Shinobi Art of Vengeance confidently retools a 2D platforming Sega classic
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is on track to be one of the biggest smaller scale surprises of the year, getting Sega's classic franchise revival project off to a strong start.
Art of Vengeance is successfully reinventing the Shinobi series for a new generation, complimenting its gorgeous hand-drawn art style with tight combat and platforming.
As soon as I heard that Lizardcube – one of the studios responsible for the mind-bogglingly excellent Streets of Rage 4 – was behind Sega 's upcoming Shinobi reboot, I knew we were in safe hands. Cut to trailers and gameplay slices demonstrating the same beautiful hand-drawn art style shared between both games that I expected. What I didn't expect, however, was that Shinobi: Art of Vengeance would turn out to be one of the tightest-handling 2D action-platformers since at least Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown last year – no small feat!
In several ways, Lizardcube's new take feels like a far cry from the classic Sega Mega Drive game I remember. While in others, more flexible combat mixes with snappier platforming and bombastic special attacks to render Art of Vengeance easily the most ambitious Shinobi instalment ever.
My 45-minute demo of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance dropped me in right at the start of the game, with me donning the guise of protagonist Joe Musashi, who shortly after returning to his village has found it under attack by outside military forces. Believe me when I say that absolutely no knowledge of prior Shinobi adventures is needed to enjoy Art of Vengeance.
It's a statement I feel confident making since the stakes for Musashi's titular thirst for revenge are appropriately set almost immediately, as I rush through to save students at the local ninja school by learning how to roll, dodge, and air dash alongside traditional light and heavy attacks.
What initially impressed me most was how quick and natural it felt to battle reams of baddies. What with solid and slick beat-em-up chops already under its belt, Lizardcube has done just as good of a job making pulling off combos in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance equally as impactful.
Rolling into the air and landing a punch from above simply flows a lot smoother in a way that past Shinobi games could only ever dream of, and this was evidenced nearly right away in the opening stage of Oboro Village. I was pleased to see the franchise's trademark Kunai weapon also return, and it worked well to help me maintain my combo whenever rolling wasn't possible by letting me damage enemies located across the screen.
What became clear the deeper I delved into Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, in addition to its gorgeous, comic book inspired art style of course, was how much of a Metroidvania it's turned out to be structurally.
The two levels I got to play through as part of my demo were linear in the sense that they had a start, middle, and end, true, but both were absolutely littered with secret areas (often containing precious Oboro relics) that are made purposefully awkward to get to. It makes mastering Musashi's core platforming skills a must, since relics are the only way to unlock and purchase new movement and combat abilities from the travelling vendor.
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Mark of the ninja
All these extra powerful attacks and manoeuvres I was able to put to the test in the second stage of the preview, Lantern Festival, which I played in Arcade Mode free of any usual story disruptions. Easily my favourite was what's called the Shinobi execution, where after hitting an enemy's health down low enough a symbol appears above there head, indicating that they can be taken out Shinobi style instantly.
These types of execution can be chained across the screen from foe to foe, too, meaning if you hit enough people's health low enough, Musashi will dart across the screen slashing endlessly to take rivals down in one fell swoop. For a 2D action-platformer it feels wildly spectacular and cinematic.
Complimenting your move set further are what's called Ninpo, which as far as I can tell serve as elemental special attacks tied to a rechargeable meter. The first introduced centres on fire and is a good way to deal a great deal of damage in a short distance out front.
The second based on water, meanwhile, I couldn't quite work out, but temporarily surrounding Musashi in a bubble seems to indicate a type of protective effect. Regardless, the takeaway here should be that Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is no slouch in the combat or traversal department, since there are multiple ways to roleplay as ninja master.
Just like a ninja master, I was pleased to learn how the platforming side of this action-platformer can still often be quite the challenge – particularly when trying to navigate optional areas. There's nothing especially difficult about hitting switches to reveal new pathways, of course, but getting there sometimes takes a lot of precision when it comes to timing wall jumps, wall slides, and air dashes.
The latter is a manoeuvre that can be boosted and sustained in specific instances where there is a green energy source in the air, and I'm not ashamed to admit how tough I found it to get out of one of these tricky scenarios. Were I not against the clock for the preview I'm sure I would have found the exit solution. For now, though, just know that Shinobi: Art of Vengeance's best secrets are well tucked away and require a bit of platforming skill to reach.
I came away from my Shinobi: Art of Vengeance demo impressed by just how much Lizardcube's take is less iteration and more evolution. Similar to its work on Streets of Rage 4, the studio has taken the core of what made the original games great and build upon this solid foundation for an all-new generation using an expressive art style, flexible combat, and some supremely tight platforming.
Better yet? Between new unlockable moves and the score-centric Arcade Mode, there's so much about Art of Vengeance I wasn't able to glean in just 45 minutes of playtime. If this truly is the first of Sega's new wave of reinvented classic franchises, it's certainly off to a strong start.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeanceis set to launch on PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Nintendo consoles this August 29, 2025.
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