The Commodore 64 version of Sega‘s classic Shinobi was developed by The Sales Curve and first published by Virgin Games in 1989. And – while it is a decent conversion in terms of presentation and playability – it is arguably even harder than the arcade original, which can make it extremely frustrating to play at times.

Gun-toting enemies fire very quickly and can easily catch you out; enemies re-spawn quickly too – especially if you stand in certain places; ninja jump on your head with speed and ease, and the overall pace of the game is considerably faster than the arcade version (or at least it seemed that way to me). The jumping ninja in the bonus stages are also ridiculously fast and give you little chance to shoot them.

I also struggled to get the jumping action – between upper and lower platforms, or over fences – to work. You have to hold fire, then push up or down on the joystick to activate it, and it doesn’t always work when you need it to, which is another frustration. I tried to find an alternate keyboard command for it, but there doesn’t seem to be one.

Overall, the C64 version of Shinobi is only a partial success in my mind. Hard video games are one thing; frustrating video games are another…

C64 Shinobi was re-released by Hokuto Force in 2018, and that is the version to play now, if you want to see what it’s like. There’s also an Easyflash cartridge version (by Mayday) too. Thankfully, both have trainers built-in, because that’s the only way you’re going to get anywhere with it (which is a pity, really).

More: Shinobi on Wikipedia
More: Shinobi on CSDb