Shinobi is a series of ninja related games and the first one was an arcade game released in 1987. The height of the ninja boom, ninjas were super cool and kids across the land were hurting each other in playgrounds as they emulated ninja action. Everyone wanted nun chucks and throwing stars but the next best thing was to play as a ninja in a video game.

In the original game you played as Joe Musashi, a Ninjitsu master and generally expert martial artist. You were up against an evil ninja clan by the name of Zeed who had kidnapped a bunch of innocent children for their own nefarious purposes. The idea was to slaughter all enemies in your path and free the hostages as you went. There were ninjas, samurai type guys who threw swords at you and gangster style henchmen with guns.

The game featured five levels in total with a big boss character at the end of each one. The bosses were a colourful bunch and some of them had magical powers. After defeating the first four there was an excellent and memorable bonus phase where you threw stars in first person while wave after wave of ninjas tried to reach you and slice you up. You weren’t allowed any continues for the final showdown against the masked final ninja boss.

The game-play was side scrolling platform with two levels and it featured a side on 2D view on the action. You were equipped with an unlimited supply of throwing stars and you could punch or kick to despatch enemies at close range. You also got one ninja magic power up per stage which could kill everyone on screen. Specific hostages would also give you a character power up which changed your throwing stars into a gun with explosive bullets and your close up attack into a katana blade slash. Each level was broken into stages with a time limit on each stage forcing you to hurry through the action. You would earn points for killing bad guys, rescuing hostages and you could even earn bonus points for not using your ninja magic or throwing stars.

Shinobi was released as a stand up cabinet with an eight way joystick and three buttons. It was basically a single player game although you could choose a two player option. Two player was just turn about. This was a seriously popular title in the arcades and the machine was always busy. It got ported to everything going at the time from the Amiga to the NES. Sega continued to make Shinobi games and there were several sequels and related titles over the years.

There were a lot of third-person side scrolling combat games like this released in the late eighties. Double Dragon came out the same year as Shinobi. The game-play was pretty familiar but what made Shinobi stand out was the ninja styling. The chance to be a ninja and slaughter other evil ninjas was irresistible for kids at the time.