Reflecting on my time with Shinobi: Art of Vengeance while I watched the credits roll, I recalled a close friend of mine from high school. Before the start of first period, she’d usually vent to me about how stressed she felt juggling so many extracurricular activities that she wound up staying at school for nearly 12 hours every weekday. Her reason for maintaining such a rigorous afterschool schedule was that so many different people were counting on her, and she didn’t want to let anyone down. Concerned for her health and happiness, the only advice I could offer her was, “You don’t have to be everyone’s friend.”
I won’t bury the lede too deep here: I enjoyed Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. It’s a cool game that’s rich with Sega nostalgia, and you’ll probably have fun with it if it seems like your kind of thing. However, much like my high school friend, Art of Vengeance feels stretched thin by the sheer amount of bases it tries to cover despite its relatively small scope.
Art of Vengeance places players in the shoes of Sega’s original Shinobi protagonist, Joe Musashi. His peaceful life with his very pregnant wife is immediately thrust into turmoil after his clan’s village is brutally attacked by a paramilitary organization bent on—you’re not gonna believe this—world domination. With rage boiling in his heart, Joe embarks on a quest to pursue his attackers and exact his revenge. Of course there’s that “save the world” business too, but make no mistake, this battle is personal. Unfortunately, the blade of revenge cuts both ways, and Joe will have to come face to face with the very cycle of life and death itself before he can rest at journey’s end.
To address the elemental ninjitsu in the room, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is wildly dissimilar to last month’s Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Sure, both are revivals of dormant ninja-themed sidescrollers that originated in the late 80s. Heck, Joe’s call to adventure even resembles the way Ragebound opens with a demon attack on the Hayabusas’ village. However, while I’d describe Ragebound as a retro-influenced game that can appeal to modern audiences, Art of Vengeance comes off as a modern character action game distilled into a 2D form that retro enthusiasts can enjoy. Comparing the two is like comparing apples to potatoes.
C-C-C-Combo Breaker
Though Joe Musashi hasn’t played the starring role in a video game for over three decades (I’m sorry if this makes you feel old), his moveset in Art of Vengeance shows he’s no worse for wear. From the moment you hit the start button, the ninja master can effortlessly throw kunai, chain together light and heavy attacks, and bust out limited special moves to diffuse otherwise dire situations. As a fledgling ninja-in-training learning the controls, I immediately fell in love with how fluid this combo-heavy combat felt. I could effortlessly weave together strings of attacks while I dashed around enemies after mere minutes of practice, and I loved how Joe could instantly fly straight through weakened enemies all over the screen to perform executions. Even when the game cranks up the challenge later on, it’s one hell of a power fantasy from start to finish.
Art of Vengeance does take a while to fully unlock its combat system, though. While Joe’s starting kit is serviceable, most of his attacks are locked behind shop upgrades and hidden unlocks (more on this later). That said, this system did let me learn and ease into every move in my arsenal, which the game absolutely rewards. Sure, I could button-mash my way to victory if I wanted to. But to efficiently take down opponents, I had to note which attacks deplete enemy armor, inflict the most damage, or just let me strike from an angle that wouldn’t see me eating a counterattack. This might sound daunting, but if anything, fully unlocking Joe’s kit makes it easier to pull off flashy and intuitive combos. Art of Vengeance feels simultaneously simple and expressive via its controls.
©Sega
Regardless of your skill level, it’s easy to feel like a badass when playing a game as outrageously gorgeous as Art of Vengeance. Developer Lizardcube has worked on some great-looking games, so I don’t say lightly that Art of Vengeance is by far the team’s best work yet. The hand-drawn character animations look absolutely spectacular, and the level backgrounds are so rich with detail that I often stopped just to soak in the scenery. As I scoured through my screenshots to find images for this review, I couldn’t believe how often the in-game action looked like those impossibly good-looking bullshots that publishers use to market games that never look that phenomenal in actuality. To say Shinobi has never looked better is an understatement: This is a visual labor of love down to the smallest details.
Character action adventure
The mechanical foundation and presentation of Art of Vengeance is fantastic, but where it starts to lose me is in its level design. To answer the question lingering in the minds of any sidescrolling enthusiasts reading this, this game is a Metroidvania…kind of. It’s technically stage-based, but each level is expansive and littered with optional paths that lead to collectibles and permanent stat boosts. In true Metroidvania fashion, most of these secrets require late-game traversal upgrades to reach. Art of Vengeance presents itself as an action game first and foremost, but I got the sense that Lizardcube added these exploratory elements to offer players some optional challenges and pad the total runtime a bit.
In practice, most areas were worse off for this “have your cake and eat it too” approach. I didn’t find the level exploration especially compelling, as it usually devolved into finding obvious detours and turning around whenever I saw walls. Additionally, many of these wide-open levels fail to emphasize the game’s stellar combat system. I was genuinely alarmed by how easy it was to just pass by many enemies rather than spend time fighting them. Meanwhile, several instances where combat is required consisted of waves of enemies that rarely forced me to switch up my battle strategy. Fortunately, boss battles were always a blast and rewarded mastery of Joe’s abilities, so I always looked forward to those highs at the end of each stage.
© Sega
Some levels do admittedly benefit from the open-ended approach. Neo City is a shining example: Its nonlinear layout creates great replay value, and the backing track from Tee Lopes that perfectly emulates Yuzo Koshiro’s classic Streets of Rage sound (Koshiro himself appears on the soundtrack!) made the entire area a joy from start to finish. Meanwhile, stages like the Submarine Base that see Joe s-l-o-w-l-y pushing canisters into holes to unlock doors were okay my first time through, but a genuine slog to revisit in the postgame Arcade Mode.
It’s not just the exploration that made the game feel a bit stretched thin. Art of Vengeance sprinkles in numerous platforming challenges, mostly as obstacles to overcome to get those aforementioned secrets. Some stick the landing, like the frantic autoscrolling challenges where Joe has to run away from monsters and enemy gunfire while vaulting from platform to platform. Meanwhile, during the precision platforming segments I sometimes felt as if I was battling against the game’s core controls, such as in moments when I had to hold the jump button at the right time to run up a wall without accidentally double jumping. The platforming’s mostly okay, but it for sure ain’t Celeste.
Even the story never settles on a consistent tone. There’s a running gag about Joe only communicating via grunts, which did get a chuckle out of me the first four or five times I saw it. However, Art of Vengeance absolutely refuses to let up this bit, even during dramatic scenes that are otherwise treated seriously. It’s certainly possible to mix drama with absurdity—the edgy Pac-Man reboot Shadow Labyrinth actually did this well. However, Art of Vengeance’s efforts to do so are clunky where deftness is required; the game doesn’t know when to let a serious moment just be a serious moment. Taken together, these issues create a game that feels incohesive despite its strengths.
It’s everyone’s friend
Nothing about Art of Vengeance made me outright dislike it. Rather, I mostly wish it focused more on exploring its combat system. As much as I loved learning and unlocking all of Joe’s attacks, by the endgame I found myself settling on a couple go-to attacks that efficiently dealt with 90 percent of my opponents. I actually went back and scored S-Ranks in every level just to see if I’d ever feel pressured to change my strategy, but ironically, the opposite happened. Because the scoring system weighs avoiding damage so heavily, I felt outright discouraged from getting inventive with the combat when simply jumpkicking everything with the right build was way safer and just as effective.
Still, for all my misgivings, I’ll say that Art of Vengeance did make me care about Shinobi again. As video game historian Jeremy Parish notes in his retrospective of Shinobi, a major strength of this series is its ability to remix its own concepts to “suit the current moment.” Indeed, there is an absolute abundance of inspiration on display here from classic games that Art of Vengeance draws on, yet the game itself feels distinctly modern in its design philosophy. So if the goal was strictly to recapture the spirit of Shinobi, Art of Vengeance is undeniably a success.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
back-of-the-box quote
“At long last, the dog from Shadow Dancer returns!”
Type of game
2D hack-and-slash platformer with some Metroidvania elements.
Liked
Jaw-dropping visuals, excellent combat mechanics, great boss encounters.
Disliked
Exploration felt unfulfilling and took focus away from combat, story is tonally inconsistent, platforming is hit or miss.
Developer
Sega, Lizardcube
Platforms
PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC (Played).
Release Date
August 26, 2025 (Early Access), August 29, 2025 (General Release).
Played
32 hours. 100% completed the story mode. Earned S-Ranks in every stage in Arcade Mode. Earned all achievements.
I had fun with this video game, no questions asked. I also feel slightly empty as I think back on it. I can respect the effort that was put into the wide net of play experiences the game offers, just as I can see why my friend wanted to know and help everyone she knew. That said, this is also the first time I’ve really remembered that friend in nearly 20 years. Pleasant memories aren’t always lasting memories, and that’s how Art of Vengeance sits with me: A game that was worth my time, but didn’t strongly resonate with me either.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance has all the right stuff at its core. The fluid action is a blast at its best, and the breathtaking visuals are a sight to behold. Unfortunately, the unfulfilling exploration and so-so platforming keep the game from hitting its full potential. It’s an enjoyable playthrough on a rainy day, especially for the person who wants a strong hit of Sega nostalgia or needs to decompress from more intensive games. But like spending time with someone who wants to be everyone’s friend, the experience feels a little too shallow for its own good. Shinobi’s long overdue return is easy to like, I just wish I could love it too.
