WOW, Lizardcube has done it again! Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap was delightful, then Streets of Rage 4 revolutionized beat’em ups, and now Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is reviving one of Sega’s most-loved properties with a real banger of a video game. This studio is absolutely killing it and Sega definitely found the right hands for their precious ninja protagonist.

Lizardcube is one of my favorite developers because the games they make are not just consistently fun, but really shine with the incredible hand-drawn art style they've perfected. I'm always looking forward to this team's next projects. Ben Fiquet’s art is just so damn good, if he were to illustrate a comic book, I would definitely read it. In fact, I love this art style so much that I wish other developers would take note of it and blatantly copy imitate this type of hand-drawn visuals for their games as well.

The visual aesthetic of Shinobi—the art in general and hand-drawn animation in particular—is basically perfect. This might be the most gorgeous game I've ever played, and it's in 2D.

I particularly like the character designs here, from Joe Musashi and the supporting cast, like his student Tomoe and wife Naoko, to the enemy and boss designs as well. It’s clear that a lot of thought and care went into crafting the game’s characters, with a ton of references to previous Shinobi titles, much like Lizardcube did with Streets of Rage 4 previously. And geez, some of those bosses are wild ideas!

There’s bits of dialogue exchanged between characters here and there, and I find it pretty funny that Musashi only ever grunts in response to anything. He’s basically your standard silent protagonist seen in most video games, but the grunting always makes me think of Tatsu, Shredder's lieutenant from the original TMNT film.

One supporting character you meet early on in the story is called Ankou, and he’s the literal Grim Reaper…though he’s missing the iconic scythe. To be honest, I don’t really care much for this character. His design looks cool enough, and generally speaking, I do love me some Death in my video games. (Hmm, that may have come out wrong…) But this Ankou guy is so dull and his dialogue is delivered so flatly, I just could’ve done without it. Plus his function in the story is mainly just to explain why the big bad guy is so powerful.

That name though—“the Ankou”—did catch my attention. At first I was really confused, because if it were a Japanese word, it should be pronounced ahn-kō, not ahn-ku (which is a common Japanese pronunciation mistake that irks me way more than it should). However, as it turns out, the Ankou is a figure from British mythology, not Japanese at all. His inclusion is actually an example of how Shinobi game lore blends elements from different cultures; it’s never really been a purely Japanese affair. And that aspect is actually rather cool.

Coincidentally, Chiyo looks kind of like my niece.

Another supporting character is Chiyo, a soldier outfitted with sci-fi tech and kabuki-esque face paint. This tough-as-nails military woman starts out as an adversary to our hero, but eventually becomes an ally. Wait…where have I heard this one before…? Oh yeah, it’s like Estel Aguirre from SOR4 all over again. Well, Chiyo has a more distinct look, although Estel is definitely the more badass of the two. In any case, Chiyo is still a cool character and a fun addition to the game.

The visual design of this game is so good across the board, I honestly have yet to find a knit to pick. Maybe one small complaint would be that Joe Musashi's idle stance, where he appears to kind of be standing on one leg, just isn't quite cool enough for this shinobi. It seems like a callback to Shiva's stance in Streets of Rage—which I also thought looked a bit awkward for an otherwise badass character—but, again, this is the smallest of quibbles and probably not worth even bringing up.

Maybe Musashi’s stance is fine. Forget I said anything.

I’ve focused a lot on the art and visual design so far, but it's not like this game is all style and no substance. The gameplay is incredibly fun. Combat is fast and furious, and dispatching your enemies is super satisfying. Movement in the game is also fluid and responsive, making the platforming exploration of the game's vast levels quite enjoyable on its own.

This is a level-based game, not an open-world-ish metroidvania. Still the levels are huge and sprawling, and yet surprisingly varied in terms of setting locales. And with a good number of secrets tucked away in the corners of each stage, exploring off the beaten path is generally well-reward. These secrets also add a good deal of replayability to each stage, since you’ll probably want to revisit past levels to collect all the goodies they have to offer.

Musashi’s movement is so fluid and responsive, it really makes traversing these spaces fun on its own. In fact, I particularly love the way they’ve implemented not only a wall-jump, but also a wall-run for ascending vertical surfaces. Combine these moves with a double-jump and air-dash, and Musashi can really run all over the map, even before acquiring his grappling hook.

Quick Tip: sections of the map that are shaded purple are generally off-track areas containing a secret. So if you’re wondering which way is an exploratory diversion and which way continues on to the next part of the level, those purple areas are where you’ll want to explore first.

As you progress through the game, you’ll collect currencies like gold and hidden Oboro Relics, as well as find gameplay-altering Amulets and even ‘Ninpo’ special moves. There’s a shop that appears at various points along the way, and there you'll be able to use your gold to purchase new attacks to expand Musashi’s ninjutsu arsenal. Additionally, you will find new ninja tools at key points in the adventure, expanding Musashi’s traversal abilities. These ninja tools include climbing claws, a grappling hook, and glider.

The glider is fine, and it opens up new gameplay options, but I feel a bit ambivalent about it. Basically game developers seem to think that gliders are really cool—especially for ninjas—but I’m not really a fan. With all the snappy movement options Musashi has, the glider always seems to slow down the action. And I don’t really enjoy maze-like segments where you have to glider up through a vertical corridor on an updraft, veering left or right to avoid spikes on the walls and other traps. Like, it’s not terrible or anything, but it feels a bit weak compared to the rest of the gameplay. (Worth noting: the glider in Breath of the Wild is never going to be topped. Best glider ever.)

So the game is gorgeous, level design is excellent, and platforming segments of exploration are quite fun, but how’s the combat? Well it turns out that’s the best part, combat in Shinobi rules!

Here’s the basics: there are two attack buttons (Light & Heavy) which you can string together for combos, a dedicated button to throw a kunai, and a dash/roll button for evasion. New moves can be bought in the shop, my personal favorites being the Dive Kick and Launch Kick. (Never skip leg day, kids!) There’s also special Ninpo techniques you can learn and require a meter to charge, as well as huge screen-clearing Rage attacks. But the key technique to learn right away is the Shinobi Execution.

When you see that 滅 kanji, it’s **execution time**.

As you land attacks on your foes and their health bar is depleted, another little gauge below it is filling up, an execution gauge. Once an enemy has taken enough damage, a red kanji will appear above their head indicating that they can be executed. Now I’m fairly confident this is the kanji metsu (滅), meaning “destruction”—a symbol used by Evil Ryu and Akuma at various points in the Street Fighter series—though I might be mistaken. Pressing L and R together while the symbol appears will make Musashi fly directly into the marked enemy to strike an invincible killing blow, accompanied by a big red splash of blood…for effect. If multiple enemies are marked for death, triggering the Shinobi Execution will cut each of them down in rapid succession.

Not only does the Shinobi Execution look absolutely cool as hell, but it also generates more rewards from downed foes; more gold, more kunai, more health pickups. So even if you weren’t motivated to use the technique for the sake of sheer style alone, the developers added extra incentive for you to go for the jugular. Executions also change up the tempo of combat in a welcome way, keeping the action feeling interesting even in long battles against waves of enemies.

Speaking of enemies, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance features a truly eclectic cast of baddies. You’ve got several variations of the classic enemy types, like enemy ninjas, military soldiers, robots, and the like. Right there, you already have a lot of different combat possibilities. Then you can encounter more supernatural fare such as ghost samurai, flying tengu, and hulking oni. But that’s not all, they also add all manner of weirdo sci-fi monsters as well, like freakish lab experiments gone wrong, slime-based shapeshifters, and literal brains out of a jar…that attack you…like physically lunge at you…again, it’s just a brain. Oh, and there are also spectral horse heads, which might be the enemy I fear the most. (His terrible death whinny…)

The variety of enemies really helps keep the combat fresh, as you need to use different tactics to overcome the different enemy types. And this game doesn’t shy away from forcing you into combat quite a lot. There are many points where you are locked into a specific screen and have to face off against several enemies arriving in waves, so mastering combat is kind of a prerequisite to enjoying the game. But again, it is genuinely fun and super satisfying.

In terms of difficulty, Shinobi felt exceptionally well-tuned to me. Generally a solid challenge, but victory never felt too far out of reach. Well…except for the final showdown with Lord Ruse. That is some infuriating bossfight b#*!&^@. If you played all the way to the end of this game, fought Ruse a couple times, and then just said, “That’s enough Shinobi for me!” I honestly wouldn’t blame you.

In terms of technical performance, Shinobi gets a passing grade from me. I played through the entire game on my original model Nintendo Switch and was satisfied by how the creaky old Nintablet held up. Granted, I did see slowdown when a lot was happening on screen, and the framerate noticeably dipped in some areas, seemingly only because there were so many background elements to render. But even with the hiccups, it was always playable. Load times never really took too long either.

That said, I also played the demo on PC. Seeing how crisp the sprites looked there, and how buttery smooth the game ran, made it pretty hard to go back to the underpowered Switch. Performance purists will definitely want to play this game on PC or PS5. Your average video game enjoyer will surely dig the Switch version. Just don’t compare them side-by-side.

Hey Ryo! How’ve you been? Still looking for sailors?

Wait, this just in… We’ve received word that Ryo Hazuki, from Shenmue, actually makes a cameo! He’s in the Fish Market stage, driving a forklift in the background. Well, there you go, this game is perfect, 10/10! No notes! Also, quick sidebar: Ryo had a part-time job driving a forklift once, for maybe a month back in high school, and they will never let him live it down. As far as Sega is concerned, Mr. Hazuki is a professional forklift operator and that is all. I don’t think they even remember that he is a martial artist.

I’m going to level with you: barring some kind of production disaster, I was predisposed to really enjoy this game. I love ninjas, I love action platformers, I love Lizardcube’s house style of hand-drawn animation; the combination of these things was very likely to win me over. Although to my surprise, they really leaned hard into the more bizarre elements of Shinobi games past and included way more weirdness than I would’ve thought possible.

In any case, I want to be clear that Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is really damn good, it definitely surpassed my lofty expectations by leaps and bounds. It looks amazing, feels great to play, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. This is easily the best Shinobi game of all time, no doubt about it. But I think it’s also in the running for the best 2D ninja game ever made.