Shinobi, made when the U.S. couldn't get enough of Asian martial arts and mysticism. Of course, like the movies popular at the time, this game has little in common with ninja. You wear tabi socks, you have shuriken, but you don't hide from anyone, and you take the decidedly un-ninja approach of just walking in the front door where everyone is waiting to kill you.
Fortunately, Ninja Joe Musashi is pretty awesome. He is a modern age ninja, and can use a gun; a sword, his shuriken, even kicks and punches if the close range demands it. And when you simply must kill everything ASAP, each stage Joe has one of several ninja spells he can use, with deadly Death Blossom like results.
You and Joe must stop the evil Zeed cell, a team of bad guys doing bad guy things. Like shooting guns and disturbing the peace! Hiding colorful, murderous ninjas in plain sight! And kidnapping children! Whoah, OK, that last one is pretty bad. Maybe we should look into this Zeed group.

Graphics: 9
The graphics were very good for the time period. Your ninja, Joe, can crawl and hop into the foreground, creating two separate areas of a stage (front and back), although at times, you did not always have access to both. Joe gets an extensive list of attacks, and that is impressive for this type of game. The enemies are varied, featuring one or two attacks each. The stages are broken into separate levels, each usually looking quite different from the last, but all having an overarching theme (for example. The 2nd stage is 4 levels at a wharf).

The good: I like the animations for Joe and the bad guys, its fast and fluid. The Bonus stage ninja jumping right at you probably gets the biggest shout out, he looks awesome. Bosses are often big and impressive, and all put up a bit of fight (well maybe not the 3rd one so much).
The bad: Actually, other than the kids looking a bit like muppets, nothings really too bad here. Some of the ninja magic you use looks better than others, but the effects are all deadly.


Sound: 7
BGM is ambient and does not take a main presence. Its good in the sense it seems kind of like some modern oriental rock Joe might make in a garage band (lol). But its not bad. It never quite reaches into the scene and help it become grand - usually Sega music is fantastic. And this is not bad, but its also just a companion piece to the action, and muting you probably wouldn't miss it much.
The sound effects though are great, and raise the score a bit. The sharp cut of the music when Joe dies; the dull clink of your unlimited shuriken deflected off a sword guy's defense, the low din just before the Ninja Magic gets ready to unleash fury, the somewhat silly "OW" Joe says when he lands on an enemy, all the sound effects are all you could expect.

The good: Hands down the sound effects. The crashing ninja magic, the quiet but menacing boss music, the powerful striking sound of Joe's close-quarter attacks. Its fun.
The bad: Not a lot of spoken word, and no death sounds for the bad guys. Again the stage music isn't bad by any means, but it doesn't go beyond just a lite rock sound.

Addictiveness: 7
Shinobi is a fun game. I love playing it. But there are some parts that feel a bit cheap. Being an arcade game, you will likely die a lot, but the stages are not too long, and in time you will learn where enemy placement is.  While this would cost a lot of money in the real world, fortunately, with Vizzed you never have to worry about running out of quarters!

The good: When you die, you can jump right back into the game quickly. The stage map help show you how close you are to the boss, and that's encouraging. 
The bad: Its one of those games you're going to have to die quite a few times to get it right. The bonus stage is pretty hard, often I'd just lose on purpose to get back to the game faster.

Story: 5
Not much to say here. You don't find out much story playing it. You are rescuing kids, but how they give you power ups who knows. The ending is a brief dialog about what the boss' goals were, which might be better in an intro? There is a shocker at the ending that really doesn't matter at all because theres been no investment in it.

The good: You're rescuing kids. Thats something anyone should fight evil for.
The bad: Why do all the human bosses wear masks if you don't get to see them until the very end of the stages and you fight to the death anyway? Who cares?

Depth: 4
This is a game of learning Joe's powers and enemy placement and their attacks. A few stages are tricky, especially when the ninjas come out to play, but the instant wish-fulfillment of the ninja magic nullifies any real no-win situation on regular stages.

The good: Joe has a lot of attacks, and the format of several alike stages then the boss fits a good theme.
The bad: The enemy types are not great in number. There are a few stages that make your heart race but most have a simple formula of poking slowly ahead to ferret out threats early so they don't gang up on you. I was surprised one enemy type only appears on the last stage! What a waste!

Diffculty: 8
Joe can only take one hit and he dies. Also most enemies can take just one hit as well. However, the game doesn't make Joe die just for touching the enemy, it has to be the enemy's weapon that kills him. If he lands on an enemys back or bumps into a walking guy, they just seperate with a "OW" sound, and no damage is taken on either side. This is quite refreshing, and helps make you feel responsible for each death. Some stages are full of sneaky ninjas that appear all around you, the blue ninja is especially deadly, and if it weren't for ninja magic, it would be quite difficult to clear. So its not too difficult to get to the boss, really. But the last boss you cannot continue against, AT ALL. Once you lose all your lives, you get an instant game over. Thats pretty rough!

The good: I like that just walking into (or in most cases, jumping on) an enemy doesn't kill Joe. 
The bad: The blue ninjas is the biggest threat in the game, and the game really lets you have them in spades later. A few of the bosses feel a bit cheap. And no continues on Masked Ninja means SAVE YOUR STATE, players. You have been warned.

The final verdict: 9.1
Honestly, this is a great arcade game. The ninja may not be sneaking around, and may fight a hundred bad guys like he's Rambo, but dang it, Joe Musashi gets it done. He's fast with the attacks and with the jumps. The music could have risen to really stand out, but the controls and interesting stages and great use of a theme make this game one of the best quarter-munchers.