Shinobi X / Shinobi Legions

The ninja returns, this time clad in digitized actors and a darker atmosphere. Shinobi X, released in the West as Shinobi Legions, carries SEGA's famous action-platformer series onto the 32-bit generation and tries to dress it in a more serious, more realistic coat. You play as a ninja, slash your way through hordes of enemies and rely on quick reflexes as well as mastery of the katana and throwing stars.

The core of the gameplay stays true to the series' roots: it's a side-scrolling action platformer where you claw through levels, eliminate enemies and collect ninja techniques. The emphasis is on brisk movement, precise slashes and using ninjutsu abilities that give combat the variety it needs. The Shinobi series always prided itself on the feeling that you control a deadly master of the shadows, and this episode tries to carry that feeling into a new era.

Visually the game bet on the trend of digitized characters that shook the whole industry in the mid-nineties after the success of fighting games with captured actors. Characters and animations thus took on a photorealistic tinge that optically sets the game apart from earlier, cartoon-styled installments. The atmosphere is darker and more serious, in line with the era's push to feel more grown-up.

As one of the few representatives of the Shinobi brand on the Saturn, this game holds a firm place in the console's library and in the memory of the series' fans. It is a testament to how established arcade brands adapted to the transition into a new hardware generation and sought their voice between tradition and new technologies.

Why play: For classic ninja action of the Shinobi series in a darker, digitized coat that represents the brand on the Saturn.