Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

In recent memory I’ve been seeing more game companies resurrect their old series, and placing it into the hands of outside studios. Make something that stands out compared to the usual games they keep putting out over and over again. As much as these games deviate from what the series they stem from, I respect companies doing this. It allows smaller developers to shine and showcase what they’re truly capable of. A few weeks ago we covered Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, which was made by the same studio who made Blasphemous. A hardcore challenging experience that proved The Game Kitchen understood what made the original Ninja Gaiden games great and refined them to a near shine for modern players. Containing enough of that old school DNA and throwing in a bunch of new mechanics to freshen up the ideas at play. Streets of Rage 4 quickly became not just the best game in the series but also one of the best beat ‘em ups.

Giving opportunities to others is great despite how risky it may seem at times. Both sides benefit as one can see the potential in further supporting the now returned franchise, and the other gets to further hone their skills as talented game developers. Another epic game to add onto the pile of “Lesser known dev team being tasked with a big name franchise” is Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. An action platformer developed by Lizardcube and published by Sega. Some of their past work includes the remake of WonderBoy: The Dragon’s Trap, and assisting with the aforementioned Streets of Rage 4. Now you’re probably wondering what Shinobi is. Shinobi was one of the first series Sega put out in their early days. The market was competitive at the time, and companies needed titles for their systems. A reason for people to buy their games as no other console would be offering what they had. Before Sonic they had Shinobi, and it kicked quite a bit of ass. Ninjas were a really big thing in the 1980s and 1990s. Unrelated, but I would say the rise of martial art and kung-fu films back then contributed. Same for samurai films, kaiju films, and anime. Japanese media made its way to the west, and folks were amazedr. It was inevitable ninjas would become popular.

Shinobi is one of Sega’s oldest franchises and for a while the series thrived especially with the Genesis entries. Then it got rebooted for the PS2, and it was then rebooted again for the Nintendo 3DS. Each reboot was worse than the last and moved further away from what Shinobi originally good. It lost its identity and Sega threw it into a locker in the hopes their oldest child wouldn’t suffer anymore. We all know around the mid-2000s Sega struggled to stay afloat to the point they stopped making their own consoles and trying to compete. They were in a rut, but now they’re making a comeback. Sonic sucked a bit, but now they’re putting out well focused entries and a movie trilogy that is surprisingly good from what I heard. Yakuza started off as a niche and now it has a raving fanbase. Atlus, a subsidiary of Sega, started off small too but found mainstream success with the Persona series. One of numerous spinoffs of Shin Megami Tensei, and earlier this year I praised their new property Metaphor ReFantazio for quickly becoming one of my favorite games of all time.

Somebody on that executive board at Sega must’ve thought it would be a great idea to return to Shinobi after having cranked out so many heavy hitters. Everyone at that meeting agreed, drove on over to Lizardcube after seeing their impressive work with WonderBoy, and said “Now go do Shinobi.” Then the people at Lizardcube must’ve been like, “Yes of course” and not only did we get a wondrous revival of the Shinobi brand but we also got a title that’s way more awesome than it needed to be. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a stylish action masterpiece. It contains some of the best combat I’ve messed around with this year, and it is shocking that they’re selling a game with this high of content quality for just thirty dollars. It’s games like this I wish companies would be more open towards doing. Smaller scale projects that do a small handful of things really well and be visually striking without needing a bloated budget for realistic graphics. This game is fantastic and reminds us all on why ninjas or this case shinobis are the coolest motherf*ckers you’ll ever see cliche up a dude. Let’s talk about Art of Vengeance and why it deserves your attention. 

Story

Years ago a young orphan by the name of Joe Musashi was taken in by the Oboro Clan chief. He alongside numerous other children were trained to be highly skilled shinobis. The clan’s goal is to protect the world from the many evils that wish to harm it. Maintain world peace so that no corrupt group of individuals or even demons can tear it apart. Joe has fought many evils over the years. He toppled crime groups, battled monsters, collected sacred relics, and more. He became the greatest shinobi the Oboro Clan had ever seen to the point he became the new chief. Soon he grew tired of his journey. He swore to protect the world, but knew he couldn’t do it forever. He trained multiple disciples, students, and future shinobis to carry on his work. Continue bringing world peace and cut down any signs of devious activity. He found love, settled down, and plans to have a child. One who he wishes will take his place. However, that time is far away and all he can do now is wait. It’s been a few years since Joe Musashi embarked on an epic journey. Each day the Oboro Clan grows bigger and looks toward him for guidance and counseling. He had now become a teacher. Tired, but still willing to move on for others. One of his young students, Tomoe, calls him for daily practice. Joe kisses his pregnant wife goodbye and makes way to the center of the village. Practicing with Tomoe and enjoying the view of the countryside.

A loud explosion is heard and with it fire. The village is under attack and Joe sprints into action once again to protect those he cares about. He finds his students bleeding out or turning to stone. Moving onto the afterlife where they are never to be seen again. Both soldiers and demons are attacking the clan. Executing anything which breathes before them. Joe manages to cut down all who stand his way until he eventually runs into the leader of this coupe. Lord Ruse, a man who has managed to overcome death itself and wields an unholy scythe. He wishes to use his godly powers to take over the world. Bring upon a new era where he controls life and death. Where he is the king of all life and those who disobey are sent to their graves. He knows Joe will be a long term problem, but awaits for when he finally confronts him. When the greatest shinobi in all the world is strong enough to fight a near god. Ruse leaves, and Joe knows what he has to do. Tomoe is tasked with protecting his wife, and Joe rides into the distance. Chasing after the people who wished to teardown all he had worked for. All for which he had fought for these several years. Vengeance, the perfect weapon against those who have wronged you.

Gameplay

To call Art of Vengeance yet another action platformer feels like disservice to what the game sets out to do. There are a total of fourteen missions in this game with only two being autoscrolling sections. The rest are linear stages with platforming and combat challenges. They’re linear, but not in the same sense platformers like Shovel Knight or Ninja Gaiden were linear. The closest I can think of when describing the level design of Art of Vengeance is that it’s similar to the newer Doom games. The way forward is simple, but there are dozens of secrets and optional challenges to find. Treasure chests containing trinkets or upgrades you may want to use. Combat challenges where you fight a short wave of opponents. Rifts containing either extreme platforming sections, enemy arenas, or both. As you explore and fight more enemies you obtain gold, and gold can be spent to unlock new abilities and upgrades for Joe. It’s much like Devil May Cry where you then expand the toolkit of what Joe is capable of. New attacks to unleash on foes and combo between. Combat is a major aspect to Shinbo. The game is about a ninja who slices dudes up. That’s a big giveaway for most people. It is heavy, visceral, and pushes you to vary your approach.

It plays much like Streets of Rage 4 or the recent Absolum, because remember this was made by folks who worked on Streets of Rage 4. You have a light attack combo, a heavy attack combo, a few aerial attacks, and special moves you can perform when you fill up the right gauges. There are two gauges in Art of Vengeance. One to perform a special elemental infused skill, and another to perform an ultimate move. The more enemies you slay the more these gauges fill. If you die you’re sent back to the last checkpoint you were at, so do be careful because running back to the place you were at is a bit annoying. We’ll talk more about this later. There’s a wide array of foes in this game, and some don’t go down easily. You’ll encounter stronger versions of enemies you faced earlier, and some have shields you need to break. Do so and you can start juggling them about much like regular enemies without barriers. It’s best to use combos, because you do not want them getting back up and blasting you with heavy stuff. Learn to go combo mad, and good lord I did. Platforming is what you expect and there’s some light metroidvania aspects. Specific stages give you new gear and it changes how you navigate the levels. Claws to climb walls, the grappling hook, charge punch to break thick glass, plummet attack, and glider.

At the end of each level there’s a boss, and these guys will test your reflexes and skills. Throwing all sorts of attacks at you, and adding new ones  during their second phases to accommodate all you’ve been dealing with thus far. You’ll die quite a bit to these guys, but practice enough and you will bring them falling towards the ground. Do this and the level is cleared. If you want to go back to points where you think you missed a secret then open up the map screen while in a level and fast travel between points. The path forward is clear, but sometimes exploring for what you need makes the long run much easier. Aside from that there’s not much else for me to say about this game. Now go forth shinobi.

Thoughts

I would say Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is the biggest surprise of 2025 aside from Look Outside. From what I saw from a surface level beforehand it looked great, but upon actually playing the game I was blown away. Art of Vengeance is not the deepest game to come out this year. Despite there being quite a bit of story it’s not a main focal point of this game. It’s alright at best and you will often forget it’s there. However, if you aren’t going to be a game with a thought provoking plot or message you might as well make it fun. Art of Vengeance is super duper fun, and that is the dumbest way I’ve described a game in awhile but it’s true. It is incredibly satisfying to play and a huge factor as to why it's well designed combat. In the past I’ve never been a massive fan of games that want you to go combo mad. I’ve played character action games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry, but never got me into the mindset of being stylish. Not because of a skill gap, but more because I felt like they weren’t doing enough to push me to want to. You could argue they have their grading system, but even that never made me care. I never cared for comboing and it explains why I never got into fighting games aside from playing Super Smash Bros throughout high school. This year has been the year that finally got me to start comboing in video games. 

First it was the superb Absolum, the second was Evil West, and the third was this game. Why was it not until these three games that I finally started comboing? The short answer is that comboing is needed if you want to stay alive in these three games. Absolum had you juggling multiple foes and keeping your ground. Comboing enemies and killing them as soon as possible frees space, and allows you to not get overwhelmed by so many foes at once. All the while having you make quick second decisions on who to prioritize or knock out first. Evil West throws you enemies that push you to utilize your tools rather than use the same strategy repeatedly. Following a similar philosophy like Absolum where you gotta maintain your ground so you don’t get overwhelmed. It wasn’t a letter grade or style meter that pushed me to go combo mad. It was actually forcing me to utilize the mechanics that got me to go combo mad, and Art of Vengeance does the exact same thing. Its wide variety of enemies and arena layouts have you quickly thinking who to go chop up first. Do you take on the cannon fodder or the strong bulkier dudes who do heavy hits if you aren’t careful. Enemies with barriers are better striked with heavy attacks or elemental skills, so there’s some encouragement to use them rather than spam light attacks over and over. 

Whereas most action games I never found myself using the heavy attack due to how long it takes to perform I found myself using an even mixture of light and heavy strikes. Mainly because it’s easy to transition between the two, and as you unlock new skills you can transition into different combos easily. My favorite is hitting them with a few light strikes, then a cyclone attack which is performed by pressing dash and attack, and a few heavy strikes. Launch them into the air, slash a few times with aerial attacks, and kick them into the ground. Then do a falling cutter attack, and a few more light slashes. Much like Absolum it feels like I’m playing a fighting game. I love this and I was always thrilled to be thrown back into the fray. The difficulty of the game is well paced and while the screen can get visually chaotic at times I would say it’s not too visually messy. A majority of deaths felt like my fault because I was not paying attention enough, or was button mashing combos rather than learning to time by button presses well and evading on time. The controls for this game are great. I don’t often praise controls in video games, because for most good video games it’s expected they control well. This one feels extra crisp, and I don’t know if it’s because I played the PS5 version. With the shakes in the controller for every time I striked a dude with a fierce blow and kept that rumbling going with long combo streaks.

The platforming is well designed too. I wouldn’t say Art of Vengeance has the best platforming I’ve seen, and I would go as far to say Silksong and Ragebound are better in this department. Still, the platforming here is good and much like the combat the difficulty increases with time as you unlock new tools to traverse the levels with. There’s some epic chase sequences here and there, and they give you enough time and room to react accordingly. Chaining different moves and feeling a shinbo who runs with the wind. To where he’s called towards so that he can do as he may. Finding secrets is fun and despite being someone who likes to focus on the main objective most of the time here I tried to pursue as many optional challenges as possible. Again, the combat is fun and whenever I saw an optional extreme combat challenge I did it. Mainly because the rewards for doing all this optional stuff is worthwhile rather than being trinkets with very little gameplay benefits. Boss fights were fantastic and while some are definitely better than others I wouldn’t say there was a single boss I hated fighting. Their mechanics and gimmicks were fair, and it didn’t take too many attempts. Whereas by the end of Ragebound, I felt ready to be done.

In fact, I think Art of Vengeance and Ragebound serve as good compare and contrast seeing how they came out around the same time. Art of Vengeance has better combat and flexibility. Ragebound is more focused on platforming and being simplistic. One of these is more linear, and the other is linear although not as focused. My only complaint is just its pacing. This game took me around nine to ten hours to beat, and while it was well paced overall there were moments that could’ve been smoother. When you die you respawn back at you last checkpoint. You have to run back to where you died, but what changes is that the encounters you overcame don’t respawn. On one hand I love this. No one wants to redo challenges they struggled through already to get back to where they died. On the other hand it means the runback to where you died so you can continue progressing is empty. Some sections do have enemies harassing you, but they’re not a lot to be a hazard. Art of Vengeance can have five minute sections that feel twenty minute due to runbacks.

Aside from that there’s nothing else I can say is bad with the game itself. It’s well designed, doesn’t go on longer than it should, and keeps things fresh with level mechanics and the constant stacking of combat complexity. The music is great and exactly what you desired for a title about a shinobi flipping out. Both literally and figuratively. The art style is going to be a major selling point for people. Beautiful animation and backgrounds that all flow so smoothly. This year has been great in terms of animation and drawings. Whether it be Hades 3, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Absolum, Ender Magnolia, Rift of The NecroDancer, and of course Art of Vengeance. There’s not a lot for me to complain about, and remember this game is thirty dollars. This feels like the type of product Sega would price at fifty, but I’m glad they didn’t. They noticed the smaller scale just like how Hi-Fi Rush was a small scale project. They charged it accordingly, and I hope the devs of this game make their bank. They made something superb, and I hope they continue to make great games. I strongly recommend this game to those who want great 2D action, platforming, or just love ninjas. In the end I give Shinobi: Art of Vengeance a 9.5/10 for being superb.

9.5/10, Superb