16 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIDEO GAME
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2003
Shinobi's back, packed with whole new punch
Since the release of Shinobi 3, I always hoped they would follow up with another one. Of course that was when Sega Genesis ran supreme during the game system wars.
Finally, PlayStation 2 brought back one of the most famous video game ninjas of all time. Shinobi returns with a whole new look, with new tactics, with new weapons and on a whole new console.
Shinobi's new look at first glance resembles that of Strider Hiryu from the PlayStation game Strider 2. Creators gave him a new red scarf as long as his body. It doesn't enhance the game play, but if you ever want Shinobi to run around in circles just for the fun of it, you can now do it.
The game unfolds like this:
You control the young hero Hotsuma, the last of the Oboro clan. You have a mission to destroy demons called hell spawn that have inhabited Tokyo.
vengeance. Your weapon of choice in this Shinobi game is Akujiki, the sword you used to vanquish your brother Moritsuna.
Once you find out that the evil sorcerer who summoned the hell spawn used the corpses of your Oboro clansmen, your mission soon becomes a quest of
Contributed photo
After your fight with your walking, living-dead brother, your sword becomes in Moritsuna's words, "awakened." Your sword feeds off the yin of a person. The yin represents all the malice and evil that people have within themselves.
Once the sword becomes awakened, your attacks become more powerful with every enemy you defeat. The power is indicated in the aura that your sword possess. For instance, if your sword glows aqua, then you have a slightly powered sword. When your sword glows fuchsia, you have a fully powered sword.
REVIEW
This means you must constantly feed Akujiki. If you don't get enough yin into your sword, it will begin to feed off Hotsuma's life energy until it gets more yin. This makes the game more interesting but also more difficult.In order to stay alive, you must always battle. This can cause players to become reckless and accidentally kill themselves.
Christopher Moore
cmoore@kansan.com
Another appealing feature about Shinobi is killing a set of enemies of four or greater. You may notice that once you strike an enemy, he may freeze. If you defeat the set of enemies on-screen in the amount of allotted time, a cinematic scene will ensue with Hotsuma doing a cool pose and sometimes saying lines such as: "I shall have my revenge." And all of the enemies you killed will split in half.
Instead of your shirukens (little ninja daggers that you throw at opponents) being your main weapon as in the old version, your sword is the main weapon for the PS2 version. The shirukens now just paralyze, but they can kill enemies if you throw enough at them.
Also your ninjitsu special powers are back. The powers range from fire damage affecting every enemy on the screen to slightly powering up your sword. But, I do miss the power that allowed you to blow yourself up and cause massive damage to everything on-screen. I guess the kamikaze move is out of style this year.
So, Shinobi has returned with great graphics, exquisite game play and great cinema scenes. The background story behind it is great for this game. Although I wonder why PlayStation 2 has most of its adventure games centered on killing demons. Overall, this game is a must have for anybody who is faithful to the series.
Moore is a Tulsa, Okla., freshman in journalism.
'SHINOBI' ... A
Now available for Playstation 2
Rated Mature for blood, gore and violence
Sells for an average retail price of $50
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