Shinobi 3DS - SEGA/Gryptonite Games

[Aki-at]

The IGN preview was the best

"Hur hur I dont even like the series hur hur I suck at them hur hur I guess fans might like it hur hur something something etc etc"

It makes me sad that person got to play it and not me : (

http://ds.ign.com/articles/117/1170840p1.html - Seriously, go read! Be amazed people get paid for that!

[CrazyT]

The IGN preview is actually exciting me more. Especially the part where he described that it needs to be mastered and ducking at the right time.

The only thing that worries me most is... griptonite. They seem to be hired for mostly average games

I think this is their biggest project yet

[Aki-at]

It probably is, but even licensed developers eventually made good games (Prototype and de Blob) the big problem is they never get a good budget or a good time frame to develop a game. With this I'd imagine they have both, disappointed by the graphics though, the 3DS can do a whole lot better.

To add to that, not sure why SEGA picked them over an internal team? The teams picked under Jeffrey's reign had to do with the fact he had worked with them prior (Or they were just known as good developers) so why pick this team?

In anycase, cyborg shark FTW!

PS I feel slightly sorry for the team member of the developer who decided to post on NeoGAF, should not have done that haha!

[George]

Since everyone wants a sequel or it to be like a Shinobi game from a different era. Should I be the one saying it should be a sequel to Cyber Shinobi?

[CrazyT]

It probably is, but even licensed developers eventually made good games (Prototype and de Blob) the big problem is they never get a good budget or a good time frame to develop a game. With this I'd imagine they have both, disappointed by the graphics though, the 3DS can do a whole lot better.

To add to that, not sure why SEGA picked them over an internal team? The teams picked under Jeffrey's reign had to do with the fact he had worked with them prior (Or they were just known as good developers) so why pick this team?

In anycase, cyborg shark FTW!

PS I feel slightly sorry for the team member of the developer who decided to post on NeoGAF, should not have done that haha!

Lol I gotta see that

[Centrale]

Since everyone wants a sequel or it to be like a Shinobi game from a different era. Should I be the one saying it should be a sequel to Cyber Shinobi?

That game is a good example of where games were headed in the early 90s, with an absolutely massive HUD that took up a full 1/3 of the screen!  Although it had a slow frame rate, it did feature simultaneously vertical and horizontal scrolling, which for a long time was thought not to be possible on the Master System.

[Barry the Nomad]

Updated topic title to reflect that this is no longer in question

[Pao]

I was surprised to see some of the people here get excited when they were talking about how Shinobi should be run'n'gun platforming instead of action/melee few pages back... Because the 3DS game sounds like a heavy juggle based hack'n'slash, totally opposite of what they liked and what Shinobi is all about.

When was the last the first level consisted of falling buildings, horse riding, log jumping and then going into a snow cave to battle a witch? Bygone era, that's what it is. Battling a cyborg shark too, yeap sounds like something Joe would get himself involved in.

As I said in my actual post, I need to see the gameplay before I can attack that, or else Sanus would have had very reasonable arguments against Bayonetta. The fact I can attack with shurikens again is reason enough to rejoice, not completely happy with close combat but I do not even know what close combat it is.

As for the art style, I see nothing wrong with it, you cannot expect a series that will soon be three decades old to hold a consistent art style. At least it's better than the Playstation 2 Shinobi art, at least for me. Finally, how are the horses cartoony?

Now that you've seen it, Is that what you wanted? Fighting on top of jets and against cyborg sharks isn't the only thing that makes a Shinobi game, from the trailer and the information, it looks barely like a Shinobi game, why the hell is there juggle moves? is this DMC 2.5D? NO.

When you think about it, its actually more Hack'Slash/Melee focused than the PS2 games, which you disliked, besides juggles, there is a block button,  blocking in Shinobi! I know there was a block function in the Classics, but it was against projectiles only. How much of a hack'slash they want to turn it into? Also, infinite Kunais'... Sorry but that's no where near the original gameplay of Shinobi, and I cannot understand how some people here can't see the huge differences.

If he hadn't done the double jump/multiple kunai throw move I would have thought its a cheap indie game for XBLA.

As for the horses...

Really? The artstyle looks like its out of KungFu Panda movie or some comic, its evident in the design of the horses in how big/comical they are, not to mention the stereotypical "Eastern" building design (looks more like Chinese than Japanese)...overall I'm not like the style, and the gameplay sounds like its more of a hack'n'slash with juggling, which is not I want from a Shinobi game (2D nonetheless).

But its good that you guys like it... It's not for me.  :cry:

I'm afrid you're totally wrong...


The only difference is that in Shinboi 3 he is riding a racing horse and in this one he is riding a farm horse, probably taken from the Oboro village which makes far more sense then if they had a racing horse just laying around...


Is this to cartoony for you?


Honestly I think you are grasping at straws here, you didn't seem to have a problem with Bayonettas really generic depiction of European building designs... So why are you so offended when it is the other way around. Not that I'm picking up what you are talking about, from the 4 pictures we've seen it looks extremely Shinobi like to me... Down to the enemy we see in the first screenshot being straight out of Shinobi 3...

I'm grasping at straws? I'm not the one who threw in a baseless theory that the Ninjas stole "farm horses" from Oboro villiage, when its obviously a design choice given the art direction.  :|

What does Bayonetta had to do with anything, its an original IP, not drastically changed sequel/reboot. I'm arguing that the current art direction of the 3DS game is un-shinobi like...while you guys pretend that not much has changed.

I saw the trailer...let's just say it completely killed any remaining interest I had in the game, Suzuki Yu said it best... To think I have waited all these years for such a cheap revival.

[MadeManG74]

Farm horses are an urban legend, those things don't really exist. Frankly i'm surprised you guys fell for it. Hairy paws? Really?


In any event, I want to play this food poisoning sim that Snaus talked about.

Also from the IGN preview:

At points I had to monkey bar climb over fires, but most of the time I was just marching ahead and beating things up.

Pao and Aki are gonna piss liquid rage

[Aki-at]

I was surprised to see some of the people here get excited when they were talking about how Shinobi should be run'n'gun platforming instead of action/melee few pages back... Because the 3DS game sounds like a heavy juggle based hack'n'slash, totally opposite of what they liked and what Shinobi is all about.

When was the last the first level consisted of falling buildings, horse riding, log jumping and then going into a snow cave to battle a witch? Bygone era, that's what it is. Battling a cyborg shark too, yeap sounds like something Joe would get himself involved in.

As I said in my actual post, I need to see the gameplay before I can attack that, or else Sanus would have had very reasonable arguments against Bayonetta. The fact I can attack with shurikens again is reason enough to rejoice, not completely happy with close combat but I do not even know what close combat it is.

As for the art style, I see nothing wrong with it, you cannot expect a series that will soon be three decades old to hold a consistent art style. At least it's better than the Playstation 2 Shinobi art, at least for me. Finally, how are the horses cartoony?

Now that you've seen it, Is that what you wanted? Fighting on top of jets and against cyborg sharks isn't the only thing that makes a Shinobi game, from the trailer and the information, it looks barely like a Shinobi game, why the hell is there juggle moves? is this DMC 2.5D? NO.

When you think about it, its actually more Hack'Slash/Melee focused than the PS2 games, which you disliked, besides juggles, there is a block button,  blocking in Shinobi! I know there was a block function in the Classics, but it was against projectiles only. How much of a hack'slash they want to turn it into? Also, infinite Kunais'... Sorry but that's no where near the original gameplay of Shinobi, and I cannot understand how some people here can't see the huge differences.

If he hadn't done the double jump/multiple kunai throw move I would have thought its a cheap indie game for XBLA.

I never defended the gameplay! Only everything else.

The only thing I said was I was happy the kunais were making a return.

And no, considering the throwing knives did no damage in Shinobi PS2, I would say this is closer to the gameplay of the original, but still not the original gameplay.

[Sharky]

I'm grasping at straws? I'm not the one who threw in a baseless theory that the Ninjas stole "farm horses" from Oboro villiage, when its obviously a design choice given the art direction.  :|

What's baseless about it? In the first preview, Nintendo Power said that the first level takes place in Oboro village, then they listed the horse riding sequance as taking place in level 1... Baseless nothing, I put two and two togeather...

It simply makes sense that there would be farm horses in villages?...  I'm sorry if you've never seen a farm horse before, I'll get on the phone with god I'll tell him to make farm horses less 'cartoony' and 'western' next time.

What does Bayonetta had to do with anything, its an original IP, not drastically changed sequel/reboot. I'm arguing that the current art direction of the 3DS game is un-shinobi like...while you guys pretend that not much has changed.

Looks like shinobi to me... You make it sound like the Shinobi series has stuck to one art direction all the way through and then in this one it suddenly changed...

Fact is Shinobi series has undergone a ton of changes in art direction, setting, gameplay and even characters...

I'm seeing a Shinobi modeled on Shinobi 3, I'm seeing platforming, I'm seeing wacky bosses, throwing daggers... etc etc, it looks entirely like a Shinobi game. The only real complaint is that the graphics are pretty shit.

[Barry the Nomad]

I like the visual style. I played a bit of each game this morning on my GP2X handheld (all the Genesis, Mega Drive, Game Gear and Master System ones). Visuals and main characters are hardly consistent, and I think the 3DS version benefits from a more stylized look.

While it ain't Joe, it's cool to know it's his daddy. At least we're staying within the family. And who knows, we might have some cool prequel nods to the original games. Would be pretty cool if a young Joe appeared in the game.

[Sega Uranus]

I am genuinely excited to see more for this game, mostly just because I am happy the series is back at all. I want this to be a yearly series again. I need it to be.

I can see what Pao is complaining about, but I think this is really damn close to what most people wanted at the end of the day. Yeah, I would prefer far less close range combat, but with infinite kunai it sounds like you can always use them to fend of your enemies anyways. Outside of Revenge of Shinobi, I always felt like I had too many left over at all times. If anything it bugged me how you could choose no shurikens, but then could still collect them. I think it is likely to be an unlockable in the 3DS release that you can get options to have no shurikens or no close range combat. The 60 achievements sound damn awesome too... Hoping they are good.

The only thing that really worries me is the parry stuff... That could go either way in my eyes. That and this is like, what? The FOURTH game to use the title Shinobi? FFUFUFUFU

I like the art, not going to lie. A lot of people off this site that I have talked to about this release get a great 80s and 90s cartoon feel about it. That is also the time they all played Shinobi games most, so it has a nice nostalgic feel to it all around. I would probably not want this art for a console based release, but otherwise I think it is pretty cool.

Also, you can block in Shinobi III. Hold B, it even blocks close range attacks.

ALSO ALSO YOU PLAY AS JOES DAD HOLY SHIT

[Barry the Nomad]

That and this is like, what? The FOURTH game to use the title Shinobi? FFUFUFUFU

Yeah, that's my only real complaint... which is good as a title is a really small thing in the grand scheme of a game! Though, on the other side of things, the titles are so inconsistent with the series. As they all don't start with "Shinobi" plus a number, so the games are all out of whack when placed alphabetically in a rom list or in a collection or used game store rack. Alphabetically, the first three games are ordered backwards: Revenge, Shadow, Shinobi.

[Sega Uranus]

The people behind the games was almost always different, which is why stuff like Shadow Dancer is so hugely different from Shinobi III, which itself makes no sense because it is technically a direct sequel to Revenge of Shinobi, which was kind of it's own series, but kind of a sequel to the original game, but technically Shadow Dancer was the real sequel, but only the arcade game, while the Genesis release was actually the latest in the series as you play as Hayate Musashi, Joe's son.

*Breath*

Okay so hopefully after this game, one of SEGA's Japanese studios (I am personally hoping for AM3) takes hold of the series and just makes it a consistent series again with a better named group of games.

Some people are giving this 3DS release a lot of flack, but I think a lot of these choices around the game direction actually help the series a lot. A lot have been turned off by the series in the past because they seem too slow or are too hard for some, myself included. Once I finally got into the franchise (late 90s) it was really shocking to me on how much I missed out on all that time.