The ZX Spectrum version of Sega‘s classic Shinobi was developed by Binary Design for The Sales Curve and published by Virgin Games in 1989. It is a relatively loose approximation of the arcade game, but is nonetheless playable and enjoyable.

The animation of the player character, Joe Musashi, is a bit weird at times (his proportions seem a bit ‘off’ in places), and the scrolling is blocky and not very smooth, but the gameplay overall is reasonably good.

The developers have chosen to zoom in on the action, rather than create small graphics to fit everything in, which results in large character sprites, and some vertical-scrolling when Joe jumps to upper and lower levels. This is okay, though, and doesn’t hamper the game in any way.

Levels are multi-load, although this is only a problem with cassette versions of the game (no one likes cassette multi-load). Disk versions are seamless in their loading. The bonus stage, where you throw shuriken at advancing ninja, is far less challenging than in the original arcade game (in fact, in this, you can pretty much stay in the middle, continuously firing, to kill most of the ninja).

Graphically, Shinobi isn’t too bad and is quite colourful. Levels where the backgrounds are quite ‘busy’, though, are a little difficult to see. The AY music of the 128K version is very good too, with the recognisable Shinobi themes playing during the action.

Overall, I’d give Shinobi on the Spectrum an ‘A’ for effort, and a ‘B’ for authenticity. This is Shinobi, but not as we know it.

More: Shinobi on Wikipedia
More: Shinobi on World of Spectrum