Arcade Marquee
Sega Genesis Cover
"A.D. 1997, New York City
Having vanquished the evil crime empire Neo Zeed, Shinobi was not heard from again.
His combat ninja skills were not needed in a peaceful world.
But a new threat arose in a reptilian form that lived on instinct alone.
The collossal monster moved slowly and quietly, and its attack was relentless.
The souls unfortunate enough to live became 'hostages'
Mass panic swept the streets.
It remained only for Shinobi to take action, the ninja of the shadows.
His weapons were stealth and quickness of attack, his only allies when facing over whelming force.
Relying on ninja weapons and magic, Shinobi fought on, assisted by his faithful dog.
This is the story of their defiance..."
Having vanquished the evil crime empire Neo Zeed, Shinobi was not heard from again.
His combat ninja skills were not needed in a peaceful world.
But a new threat arose in a reptilian form that lived on instinct alone.
The collossal monster moved slowly and quietly, and its attack was relentless.
The souls unfortunate enough to live became 'hostages'
Mass panic swept the streets.
It remained only for Shinobi to take action, the ninja of the shadows.
His weapons were stealth and quickness of attack, his only allies when facing over whelming force.
Relying on ninja weapons and magic, Shinobi fought on, assisted by his faithful dog.
This is the story of their defiance..."
— Sega Genesis Intro
An arcade sequel to Shinobi which was reformulated on the Sega Genesis.
This game provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Depending on the language of your instruction manual, the protagonist of Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is either: Hayate, the estranged son of Joe Musashi, seeking to avenge the death of his adoptive father (which is the story in the Japanese manual); or Joe Musashi himself seeking to avenge the death of a student (which is the story in the English version). The game's opening text crawl (which is written in English, even in the Japanese version) is ambiguous enough to support either version of the backstory, as it never actually mentions the protagonist by name.
- Attack Animal: Both Shadow Dancer games allow you to sic a white dog at enemies that would be very difficult to handle without the dog's help. The dog can distract some enemies to make them easy targets for the ninja. However, letting the enemy fight the dog too long will allow the enemy to injure the dog, turning it into a puppy until the next bomb is found or the next hostage is rescued.
- Bomb Disposal: The ninja must collect all of the time bombs in a non-boss level in the arcade game before he can leave a level.
- Canine Companion: Both Shadow Dancer games allow you to sic a white dog at enemies that would be very difficult to handle without the dog's help. The dog can distract some enemies to make them easy targets for the ninja.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The Sega Master System version of Shadow Dancer identifies the player character as "Fuma" in the attract sequence and "Takashi" in the manual.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Shadow Dancer on the Genesis uses faux-sequel numberings on its difficulty levels: level 2 and 3 change the title screen to Shadow Dancer II and III, respectively.
- Made of Explodium: Every single enemy in Shadow Dancer.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: There are two types of enemy contact: If you bump into an enemy/object that did particularly nothing, you and the enemy get knocked back. But if you bump into an attacking enemy's hitbox or attack object (like bullets), you lose a life, period.
- Reformulated Game: The Genesis version of Shadow Dancer has gameplay that is similar to the arcade game, but with completely new stages and also changing the way you sic your dog against enemies: the arcade version has the dog attack an enemy at normal speed if you crouch and press the attack button, while the Genesis version makes this a Charged Attack where the dog will instantly rush the enemy instead of going at a normal pace.
- Related in the Adaptation: Played straight and then subverted in Shadow Dancer. The original arcade game starred an unnamed ninja with no relation to the Musashi bloodline, but the Japanese Mega Drive version establishes to be Joe Musashi's son Hayate, where he is given an elaborate backstory of how he was estranged from his father in the manual. However, the English manual for the American and European version ditches that backstory in favor of just making the protagonist into Joe Musashi himself.
- Time Bomb: Non-boss levels in the arcade version of Shadow Dancer are littered with these, justifying the missions' time limits.
- Timed Mission: The arcade version of Shadow Dancer has a timer justified by the time bombs that are placed throughout non-boss levels. The Genesis still keeps the timer.
