Shien's Revenge

"Nothing, and a mean NOTHING can stop a furious ninja"

This is a phenomenal game. The best part of it is probably the intro. After you turn your SNES on and wait for the developer-logo to disappear, one of the best video game music tracks ever starts. In the dark background, you can see a battlefield. You can read a text that rises on the screen, it's telling the background story. The English translation is terrific.

"The winds howled. And when the soldiers felt the fangs hidden in the wind, they fell without a sound. The name of the winds - Shien and Aska. In a world that has not yet grown tired its civil war, there are still ninjas who are proud of their invincibility ..."

As the camera moves up you see that the battlefield is covered with dead soldiers, hundreds, maybe thousands of them! You, Shien, and your partner and beloved Aska are the greatest warriors, not just of their time, but that ever have and will exist. And that's the key part of the story. (Note, some of the following story details are from my personal interpretation). In the Future, the world is divided in two different parts. Two great warrior-demons are having an intensive battle. They have fought for a long time, maybe hundreds of years, without being able to name the winner and rightful owner of the entire world as we know it. One of the demons, Bangol, comes up with a innovative idea of how he should go victorious out of the battle. By searching in the time for the most skilled warrior that has ever lived. That's right, he finds Shien.

Back in our time, something terrible has happened! Aska has been kidnapped. Bangol wants Shien to follow the kidnapped Aska into the future, so he can take control of their both's combined fighting skills. But there's a problem, Shien wont give up that easy. He will follow Aska into the future and take her back to your time. Not even Bangols legions will be able to stop him. This is where the game starts...

The game is played in a First Person View. You control the hand of Shien while he moves automatically. The game is best played with the SNES Mouse. Really, it is, you should buy it, it's worth it for this game. A left click will throw a ninja star, a quick mouse movement over an enemy will strike with the dagger. Right click and Shien will read a scroll, using a special ninja magic which is offensive. The game is fast paced, you must be good at aiming and parrying enemy projectiles, while you quickly must be able to switch to close combat. There are four different difficulties and a training mode, so the game is also for amateurs.

The levels take place during different time eras. The first mission is during your time and you fight masked ninjas like you, but another level is France during the second world war. The enemy soldiers now fire guns at you, but thanks to Shien's ninja skills, you will be able to see the surroundings in slow motion so you can parry the bullets.

Every mission starts with you walking (or riding a horse) trough a landscape, and enemies who you have to kill, show up in the background or foreground. It's like an standard Arcade Shooter really. But here comes the fun part. In the end of each level, there is a boss. Here the story develops as you exchange phrases with your foe. After the dialogue the fight begins, it's you versus him, he has no allies. These fights are among the coolest you've seen in a 16-bit game. Yes. Very dramatic and action filled, it's like an actual battle between two very skillful warriors. A huge plus for this game, is that the boss fights can be played in VS game with you and a friend, if you connect a second controller into your SNES, you just have to hold down L and R on controller two, when you start the game. This is very fun.

And that's the game... I don't know how to sum it up, so I just end here.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/07