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Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound vs. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Battle of the Ninja

Sometime in the last couple of years, the planets aligned on the same night that a full moon cast an eerie light over the bamboo forests at the base of Mount Fuji, and two separate studios came up with the idea of resurrecting a classic 2D ninja franchise for modern consoles at the same time. Lizardcube dragged Joe Musashi out of the shadows with the Sega-published Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, and The Game Kitchen shone a spotlight on Ryu Hayabusa, creating the Koei Tecmo and Dotemu-published Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Well, kind of. Ryu Hayabusa is in the game, but he’s not playable.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound came out first, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance was the first one to get a physical release, so it was the first one I played. I was going to buy them both on Switch, but the boxed release of Shinobi was a code-in-a-box, which I soundly rejected as everyone should, so I got that one on PS5. Still, I played Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound docked on my Switch 2, and didn’t notice any particular performance issues in either game, so I think it’s still a fair fight. As such, it’s time for me to figure out which 2D ninja action game is the best, and I do this as a fan of both franchises who is old enough to have played both back when they were first released. No ninja favouritism from me!

I’m going to use the most coveted and respected review setup of all, that being the method adopted by premier 90’s periodical, Mean Machines Sega. As such, we’ll be judging each title on the following aspects; Presentation, Graphics, Sound, Playability, Lastability, and Overall. Make sense? No, not to me either, but we’ll get into that shortly, so get your tabi on and bring your kunai, it’s time to take to the shadows.

Presentation

So, what’s the difference between presentation and graphics/sound, then? I guess I’m just not on the level of those fabled Mean Machines Sega writers of old, because I don’t really get it. I’ll tell you what, I’ll use this section to talk about each title’s story setup instead. That’s kind of like presentation.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s story is pretty basic, with a fairly unremarkable bad guy who is leading an enormous and incredibly well-equipped army of soldiers, creatures, and demons on a steamroller journey of world domination. The bad guy, known as Lord Ruse, has somehow cheated Death (yes, the Death) out of his scythe, and so wields incredible power. Ruse’s forces hit Musashi’s village early on and burn the whole place to the ground, murdering everyone except Joe, Joe’s wife, and his newborn child. Mr. Musashi is obviously fairly pissed, and goes on his own rampage with vengeance on his mind.

Being able to play as a ninja of the Black Spider Clan is pretty cool for Ninja Gaiden fans.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound has an interesting story hook in which main character, Kenji of the Hayabusa Clan, ends up becoming a vessel for the soul of Kumori, an equally skilled kunoichi aligned with the shady Black Spider Clan. The two must work together to defeat the minions of a powerful fiend who plans to open the veil into the human world and wreak havoc. The bad guys feel less important than those of Shinobi: The Art of Vengeance, but the relationship between Kenji and Kumori is actually pretty fun to see develop, and the game’s finale wraps up their story in a surprising way, so I think this one takes it.

Winner: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

Graphics

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance goes for that playing-a-comic art-style that Lizardcube had previously used for Streets of Rage 4. It looked great for that game, and it looks great here, and most of the enemy designs are very memorable (I especially like the big guys with the electric gauntlet weapons).

The symbol over this unfortunate fellow’s head means that he’s ready to be executed. Finish him off, Joe!

The backgrounds can be spectacular, with highlights including the sparkling lantern festival, the gorgeous fields that the game starts in, and the rooftops of the night-time city stage. Where Shinobi: Art of Vengeance really excels though is in its animation. Joe’s movements are incredibly fluid and the battles look spectacular, and this helps you feel super cool and badass when you pull off spectacular moves while managing to avoid damage.

Do the visuals lose some personality and authenticity with the move away from pixel art, though? Possibly, and occasionally it feels like the backgrounds lack detail, but it’s a superb-looking game overall nonetheless.

Both games feature a really cool-looking bamboo forest early on.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound has more of a retro feel, opting for the familiar pixel art style. This looks great, although perhaps not as striking as Shinobi. Some of the backgrounds look awesome, especially the early-game bamboo forest and the areas in and around Mount Fuji. However, there were locations that I thought were a little bland with uninteresting colour palettes, especially the stage that’s a big construction area. I also found that Keni’s arms looked cartoonishly huge when he was holding onto the ceiling or hanging off a helicopter. Both he and Kumori’s sprites are gorgeous, though.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound gives players the option to turn off the gore, but honestly it’s pretty cartoony anyway.

Interestingly, both games have a couple of levels and a sub-section of enemies based around body horror themes, and both of them kind of fall flat when it comes to making it, well, gross enough. You know, that sort of stuff should send shivers down your spine, leave you morbidly fascinated and unable to look away despite the soul-clenching nature of what you’re seeing. For an example, look at Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master and its Hydra boss fight, as well as the stage that proceeds it. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s gribblies look too clean and sleek thanks to the art style. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s pixel art style gives the twisted horrors a bit more of a visceral nature, but they still look a bit too cartoony to be effective, even the monstrosity fought at the end of the train stage. Disappointing.

Honestly, there were times during Shinobi: Art of Vengeance where I found myself wishing it went for a pixel art style (especially in the underground laboratory level), but I think that it looks better overall. Both games look great, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance has that extra edge. Lizarcube are winning this one, but it’s darned close.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Sound

While both games sound good, and both games have great, appropriately action-packed soundtracks, only Shinobi: Art of Vengeance had any pieces that I remembered after I’d finished the game. They were the track that plays during the “Ankou Rift” sections, and the battle music from the Lantern Festival stage, if anyone is interested.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Playability

Here we go, the meat and potatoes of any ninja game, or should that be the rice and tofu? Let’s get one thing cleared up straight away; Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is harder. I beat most bosses in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance on my second try, and didn’t have any real trouble until the very last showdown with Lord Ruse himself. The first boss in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (a giant fire bat monster demon guy) took me numerous retries, and things only got more challenging. It never felt insurmountable, though, and I persevered and finished the game in the end. Incidentally, Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn (click here for my review), is harder than either of these games.

This floating boss might not look like much, but is an absolute bitch.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a decidedly old-school action platformer that plays like an updated version of the classic Ninja Gaiden games, and it’s definitely closer to its inspiration than Shinobi. Kenji can do two quick slashes with his sword, and can fling projectiles thanks to Kumori’s assistance. The pair have access to a few equippable special weapons and abilities, and can leap from enemies, projectiles, and certain pick-ups using a mid-air attack, which becomes very important for traversal and combat as the game progresses.

Most enemies fall in one hit, but others are much tougher and require Kenji to get up close and slash away, putting himself at risk of some health bar-sapping counter-attacks. However, there’s a nifty mechanic that can help to make these big boys and girls less of a pain. Certain enemies will have visible auras, and depending on whether you defeat them with the right kind of attack, Kenji can sap this aura, super-powering his next strike, which will make short work of the tougher enemies if you play it right. This mechanic also comes up during every boss fight, and it can feel pretty good when you take out a group of tough enemies or stun a boss thanks to smart use of the available auras.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance feels much more modern and further away from the Shinobi games of old, with Joe Musashi gaining directional attacks, upgradeable combos, and a satisfying execution move. There’s a similar system of equippable items that have in-game effects, but I felt more compelled to experiment with different loadouts in Musashi’s outing. Art of Vengeance will also have players going back to earlier stages once new abilities have been unlocked in order to get to new areas, and as such it has a bit of a Metroidvania flavour. I’m a fan of the ways Lizardcube have expanded on the traditional gameplay, and it still feels like a Shinobi game despite these changes.

Moving platforms over electrified water with rotating flamethrower turrets. Good luck!

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance also has some devious platforming sections. I didn’t find the Ankou Rifts too bad (optional areas that provide combat or platforming challenges that provide Joe with a stronger weapon if you beat them all) but there were occasional optional areas in the main levels that slipped from challenging to aggravating. The most egregious example of this was a platforming section known as the “secret bunker” in the battlefield stage late in the game. That place was a nightmare, and was the only time I felt like the controls were working against me, but I beat it.

Both games have some really cool set-pieces, including levels based on moving trains, and “mounted” stages, with Shinobi having a mechanised surfboard interlude as well as another one that’s a slight spoiler, and Ninja Gaiden having a couple of sections on a scrambler bike belonging to Kumori. One later stage in Ninja Gaiden has Kenji leaping from vehicle to vehicle in a military convoy, which was a nice bit of spectacle.

You wouldn’t believe how unnaturally talented Kumori is in the saddle.

Lastly, I encountered glitches in both games. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound had Kumori riding her motorcycle backwards after a collision in one of the on-wheels stages, which was a little confusing and immersion-breaking but didn’t hurt in the long run, but there was one instance of a section of a level starting with Kenji falling through the floor and dying, even when I restarted from the last checkpoint. I had to quit the game completely and restart the level from the beginning to get past it, which was annoying.

Shinobi: The Art of Vengeance hit me with a recurring glitch where the map screen wouldn’t correctly identify where Joe was in the stage, which actually proved to be a major setback when I was searching for the last few collectibles in a stage. Also annoying.

Both games are incredibly smooth and satisfying to play, though, and are challenging in such a way that rarely falls into frustration. However, due to the sheer spectacle and “cool” factor of Shinobi’s combat, I have to hand it to Joe.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Lastability

Well, the campaign in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a lot longer. With the expansive, Metroidvania-lite levels and the backtracking Joe Musashi’s adventure will last you a fair bit longer if you’re the type to play through a campaign once and then move on. When the campaign is completed an arcade mode is unlocked where the goal is to finish each stage in a good time while locating all the collectibles and taking as little damage as possible (as well as finishing the boss off using the awesome execution mechanic). Attaining S rank is pretty challenging, and then when you add in the Ankou Rifts, an unlockable boss rush mode, and the optional secret boss, there’s plenty there for completionists to get on with.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a more focused experience, with the ranking mechanic applied from the beginning of the game. In my experience it was slightly easier to attain an S rank in Ninja Gaiden (depending on whether one of the stage’s challenges involved beating the boss without damage or something crazy like that), but I didn’t especially try for the S ranks in either game so I can’t speak with too much authority on it. Once the campaign is completed a hard mode is unlocked, and there are also secret ops missions which are challenging optional stages in the vein of Shinobi’s Ankou Rifts.

When it comes to sheer content, though, I’ve got to give this one to Mr. Musashi again.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Overall

Well, it’s looking like a bit of a Shinobi whitewash at the moment, but that’s really not the case. Every single category was very close, especially the all-important playability category, and the relationship between Kenji and Kumori in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound did add a lot of personality to win me over. Of course, Joe Musashi is a legend, and Kenji and Kumori are mere newcomers, but I really enjoyed their interactions and this iteration of Joe comes across as more of a personification of vengeance who says literally one word over the course of the entire game. That does give him a badass edge, though.

Like I said early on, both franchises mean a lot to me. I played and loved the Shinobi games as a kid on the Master System and Mega Drive, but I didn’t play any Ninja Gaiden games until the 2004 reboot and only played the classic games in retrospect. However, whereas I view the Shinobi games as great titles, 2004’s Ninja Gaiden is one of my favourite games of all time, so there’s no real favouritism here. Just based on how I feel about both games, though, I don’t think I can wrangle a plot twist and name Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound as the overall winner despite Shinobi taking most of the categories. It’s great, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance just has that edge, a more palpable “cool” factor, and the combat is so darned satisfying.

Winner: Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Really, though, both games are winners, and I’m just grateful to have had the opportunity to play two brand new 2D ninja action games here in 2025. Which ever game you choose to play you’re in for a fun and challenging time that has plenty of spectacular content to offer, and if you’ve got a few extra pennies, you could always double up. Support your local ninja in these trying times. Buy both!

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master – Retro Review

The Ninja Game That Ex-Zeeds Expectations

My most successful writing endeavour to date was a script I put together for the TripleJump YouTube channel about the ten most disturbing 16-bit video game bosses. I had the idea for the list myself and it ended up performing incredibly well. At the time, most TripleJump videos would get 20k to 30k views in the first week or so, and this one rocketed up to the hundreds of thousands. The algorithm must have really liked it, I guess. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever written, and to my eternal shame I forgot to put the Vortex Queen from Ecco the Dolphin at number one, but I’m still very proud of it.

The whole idea was spawned by a boss from Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master on the Mega Drive. The game’s third stage, ominously named “Body Weapon”, is set in a laboratory complex where the bad guys are brewing up disgusting minions in bio-vats. Slime-covered humanoids emerge from biological waste beneath the floor and brain monsters with insectoid wings lurk on the ceilings, ready to pounce on unsuspecting infiltrating covert operatives.

Towards the end of the stage Joe Musashi, the titular Shinobi, will find himself up to his shins in organic matter in the sewers beneath the laboratory complex, and a gigantic and grotesque figure emerges from the waste in the background, spewing energy projectiles at our beleaguered hero. This creature is known as Hydra, and at the end of the stage Joe will come face to hideous face with it. Hydra’s pixelated horror is a perfect representation of how developers from the 16-bit era managed to expertly create uncanny abominations using the limited resources at their disposal. Limitation breeds creativity, as they say.

When Joe isn’t desperately battling gigantic, malformed, pulsating, atomic beam-belching monstrosities in infested sewer systems, he can be found traversing various cool action movie-style locations while taking on the rest of Neo Zeed’s minions. The game starts out in a forest teeming with enemy ninja that leads to a series of watery caverns, but soon enough Joe will be fighting on horseback under a stormy sky, traversing an industrial facility in a burning wood, crossing a bay on a cool, motorised surfboard thing, leaping from falling rocks in a moonlit ravine, and much more. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is full of awesome set-pieces that make it that bit more memorable that its predecessor, The Revenge of Shinobi.

This game convinced me that I wasn’t cool enough to grow up to be a ninja.

Unlike that game, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master didn’t benefit from the craft of 16-bit musical legend, Yuzo Koshiro, but the team of composers that were brought on board for the follow up still did a stellar job, providing a distinct soundtrack full of epic highlights. The strange yet bombastic tones of “My Dear D”, the music that accompanies the aforementioned Hydra battle, are a huge contributing factor to that section of the game’s ability to stay with me for all of these years, but the entire adventure is backed up by blood-pumping and thematically appropriate tunes.

The gameplay was tweaked since The Revenge of Shinobi, and progress is a bit easier overall. Joe can now dash, and is able to perform a super-stylish flying kick and an awesome-looking running slash that comes complete with a generous helping of invincibility frames. He can also leap from wall to wall, which results in some interesting level layouts that test Joe’s newfound agility. While still difficult at times, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master goes for spectacle over challenge, and if you know me, you know I’ll take awesome moments and memorable set-pieces over controller-biting difficulty levels any day of the week.

There are a couple of sections in the game that slightly interfere with the pacing, like this slow-moving lift section crawling with Zeed soldiers.

Alas, if you’re a strictly physical-only gamer (which I totally respect) Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is a little bit expensive to get hold of nowadays. I think it’s a better time than The Revenge of Shinobi (which I also adore, by the way), but is it £100 better? Probably not. Still, with Lizardcube’s Shinobi: Art of Vengeance a few months away at the time of writing, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is the best Shinobi game out there in my opinion, and provides a non-stop roller-coaster of awesome, ’90s ninja-based action. Watch out for that third boss, though. Hydra has a tendency to stick with you, even more so than the Vortex Queen, apparently.

The Ooze – Retro Review

It’s Slime Time

An oft-forgotten monster type in the preternatural pantheon (unless you’re a fan of JRPGs or Dungeons & Dragons, that is) is the humble ooze or slime. These corpulent masses of gelatinous gunk used to be a mainstay of the big screen in the era of B-movie horror, with Steve McQueen’s The Blob leading the way and such masterpieces as X the Unknown and Caltiki – The Immortal Monster also getting in on the sentient slime action.

Not to be outdone, Sega Technical Institute came up with the idea for a 16-bit video game with a focus on vengeful viscosity, offering ’90s kids the chance to live out every gamer’s dreams of becoming a formless, quivering mass of repulsive goop. They unleashed The Ooze in 1995.

The game is at its most entertaining when you’re slithering through cramped areas and Dr. Caine’s form assumes the shape of its surroundings.

The game kicks off with a simple cutscene detailing the dramatic story of how the titular ooze came to be. A scientist known as Dr. D. Caine uncovers a plot at a chemical plant involving an evil corporation unleashing a toxic gas amongst the populace and then making a killing selling the serum that cures its effects. Shocked and ashamed, as Dr. Caine was the one who invented the gas, our hero tries to put a stop to the corporation’s nefarious plans, only to be captured, injected with gunk, and disposed of with the rest of the sludge. The bad news for the bad guys is that Dr. Caine survived, gained a new, goopy form, and is out to stop their schemes and regain his humanity.

This schlocky set-up results in a top-down action adventure in which players are responsible for guiding the puddle that was Dr. Caine through a variety of levels, slapping various enemies with extendible, gooey tendrils, and utilising goop-spitting attacks to clear the way. As the ooze comes into contact with environmental hazards or enemy attacks the puddle will shrink in size, with Dr. Caine’s adventure coming to an untimely, slithery end if the puddle gets too small or his goopy head takes too many hits.

Dr. Caine’s fate is actually pretty brutal when you think about it.

Alas, controlling this bilious mass is a mixed bag. While it’s fairly satisfying to slither around and squeeze our slippery hero through gaps and around terrain, the choppy animation and lack of visual clarity as to Dr. Caine’s status do detract from the overall experience. It can be difficult to tell just how close our oozy hero is to expiration, resulting in some surprising game overs, and discouraging use of Caine’s slime spit attack as it takes away from his sludge reserves.

When it comes to presentation, The Ooze isn’t one of the Mega Drive’s finest. Sega Technical Institute, an American branch of the Japanese giant, were also responsible for Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, and some similarities in the music and visual style are apparent, but that game is much more aesthetically and aurally memorable than this one. If The Ooze looked and sounded more like Sonic Spinball’s toxic caves opening level, it might have lingered longer in the minds and hearts of gamers, but it was not to be. Instead, The Ooze is a little bland visually and, in the earlier stages at least, looks strangely reminiscent of Bitmap Brothers’, The Chaos Engine, although less coherent in its artistic vision.

The Ooze got a fairly negative reception upon release, but this seems a little unfair. It’s an interesting game that’s entirely unique on the console. Moving the goopy protagonist around the stages is fun in its own way, and slurping up goop dropped by enemies to further bolster our hero’s mucilaginous form is a satisfying mechanic. The team at Sega Technical Institute had some great ideas, and for the most part, they implemented them well, but it just needed some additional polish and personality to take it to that next level of quality.

The game is actually kind of hard. You might find it easy though, being such an expert and everything.

It’s a tad expensive to pick up a complete copy nowadays, but if you do find the concept interesting and can play The Ooze through other means, I recommend giving it a go. You should at least have a decent amount of fun enveloping the minions of the evil corporation in your slithering, overwhelming, coagulated, quivering folds. That’ll show ’em ooze boss.

This article was written for a now-defunct Sega magazine and never used. Played on Mega Drive via emulation.

Gauntlet IV

Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard, Elf, and a Couple of Legendary Bards

The idea of the Gauntlet games always appealed to me as a kid. It had that exotic-yet-comfortable classic fantasy vibe, featuring swords and sorcery, Valkyries and barbarians, and hordes of evil minions to slay in the name of justice (probably, I never paid too much attention to the storyline), but it combined this with a heavy dose of good old-fashioned, co-operative multiplayer. The venerable series takes an arcadey approach to dungeon crawling, with its fast-paced, projectile-based combat, maze-like levels, and constantly dwindling health reserves designed to suck up your coins, and leaves concepts like party management and stat wrangling to the likes of Wizardry and SSI’s Gold Box series of stuffy D&D games.

In 1993, a game called Gauntlet IV was released exclusively for the Sega Mega Drive. Developed by M2 and published by Tengen, it served as a sequel as well as a remake, providing a port of the original game as its “Arcade Mode”, and adding in a unique “Quest Mode”, where players could purchase items and access limited character levelling.

The controls are tight and it’s satisfying to lay waste to hordes of enemies. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, though.

The game is good; a very competent translation of Atari’s original title with plenty of added content and four player multiplayer available across Arcade, Quest, and Battle modes. The tried-and-tested Gauntlet gameplay survives intact and the twists put on the formula by M2 are welcome. The graphics are fine, if a little dull (the dragon bosses added in Quest Mode are very flat and barely-animated), the digitised voices are kind of a mess but have a janky charm, and there’s enough content to keep enthusiasts occupied for weeks. A sterling game, but unremarkable by the stellar standards of the Mega Drive’s top titles. Here in 2025, Gauntlet IV is all but forgotten, and it’s no real surprise, as there isn’t a whole lot about the game that makes it stand out.

Well, apart from the fucking incredible music, that is.

That’s right – this isn’t one of my retro reviews, this is a love letter to one of the most overlooked soundtracks on Sega’s 16-bit banger factory, as when it comes to perfectly-realised musical accompaniment, Gauntlet IV is (in my opinion) right up there alongside the three big S’s, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shinobi, and Streets of Rage. The soundtrack was produced by a pair of musical wizards; Hiroshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, whose best-known works include Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, and combines Conan-style, bleak, heroic fantasy fare with atmospheric electronica to masterful affect.

It may not look like much, but by the four elemental towers does it sound great.

If you look up this soundtrack on YouTube or some other soundtrack-storing app or website, you’ll find that the first five tracks consist of a somewhat generic-sounding main title theme followed by four tempo-shifted versions of a rather grating “Treasure Room” song. You’d be forgiven for writing off the soundtrack as forgettable, uninspired plinky-plonk at this point, but I advise pushing on through, as 16-bit, dark fantasy masterpieces await the determined.

For the last part of this article, just for fun and to indulge myself a bit, I’m going to pick out some of the musical highlights and attempt to flex my creative writing muscles to describe the atmosphere each tune evokes to me. If you read this, perhaps check out the soundtrack and see if it takes you to the same magical places.

Whisper of Phantom

A lone traveller crosses a barren swamp where once a great battle was fought. The warrior’s heartbeat pulses, gripped with fear as he peers into the unnatural darkness, the shapes of twisted trees and the shattered remnants of ancient fortifications looming like spectres from an unnatural mist. Hulking scavenger birds peer from their gnarled perches and unseen creatures skulk in the muck and fog. A lonely pipe or flute plays a distant, unsettling tune that calls to the ghosts of warriors that still haunt this place, the notes occasionally threatening to bring a tone of hope, but always descending into loss and loneliness, perfectly suited to this forsaken, haunted land.

Sortie

A hero returns home from a triumphant victory, the high walls of the city topped with rows of baying admirers and draped with shining pennants. The hero has triumphed through strength of arms, and his servants bring carts loaded with treasures from another land and decorated with grizzly trophies of an ancient and hated foe. The people are elated, foreseeing a time of wealth and plenty, but every great victory comes at a cost, and an ominous, orange sun sets as the mighty gates close behind the hero’s retinue, painting the city’s walls in a blood-red glow. Tonight, though, is a time for rejoicing. They can worry about the future tomorrow.

Adventures of Iron

A band of stalwart warriors defend the walls of a mountain fortress as a storm descends across the walls. The fortress is a rare bastion of good in a barren and savage land, and dark hordes accompanied by furious beasts ascend the rocky slopes. Lumbering giants scale the walls with ease, only to be met by the axes and arrows of the heroic defenders, and minions of the dark gods astride snapping wyvern mounts descend from the darkened skies, but many are brought low by hurtling ballista bolts, their winged corpses crashing on the mountainside below. The tide of the battle is slowly turning. This encounter will be hard fought yet, but beams of golden light begin to penetrate the clouds.

Transparent Obstacle

A group of adventurers have been tempted into a crystalline cave by a malicious spirit. Deep inside, a supernatural light shimmers along shining surfaces, and all sense of space is lost. Powerful treasures and untold riches sit in out-of-reach places beyond thick walls of clear crystal. A jade statuette appears to move out of the corner of an eye, a spoke of radiant, near-invisible thread seems to vibrate, like the web of some unseen arachnid. A passage descends into the earth, both ominous and enticing. The adventurers gather their wits and press onwards, and from some unseen location, an unknown intelligence watches them closely through the eyes of its skittering familiars.

There you go, and I only used a thesaurus once.

Devilish – Retro Review

Bounce Your Balls Through Spooky Halls

If there’s one thing that Atari’s block-bashing 1976 arcade hit, Breakout, needed to make it a little bit more eye-catching, it was a sinister sprinkling of ghosts, ghouls, demons, and other monstrosities. Japanese software developer, Genki, thought so anyway, and came up with Devilish for the Game Gear, an unholy take on the paddle-based, ball bouncing, Breakout formula.

Before we get into the gameplay, though, let’s take a look at exactly why a pair of elegant-looking paddles are bopping a mystical ball around a selection of menacing locations. The legend goes that a prince and a princess were in love, and a jealous demon turned them into a pair of stone paddles. That’s the first thing the demon thought of, apparently. Not frogs. Not statues. Paddles.

The boss fights take place against a plain, black background – as was the tradition at the time.

Unfortunately for said demon, a mystical and mysterious ball came into existence that the paddle-prince and paddle-princess could use to absolutely batter the demon’s minions and fortifications, Odama-style. This all results in a pair of stony sovereigns bashing a beautiful blue ball into blocks, bricks, bad guys and boogeymen, all in the name of love.

The game takes place across six scrolling stages, with players able to select from a number of paddle configurations and move the top paddle higher or lower into the screen. The aim is to reach the end of the stage within a strict time limit, with points awarded for blocks broken and monsters flattened.

It’s a fun idea and a nice, occult take on the Breakout formula which is ideal for handheld gaming. It can occasionally feel frustrating, with the bouncing physics often hard to predict, and certain enemies and obstacles seemingly designed to get under your skin with their time-wasting bullshit, but when you get it right and bust through vast sections of a stage with ease, it can feel pretty satisfying.

The guy in the hat makes the other zombies dance. It’s probably referencing some obscure ’90s thing…

The time limits for each stage are very tight, and with only six stages and many sub-two minute target times, a full play through of this demonic adventure will take you less than a quarter of an hour, once you’ve mastered the gameplay, that is.

Short life-span aside, Devilsh is an entertaining Breakout clone with a liberal dose of blasphemous imagery mixed in for good measure, and high score-chasers will have a rollicking time flinging their paddles about with righteous, ball-blasting fury. Be a bit careful with them, though. They’re royalty, remember.

Sinister Sequel

If roughly fifteen minutes of demonic paddle-spanking isn’t enough for you, there is more to be found out there if you’re willing to enter the shadowy realms of importing, console modding, or emulation. Known as Bad Omen in Japan and Devilish: The Next Possession in America, this fiendish follow-up was developed by Aisystem Tokyo, and reuses the plot and gameplay of the original, sprucing up the visuals, adding multiplayer, and drawing out the length a bit.

It’s more of the same but bigger and better (and with a pretty badass front cover, too), but us here in Europe were deemed unworthy, and the pair of monarchical paddles never landed on our fair shores. Not releasing the cool, fiendish sequel in Europe? That’s a paddlin’.

This article was written for a now-defunct Sega magazine and never used. Played on Game Gear via emulation.

Krusty’s Super Fun House – Retro Review

Can’t Afford the Exterminators? Send in the Clowns.

Hey, kids! Remember when Krusty the Clown was just Homer Simpson with funny hair and a red nose? No? Well, playing Krusty’s Super Fun House for the Mega Drive will probably jog your memory. In this platformer-puzzler, you’ll play as the titular troubadour as he collects pick-ups, opens doors, leaps from platform to platform, and herds dumb rodents to their cruel and brutal fates. Imagine Lemmings, but in reverse; instead of trying to save the conga-line of critters, you’re attempting to lead them to their untimely demise for the sake of a rodent-free fun house. No one likes rats in their fun house.

Is flattening the rats with a comically oversized boxing glove really the best idea they could come up with? Bart and Krusty, I mean, not the developers.

Players control Krusty directly, his cutesy, deformed sprite sporting a lolling, open-mouthed, buffoonish grin. Krusty circa 1992 is a far cry from the hard drinking, hard gambling, chain-smoking malcontent we know and love today, and players must guide this wholesome version of Krusty around increasingly complex levels, finding collectibles, fending off enemies, and redirecting rodents. Every single rat needs to be mercilessly splattered before Krusty can exit the level and move on, with hidden areas generally containing random pick-ups that contribute to a superfluous-feeling points tally.

The actual vermin-guiding is achieved by finding moveable blocks and placing them around the levels. The rats can step over a single block, but will reverse direction if they hit anything that’s two blocks or higher. Using this information, and the various fans, pipes, and other such paraphernalia scattered about the fun house’s funtastic hallways, players can apply their clever clown brains to place blocks in the correct place so that the rats resume their inexorable march to doom. Things can get quite tricky, with solutions often requiring lateral thinking, extensive trial and error, and quick wits, if the rats are to be located and directed before they can permanently evade capture.

The rat-catching gameplay is fine, but Krusty’s Super Fun House is filled with a lot of unnecessary fluff. The enemies seem mostly redundant and randomly placed, and the stages are almost all far larger than they need to be. Each stage will have a section designed to funnel the rats around, and then an often vast swathe of nondescript back-rooms to explore with no compelling motive.

What part of the Fun House is this? The unnecessary and nonsensical part, that’s what.

The rodent herding is cool, the graphics are okay, and the fun, old-school Simpsons vibe is part of our shared social history, but Krusty’s Super Fun House just ends up feeling a little bit empty. Maybe a lodger will help the place feel more lived in – I heard Sideshow Bob is looking for a place to stay again.

Paint It Yellow

Krusty’s Fun House was released on multiple formats (with the 16-bit iterations adding the “Super” to the title), but it’s actually a reskin of an Amiga game called Rat-Trap, in which a pink-haired fellow places blocks to guide rats into rat-catching machines. Audiogenic, the original developer, took Rat-Trap and gave it the Groening treatment, adding Simpsons-themed posters, replacing the nondescript, pink-haired youth with Krusty, and redesigning the rats to look a bit more like they’d fit in among the alleyways and drainpipes of Springfield.

This article was written for a printed Sega magazine but never used. Played on Mega Drive

Donald in Maui Mallard – Retro Review

A Duck Pretending to be a Duck Pretending to be Another Duck

This is the second and last review I wrote for Sega Mania Issue 8, and as such is written from a 90’s perspective. This one had a couple of boxouts as well, which I’ve presented as best I can with any knowledge as to how to do layout properly.

Donald’s back, put possibly not quite how you remember him. Eschewing his usual, fashionably questionable sailor outfit, he’s arrived for his next action-packed platformer in a much more agreeable Hawaiian shirt and cap ensemble. That’s right, this is Maui Mallard, Donald Duck’s medium-boiled, crime-fighting alter-ego. The identity swapping doesn’t stop there, either. Maui Mallard has an alter-ego of his own. Cold Shadow is a black-clad ninja, a master of bo staff combat, and a proponent of nimbly leaping up narrow shafts. This explains the confusing situation of the game’s alternative title, Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow. Really, if we’re being accurate here, the game should be called Donald Duck in Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow, but I guess they would have run out of space on the spine. Whichever way you look at it, you’re going three-deep in Donald Duck personalities during the ninja sections, which is an experience in itself regardless of how good the game actually is.

Luckily, the game is really good. Donald in Maui Mallard is a platformer in the same vein as the cantankerous mallard’s previous Mega Drive escapades. However, Donald seems to have been doing some cross-fit training since the QuackShot days, as he has a much sleeker sprite, moves much faster, and controls a little bit looser. Where QuackShot (and indeed the Illusion series of Disney platformers) had a very considered pace with tight controls and forgiving platforming. Donald in Maui Mallard has a much more frantic feel, with enemies coming from all angles, more haphazard jumping controls, and platforms whose edges aren’t always clearly identifiable.

This screams *Aladdin* to me. You know, apart from with a ninja duck. There were no ninja ducks in *Aladdin*. Just an angry parrot.

In this way, it feels like it inhabits the lane between the “traditional” Disney platformers like the Illusion series, and the more modern Disney platformers based on the big, box office movies such as Aladdin and Lion King. This crossover can be seen in the art-style and the gameplay, as well as the mild jump in difficulty, and it could well be exactly what many Mega Drive owners are looking for.

Leaving his plunger gun at home, Donald as Maui is armed with a bug-launcher that fires insects that can be collected throughout the stages. The basic ammo has a fairly short range and takes a few shots to defeat most enemies, but upgraded invertebrates can be collected and even combined to form powerful, boss-bothering bullets or handy homing projectiles. The enemy designs are imaginative and in-fitting with the tropical, voodoo vibe, ranging from juicy-looking spiders to wild natives to zombie ducks. Maui has plenty of health to survive numerous enemy encounters, and there is a generous sprinkling of health-restoring power-ups to be found throughout the stages, but this generosity is offset by some devious level design and a fair few tricky platforming sections suspended over instant-death drops.

From the second stage onwards, Donald as Maui can take on the form of Cold Shadow. This feathered ninja warrior can take out most enemies with one thwack of his stick, and is a lot more manoeuvrable with a plethora of staff-based options to traverse the expansive levels in interesting ways. He can attach himself to various outcroppings and swing to higher platforms, and can wedge his stick in narrow shafts to gain the leverage he needs to leap higher. For the most part, you’ll want to play as Cold Shadow as much as you can, but there are times when Maui Mallard’s ranged attacks and bungee jumping abilities are preferable (or even necessary). In order to stay in his Cold Shadow form, Donald must collect symbols to stop a meter from ticking down. Luckily, these collectibles tend to respawn near tricky jumps that require Cold Shadow’s specific skills to negotiate, so you’ll never find yourself in a situation where you’re unable to progress, even if it can occasionally feel that way.

Both the Maui and Cold Shadow sprites are smooth and full of character, and have plenty of amusing idle animations to entertain you while you’re having a breather. The environment graphics are top notch, too, with sinister voodoo mansions, clandestine ninja hideouts and savage, moonlit savannahs all looking suitably atmospheric. The game has a dark and mysterious ambience, with later levels even taking on a bit of a Lovecraftian vibe, consisting of maddening death-worlds with bizarre architecture and gigantic, floating eyeballs. It’s not the kind of location you’d expect to be exploring in a Disney title, but I guess kids have to face up to the concept of hell dimensions at some point.

That’s right children, it’s always watching.

The music befits the tropical and occasionally occult vibe, usually taking the form of ambient accompaniment in lieu of catchy tunes that you’ll be whistling while you take the dog for a walk. Most of the tracks feature a pleasing and thematic beat to match the game’s quick and occasionally frantic pace, and you’ll probably find that your toes are tapping throughout. You’ll also hear plenty of sampled martial arts cries and grunts, artfully representing Donald’s new-found ninja skills.

As a platforming experience, Donald in Maui Mallard gets the basics right, and then takes you on a weird and wild journey of new ideas and unusual themes. Donald’s two distinct personalities offer different gameplay styles, and the levels that allow you to jump between the ninja and detective personas give you the freedom to take on enemies and obstacles however you please. The boss fights provide another layer of variety. Whether you’re unloading special bug ammo into the metallic spider boss of the first stage, or battering a floating lava-duck head around with your bo staff in the volcano level, the bosses are wacky, unique and appropriately challenging.

Remember *Darkwing Duck*? What about *Count Duckula*? Hey, remember that penguin from *Wallace and Gromit*?

The game isn’t without its frustrations. Platforming sections can occasionally be fiddly and unsatisfying, and there are moments when the way forward is unclear, but on the whole the challenge is well balanced between being accessible to kids and newbies and giving platforming pros and gaming veterans something to think about for a week or so. Donald in Maui Mallard feels like a modern Disney game. Whereas QuackShot was like playing an episode of Duck Tales and The Lucky Dime Caper was reminiscent of classic Donald cartoons or comic strips, the animation style and dark undertones on offer here exude that new and edgy ’90s style. It’s not quite as comfortable as the previous Disney mascot titles, but it’s not trying to be. This one is trying to get your heart pounding and act as your gateway to the concepts of dark magic, the risen dead and tribal sacrificial practices, rather than take you on a wistfully whimsical journey through wistful whimsy.

Donald in Maui Mallard is a glimpse into Disney’s darker side, but more importantly, it’s a very competent platformer with loads of personality. It won’t replace the likes of QuackShot and World of Illusion in my heart, but it will definitely sit proudly alongside them on my shelf. I suggest you find a place for it on yours.

Donald, P.I.

I mentioned in the main part of the review that Donald in Maui Mallard is a very modern-feeling Disney title, but there’s a hefty dose of the 1980s mixed in that makes that claim come across as a little tenuous. Maui Mallard, self-described “medium boiled” detective, is this game’s take on Tom Selleck’s Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV, the lead character in ’80s detective thriller series Magnum, P.I.

The similarities are plain to see – both are pistol-toting, Hawaiian-shirted heroes with action star qualities and effortless cool. Donald doesn’t have a well-groomed, bristly decoration on his upper lip, though, and I haven’t seen much evidence of him being a Vietnam vet either. Still, at least he can turn into a ninja at a moment’s notice and start cracking skulls with his bo staff. I don’t believe Mr. Selleck ever donned a headband and started performing ninjutsu techniques throughout the tropical beaches and bamboo forests of Hawaii. At least, I don’t think he did, but maybe I missed a few episodes.

Tick, Tick, Shabuhm

“So what’s Donald got himself involved with this time?” I hear you ask. Well, there’s a witchdoctor, you see, and he’s stolen the idol of Shabuhm Shabuhm from a tropical island. This idol is considered to be the island’s guardian spirit, and Donald as Maui as (occasionally) Cold Shadow needs to get it back. Our hero must track the nefarious shaman through the various locales of the island while winning over the natives and even taking a trip to the underworld, before coming face to face with the masked meddler and engaging in a climactic showdown.

The thing is, when you do finally meet the witchdoctor and find out what’s going on under that creepy tribal mask, it’s only going to cause more questions. I won’t completely spoil it, but let’s just say that this guy epitomises the term “air-headed”. That’s some bad mojo right there.

I hope you enjoyed this little look into what might have been if Sega Mania Magazine had kept going. I did actually start writing one more review, but I never finished it. It was on a Sega Saturn game called Robotica Cybernation Revolt, but I only wrote a snazzy, cyberpunk-style intro and never got into the review proper, mainly because I hadn’t played the game yet! Maybe I will one day…

Aero the Acro-Bat – Retro Review

Bother in the Big Top

This review was written for Issue 8 of the sadly now defunct Sega Mania Magazine, as such it is written from a ’90s perspective.

Does anyone actually like the circus? I mean, I’m sure they were great in the olden times, when the only other forms of entertainment were gathering around the wireless or playing with a hoop and a stick, but do we really need them here in the futuristic ’90s? We have television, spectator sports and video games, bars and nightclubs, Pogs and Slinkies. I for one think that it’s time for circuses to go. The animals don’t want to be there, I question the motives and mental capacity of anyone who chooses to be a clown, and acrobats can use their impressive suppleness and contortionist abilities elsewhere. Maybe they can perform elaborate robberies or something.

Aero the Acro-bat for the Mega Drive has an unavoidable big top vibe, with the titular Aero being the game’s protagonist and the star of the in-game show. A villainous industrialist named Edgar Ektor has sabotaged the World of Amusement Circus and Funpark, and has kidnapped all of its performers, replacing them with nefarious, evil clowns and other such appropriately-themed bad guys. It’s fallen upon Aero to use his high-flying skills and acrobatic feats to save the day, rescue his girlfriend Aeriel, and put a stop to Ektor’s machinations. This includes taking care of Ektor’s lead henchman, a certain Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel.

Aero is contemplating the tiny, one-hit-kill spikes that infest every stage. Can you see it?

If you’ve seen Aero the Acro-bat before, you’ll know that he represents yet another developer having a dip into the “critters with ‘tude” well. This time it’s Sunsoft who have their straws out, attempting to slurp up some of Sonic’s lucrative success water. Have they backed a winner with this Chiropteran tumbler? I’m not so sure. The designers doubled down on the mean and cool attitude and forgot to add any charm or charisma. Also, he’s a circus performer, which means I immediately question his moral and social ideals.

Initial impressions paint Aero the Acro-bat as a fairly standard platformer, and it feels a little dated compared to some of the platformers that have appeared in recent years. Aero himself is somewhat stiff to control, and he commits that platformer hero sin of not being able to stop quickly, which can result in some aggravating slides into certain doom. The stages, while colourful, seem fairly lifeless, with levels that don’t evolve as you progress and forgettable enemy designs. There is some stage variety later on, with a few cool gimmicks that are mostly based on fairground rides, but nothing really stands out or sticks with you. Visually, this is closer to James Pond or Krusty’s Super Fun House than it is to Ristar or our iconic hedgehog pal.

A bat in a barrel, rolling past featureless trees and hills.

Mechanically, the level design philosophy seems frustratingly centred on catching the player out with traps that they could not have foreseen. The admittedly-large levels are littered with spikes, and said spikes are small and inconspicuous, and are often found in the most annoying of places. For example, some of the levels ask you to jump on certain platforms, which causes them to disintegrate, and you can be darned sure there are going to be spike pits underneath all of them. There’s a particular spiked pit during act two that you get dumped into immediately after a unicycle tightrope ride, the likes of which have thus far given you no reason to think they’re going to end in certain, spiky doom. This would all be fine if the spikes just made you lose some health, but these barbed bad boys are insta-death, baby.

If you’re a glutton for punishment, have oodles of time to spare, and enjoy memorising massive levels using a process of trial and error that involves lots and lots of dead bat, then you might get a lot of enjoyment out of Aero the Acro-bat, as there is satisfying gameplay to be found once you’ve mastered Aero’s initially-awkward dive attacks and formed your mental map of the levels. It’s a heck of a slog to get there though, and with its forgettable mascot, uninspiring visuals, small sprites and irritating, circus-themed music, you might not want to go through the trouble.

The rollercoaster section is just another memory test.

I can’t help but feel that the game doesn’t want you to have fun. Did you know that bats are the only mammal capable of true, full flight, and are even more nimble and agile when airborne than most birds? Not this one. He can hover for a bit, and can only fly temporarily after collecting a certain power-up. He’s also able to fire star projectiles, but they’re extremely limited, he starts with none, and the pick-ups are located in fiddly places to get to. Enemies are positioned specifically to catch you out, which you could say about your average Sonic the Hedgehog level, but Sonic’s zones are mostly focussed on fun, spectacle, exploration and a satisfying challenge, rather than just aggravating schmuck bait.

The Mega Drive is absolutely stuffed with top quality mascot platformers, and Aero, despite all of his impressive acro-bat-ics, struggles to even trouble the top 20. Perhaps he should go back to shooting soundwaves at unsuspecting moths or sucking blood out of horses. You know, all that bat stuff that real bats do.

I hope this was an enjoyable little extra for any Sega Mania fans out there. I wrote one more review for Issue 8 which I will be posting at a later date, and I may also be uploading some of my favourite reviews from throughout the mag’s seven issue run, so stay tuned!