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?