Shadow Dancer

"They call THIS a sequel?"

This is the second game in the famed Genesis series. Made in mid-1990, Sega was kind enough to bring a sequel to Revenge of Shinobi in hardly six months!
There is a 1989 arcade game bearing the same name, but it's NOTHING like this''translation''.
The plot is unequivocally diffrent than the others: set in 1997, Joe Musashi, whom you better know as Shinobi, saw no sign of the Neo Zeed crime ring in a very long time. So he departed to the Apple for a while to see how his old martial arts student, Kato was doing (people named Kato always get in trouble). Joe soon moved back to The Land of the Rising Sun. While Shinobi was on his @##, Kato found out that some miscreants were holding hostages at an elementary school. Kato had no choice but to try to help, but he ended up being injured badly and put in the hospital and passed away soon afterwards.
Shinobi couldn't make it back in time to say his goodbyes, but he had even bigger problems........
Shinobi found out that the evil ninjas were all in a new crime syndicate called''Union Lizard''that took over the city and put it in pandemonium. It was lead by Sauros; a mysterous mutant reptile that has the power to cause earthquakes and other devastating things.
Sauros can't speak, so he lead his army through instinct. Shinobi swore to stop the turmoil.
Luckily, Shinobi's not alone; Kato left his faithful dog, Yamato behind.
Thus, it's up to one man and his dog to clean up what's left of the city.
OVERVIEW
GAMEPLAY:7- I simply don't understand what happened here!
Shinobi must have been doing too much relaxing and not enough training.
First of all, he can't double jump or throw the 8-pack of shuriken anymore (by the way people, stop saying''shurikens''). Secondly he has three new ninja magic attacks to replace the old ones: a (real) meteor shower that's hits everything on the screen, a dual tornado that also hits everything on the screen, and a plethora of fireballs that- you guessed it, hits everything on the screen. What happened to the variety that was on the other Shinobi games?
However, you do have the same normal attacks: the throwing stars, the vastly-improved Sabre, and the POW item that makes you use powerful kicks and punches.
There are two new moves, though: a''next level''leap that makes you jump into a higher area or the background, and the most innovative attack, Kato's old pet dog, Yamato. You can send him to sick some opponents by holding down the attack button for a very brief moment, then releasing it. He'll gnaw on the enemy's foot or costume so you can handle them while they're distracted. If the dog bites off more than he can chew, he will shrink and become useless for a long time.
There are even bonus stages where you're falling between two buildings throwing shuriken at a multitude of ninjas.
The game's last new feature is the hostage saving. Through almost every level, there are three to five hostages that you must save in the given time limit. Too bad that this feature didn't live up to it's full potential; because they're no stages that really make you search for them or race against the clock.
GRAPHICS:6- they are pretty so-so, but Somewhat detailed. You can see a lot of buildings, rivers, and clouds, but as with most Genesis games, they consist of very few colors.
SOUND/MUSIC:7- the sound is very basic too. Just slashing, kicking and shooting.
The music sounds weird, like some kind of 80's tecno. Not anywhere near as good as Revenge of Shinobi's.
LEVEL DESIGN:6+- here's another weakness of the game; it only has five two part levels that are rather short. You fight in a good variety of places, such as a cave that has totally dark spots through half of it and the elevator that goes to the Statue of Liberty.
The enemies are so few that I can name them all: brown costumed guys that just walk at you with knives (and a few variations), gunners that shoot three times then reload their guns until they can shoot three more times, strong guys that hold shields to block dog and shuriken attacks- but throw them like boomarangs if you get too close, armadillo-like soldiers that roll at you then attack, frog-like ninjas that leap and climb, and the hardest, blue, red, and yellow ninjas that all have slightly diffrent mannerisms.
Unlike on other games, here the bosses get progressively WEAKER! The first is extremely hard, the second is tough, the third is average, and the fourth is a disgrace to Union Lizard. However, Sauros himself is one of the toughest bosses of all time despite the fact that he only one pretty avoidable attack.
CHALLENGE:8- unlike the other console Shinobi games, if you get hit once on this one, you die. It's not as hard as it sounds seeing that there are so few enemies and how you can get use to their patterns after a while.
However, the last 2 levels are very hard and the Sauros is a true last boss.
REPLAY VALUE:6+- a decent amount of replay value. You have three difficulty levels that determine how many enemies appear and how much health the bosses have.
Like the other console Shinobi games, you can choose if you want shuriken or not. Only this time, you can only select unlimited or none. It's more fun for me on no shuriken mode.
OVERALL:6+- I don't really even consider this as a sequel to Revenge of Shinobi, since there are only half as many moves, levels and enemies on this one.
The attack dog Yamato is a nice touch, but not enough to make this a true sequel. Don't get me wrong, this is a good game that no Shinobi fan should be without, but don't expect a classic like Revenge of Shinobi or Shinobi 3.

WOULD TERRA BRANFORD BUY THIS GAME?
How the heck would I know?!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/00, Updated 09/02/00