With Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s release date now just 97 days away (not that we’re counting), both Sega and Lizardcube have been out and about and making sure to satiate our increasing desire for more information on their upcoming side-scrolling adventure.
Of course, this isn’t just any old adventure and, much like Lizardcube’s previous work, such as Streets of Rage 4 and Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap (both phenomenal), here we have a reworking, a full modernisation after a long period of dormancy, of the one and only Shinobi. The pressure of pulling apart a classic for the ages and rebuilding it in such a way that it satisfies newcomers and the hardcore, whilst also appearing modern and ‘good’? These folks have been there and done that.
Speaking to Games Informer (welcome back, you guys!), Kagasei Shimomura, head of Sega’s content production unit, revealed how his department had spent time going over 60 years of historic IPs that fall under the Sega umbrella. Settling on the long-dormant Shinobi series, which hasn’t seen any new action since 2011’s Shinobi 3D on the 3DS, the team started to put plans into action.
Shimomura was aware that some old arcade series had been kept alive to a certain extent through the Sega Ages Collection, but that:
“We didn’t just want to go and make remasters or remakes of all the titles that are already around…We want people to enjoy and be satisfied by what we put out there, and find ways to create new Sega fans.”
At 2023’s Game Awards, with the announcement of a whole swathe of classic reboots from Sega – including Golden Axe (cool it, grandad) – Shimomura’s full plans were revealed, with particular attention being paid to Shinobi.
Lizardcube was then drawn into the matter, which is hardly surprising given they’d just turned two retro IPs into critically acclaimed bangers. Luckily, the Parisian dev’s CEO and creative director, Ben Fiquet, was excited by the prospect, describing during the interview how his team’s blood boiled with excitement, “as big Sega fans”, at the idea of getting to work on a brand new Shinobi.
Impressing Sega with a pitch that sought to balance old and new, Lizardcube then agreed that a 2D game as the most effective course of action, one that specifically took its inspiration from Shinobi 1,2 and 3, whilst giving players something new and engaging to sink their big modern teeth into.
Fiquet explains:
“We soon realized that if you wanted to have the player care about what they will be doing the most, which is fighting, the fighting will need to be more interesting. That’s why you have a lot of moves now, and it’s a very interesting mix because it’s more like a beat-‘em-up in a platforming environment. You have a combo system, you have different moves at your disposal, powers, ultras, and different stuff, so that when the player is doing what they’re doing the most, they are entertained.”
Rather than simply licence the IP out to Lizardcube, as had been done with Wonder Boy and Streets of Rage, Sega has gone all-in here, even getting down and dirty and making suggestions regarding the game’s art style, the like of which, Fiquet says, is usually reserved for animated movies. Indeed, 1990s Sega hits, The Lion King and Aladdin games, which were sublimely animated it has to be said, are reference points in the look and style being adopted for Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.
In the end, such is Sega’s passion for the project, Toru Ohara, a designer with over 30 years experience at Sega, got fully involved with a team of his own, acting as chief producer on the Sega side in order to ensure the correct level of expression, the right brush strokes and, of course, the right amount of respect paid to the old Shinobi games whilst modernising for a new audience.
Ohara himself seems excited and happy with what’s being created this far, as he puts it:
“The game starts out as a normal action game, but it does feel much more like a fighting game in the end, where you have all these different combos that you could choose from because you can learn to do more and more and be able to do more and more the further you go.”
It’s hardly a surprise that the teams involved seem to be killing it thus far, you only have to play Streets of Rage 4 for a very short period of time before realising the high level these folks are working on.
The full interview goes into lots more details on how much Sega decided to get involved, alongside lots more info on some other classics, so make sure to check it out for more tidbits on those. Meanwhile, we’re off to do some backflip training and then down the supermarket for a pack of plastic shuriken. Not that we’re beyond excited for new Shinobi or anything.
Excited for the return of Shinobi? Make sure to sneak into the comments and take us down with your opinions!
