

---

''KHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''

---

GAMEPLAY:

Okay I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical when all these reboots of classic series got announced by SEGA. On one hand, the fangirl inside of me that grew up on these titles from the Genesis, Arcades, Dreamcast days, was very excited, but on the flip side of my hype, crept a bit of doubt too. Too many times have companies announced they're rebooting a beloved franchise and then changed everything about it that gave it its soul. This is an all too common theme. Now SEGA wants their shot at proving me and others wrong with a brand new entry into the Shinobi franchise, Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance, which is developed by Lizardcube. This is where more doubt walked through my brain because for those not in the know, Lizardcube developed the amazingly fun Wonder Boy The Dragon's Trap and the extremely MID Streets Of Rage 4. I know that might not be a popular opinion, but I really did not like Streets Of Rage 4. With my personal opinion of the studio being a 50/50 love and hate relationship, I went into this playthrough and experience skeptical but hopeful. Much to my surprise, the game felt like Shinobi left in the first place, even after its long hiatus, giving you both a sense of nostalgia and showing that the more people you have that give a damn about the franchise they're working on, the higher the results you'll achieve. The game starts off with Joe's village being destroyed and burning it down, you know.. the usual stuff to give the hero the motivation to take down the evil villain, giving them they old ''KHAN!'' scream from Star Trek. Then again, if company was pulling a Hunger Games and destroying my District 12 while I was away, I'd pretty ticked off too, so go get them Joe! SLICE THEIR FACES OFF. Rage aside, its time you head on your actual journey to avenge any fallen and your village itself as you using everything at your disposal make sure your Shinobi honor is maintained using your dashes, knives, blade and jumps to move fluidity and efficiently through each games varied levels that all increase in difficulty the further you make it through the story. Trust me, this isn't a walk in the park, its going to take quite a few instances of trial and error just to get the hang of some of the boss fights or even when figuring out enemy weaknesses, no easy shooting an arrow into a knee to a once would be adventurer like us from a peasant in Skyrim, nope, this time you have to dash by an enemy, slice, predict attacks and maintain a speed of battle that makes sure that you do NOT relax, even for a moment.

The style and pacing of the combat is quick and precise and feels exactly like it should, with every aerial leap and dash feeling significant both inside and outside the games combat. The game also does what many other modern games do, which can be seen as good or a bad thing depending on what level of purist you are and aims to cater to both the beginners for a genre like this and then for the more veteran level of player. At the start of the game, it helps you get your feet wet and dipping your toes in the water to help you learn the controls and how to move around and learn easily the basic enemy move list they attack you with, giving the illusion that its going to be a swift and fun time. But nope, keep playing bucko, and you're going to be crying more than I did as a kid when I was forced to play Silver Surfer on NES. Well maybe not that bad, but the difficulty does ramp up, creating a weird balance of easy and hard that feels natural to you because while you may be a beginner at first, you also evolve and getting better as the game itself ramps up, making it feel like a balanced scaled difficulty, which works really well. The stand out for me in this title is Shinobi Execution that allows you to target multiple targets and slice and dice in quick cinematic fashion. Use it and other techniques such as Ninpo, a technique that allows you to fire various strikes like kunai, electric based attacks even other projectiles to use in tight spots where you may not want to go near an enemy, should you be way low on health. Honest, you should just take my approach like I do in the original Mortal Kombat against Shang Tsung, just duck and kick, thats all, you win by being cheap. Granted that doesn't work here all the time, but there are a few instances where you can be a jerk and hide at the corner of the screen and just toss crap at an enemy until they die. Losers, get wrecked. But spam only gets you so far, because you can cheap like that ALL the time due to a recharge mater and cool down system that makes you actually have to ENAGE with an enemy without running 100% of the time, so sorry lazy people, yall gotta get your hands dirty, at least a little bit. The flashy combat mixed with the art style which to me feels like a more advanced version of Wonder Boy blends perfectly together and at times in my opinion feels like you're playing an action based painting, which I know sounds weird given what Shinobi is, but still it's the only thing I could come up with in my head that made sense to me.

Since a lot of these side scroll looking action games nowadays end up as Metroidvania's one way ore another, if you're going expecting that, then well, you're going to be a tad bit disappointed because at its core, with keeping auto-scrolling segments, it mostly a game that offers very low grade exploration with minimal reasons to heavily explore, while also pushing you to the next objective, beat after beat, keeping a fast pace, moving the story along with really now slow downs or even halting in progress. That's not to say there ARENT multiple paths to go on there, don't get it twisted, there's still a good amount of content chunk to bite your teeth into thanks to level rewards that give you incentive to go back to previously beaten levels to unlock new skills, new secrets and even new branching paths that further gain you access to even more rewards. But lets just say you're a stick in the mud and only want to play a level once because you cant wait to get back to Fortnite or something to spam for the 500th time, that's fine as well because the gorgeous levels themselves will still keep you entertained, even if you do want to be a lame duck and play through them just once. Well I'll allow you to be a lame duck, at least this time, just don't come asking if I have any grapes, okay?. Each level and new setting you come across takes you through bazaars, citadels, forests, lava like factories, shipyards, etc. All of these bolster their own enemy types, moving platforms to jump and move across or other hazards to bypass, making each section of the game feel unique and memorable and all while maintaining the charming Lizardcube art style that they've become known for. Though while its fun to battle big baddies, learn their patterns, dodge and item manage perfectly with your attack gauges for Ninpo, giving you a high sense of strategy, flaws still remain that either leave you questioning them or just feel out of place compared to what the rest of the game has to offer you. For example, to up the difficulty a tad bit more, there's a big emphasis on ''trial and error'' and guess sometimes where you want to jump, because sometimes its the most obvious thing in the world, and other times you jump without seeing a ledge or platform and just hope for the best. This in turn can cause frustration and annoyance as it can be seen as cheap gimmick rather than natural progression of difficulty and it happens quite a bit, which doesnt help your blood pressure in the slightest since at the same time you have a currency based store with enhancements to your character locked behind it. While it didnt annoy me, considering I grew up on the cheapest and most jerk games alive with NES that were brutal with blind jumps, I can still see how in the modern age it can be frowned upon. Dont be wusses though, like me in Dragon Ball Breakers hiding from a villain and waiting till last second to use my time machine and ditch all my teammates at the last second. DO NOT BE ME, DONT DO IT.

---

''AND THIS IS TO GO EVEN FURTHER BEYOND''

---

OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance ends up a fantastic time and shoots SEGA off like a rocket to start their reboot initiative. Its not perfect with too much blind faith jumping and concealed items, its still pound for pound an extremely engaging game with fast paced combat, strategy gameplay, gorgeous environments, difficulty level that seems both tough and fair, wide variety of power ups and skills to use in tight situations, boss fights that go beyond just hack and slash and involve critical thinking to memorize their fight pattern, head bopping ost, feeling both new and nostalgic of the old Shinobi games -it all just hits. If this is the type of quality and care put into their IP's that we'll be getting from SEGA and their partners for other games in their reboots, then I feel were all in for some amazing times ahead. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW

---