Ninja-action game fans are spoiled for choice in 2025. Less than a month after the release of an excellent revival of the 2D Ninja Gaiden series comes developer LizardCube’s refreshing new take on Shinobi, Sega’s 37-year-old franchise with an inconsistent history.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is the first game to be released as part of Sega’s push to reimagine its older IP for modern audiences, an effort that is now off to an incredibly strong start. But that shouldn’t be a surprise to Sega fanatics who have followed Lizardcube’s work on revivals like Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap and Streets of Rage 4. The French studio’s action-game know-how and artistic excellence have given Shinobi a major facelift, resulting in something distinctly new, authentic to previous games in the series, and quite different from Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.
Lizardcube’s take on Shinobi is part arcade action and part Metroidvania-light. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance sends series star Joe Musashi on a mission of revenge; after an attack on his home, Joe leaves his decimated village and pregnant bride behind to seek retribution against the evil paramilitary organization ENE Corp and its leader Lord Ruse. In early levels, as Art of Vengeance starts peeling back the many layers of its combat mechanics, you’ll run left to right in pursuit of Ruse, slaying any enemy ninja, archers, and yokai in your path. But later levels are more like mazes, requiring careful platforming and an ever-evolving set of skills to reach certain areas. Those maze levels are full of miniboss encounters and cleverly hidden collectibles, and are designed in a way that seduces the player to revisit them with a growing list of skills.
Joe never really stops gaining new abilities through Art of Vengeance. His most basic combat abilities include light and heavy attacks with his katana (which can be chained together for dizzying combos), a small stock of throwing daggers, and traversal moves, like jumps, dashes, and wall climbs. But Joe’s arsenal of skills quickly grows. He learns ninpo (special attacks, like fire breath) and ninjutsu (deadly, screen-clearing super moves) over the course of his mission, and can unlock new abilities by finding them in levels and by purchasing them from a magical shop.
Combat in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is built around Joe’s sword. Armed with a very limited amount of kunai to throw, you’ll need to be up close and personal with your opponents, watching their animations for tells and listening for impending attacks. Joe’s upgrades include a powerful, charged-up punch that can break armored enemies and a dive kick (à la Shinobi 3) that can be upgraded to turn him into a whirling blade of death. It’s incredibly satisfying to chain these abilities together and to use them strategically, especially when rooms are flooded with multiple types of enemies, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Art of Vengeance discourages recklessness in combat, though. Joe can wear amulets in the game that activate special powers or boosts when he reaches a certain number of uninterrupted hits on his foes. Chain together 15 hits without taking damage, and one amulet will let Joe deal extra damage. Another amulet will dispense gold coins when your combo counter hits 25. But that’s just another layer to Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s smartly designed combat, which feels incredibly fluid and offers precise character control. Combat encounters, even certain elective extra-challenging ones, are not something to be feared, but relished, with each one being a mini puzzle to solve as you like.
Like Lizardcube’s previous work on Sega’s IP, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance boasts an impressive, handdrawn look. That extends to the gorgeously animated Joe Musashi himself, his various enemies, and the diverse environments across which the super ninja fights. There are heavily mechanized underground layers, neon-lit cityscapes, ancient Japanese villages, and a modern lantern festival to fight through. The presentation throughout is immaculate.
That impressive presentation extends to the music, which includes Sega veteran Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, The Revenge of Shinobi) and Tee Lopes (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, Sonic Mania) teaming up to deliver a soundtrack that feels thematically perfect and includes recognizable tones of 16-bit era Shinobi games.
At around eight hours, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s challenging enough to feel satisfying upon reaching the game’s ending, and manages to keep mechanics mostly fresh throughout. Going back to 100% the game can be a bit of a bear, though; the game’s map can be a bit tricky to navigate and tracking down any remaining power-ups and collectibles can sometimes be more frustrating than fun.
As a whole though, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a delightful action platformer that splits the difference between old-school action and modern Metroid-inspired exploration game. Lizardcube’s revival of the Shinobi series looks and sounds spectacular, and it plays great too. It only raises a natural question: Which Sega franchise should the studio rescue next?
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance will be released on Aug. 29, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
