Video Game Review - Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (1993 - Sega Genesis)

Ahh, ninjas. Ninjas are a grand breed of battler and nowhere is this more evident than in the world of video games. Why? Because someone overestimated their fighting skills a very long time ago, during the feudal eras of medieval Japan. With that placed, let's review the fourth installment of the Shinobi series, Shinobi III: Revenge of the Ninja Master.
Shinobi 3 is the fourth part in the saga because its predecessor, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, is truly the third installment. It's a much inferior game compared against Shinobi 3, due largely to the fact that you can be killed by getting shot IN THE FOOT. Well, at least you got a dog. Then again, I don't think you got any ninja magic. Oh yeah, and you can get shot in the foot and DIE. Needless to say, Shinobi 3 improves on all of that.

After the end of Shadow Dancer, it's implied that our ninja hero killed the crime lord Zeed. Like most good villains, Zeed didn't stay dead and reincarnated himself as a cyborg crime lord called Neo Zeed. He's got a bunch of people under his command in is quest to rule the world. Almost everyone is powerless in the face of Neo Zeed. Emphasis on almost.

Enter Joe Musashi, the hero in the Shinobi storyline. He's got plenty of improvements over his predecessors while retaining all of their good moves. Chief among those moves is his Diving Kick; a move so useful that you can fight a boss using this move alone and still not touch the ground for an obscene amount of time. Joe's a ninja you can like and well worth the time you play. The music is all goodness and light, a masterful use of whatever instrument was used to make it. And then there's the stages.

The stages are awesome. Many are generic, some are challenging, and many are just plain fun. Some stages require you to use a different mode of transportation. Hence, the second stage makes use of your ninja horse and its Diving Stomp. Yes, I did say NINJA HORSE. The fourth or fifth stage requires you to ride a jet-powered ninja surfboard. A little overboard, but it's necessary: the other choice was a ninja dolphin. I always catch myself uttering one of Tone Loc's lines from Surf Ninjas when I reach that stage: "Black men don't surf!"
When all is said and done, it's the final stage that makes you work for that win. Well, the win after you fight a boss that absolutely, positively wants you dead.

When it comes to the game as a whole, I believe it has a lot going for it. A much respected video game franchise, this time is one of the gems in Sega's crown. I have to say that this game doesn't get its rating, but deserves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

RATING: 8/10

Movie Review - Ninja (2009)

In many movies, it seems to be the the realm of Caucasians that when confronted with another race or peoples, they become better than the best at being that culture.  T.H. Lawrence of Arabia in the titular role of the associated film is a good example, as well as Lt. John Dunbar (aka Dances with Wolves). The biggest offender was The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise.  The fact that the last samurai in the film was a White guy really teed off many Japanese upon its release in the land of the samurai, and deservedly so.  It's a good thing that a DVD that feels so much like "The Last Ninja" did not get great publicity.  So it is with the imaginatively titled action movie Ninja.

Casey (Scott Adkins) is an American man studying in Japan--not as a Japanese English Teacher (JET), but as a ninja. He has grown up in the Koga school since he was orphaned at eight years old.  Now a man, Casey is tasked by his Sensei (Togo Igawa) to protect the Yoroi Bitsu--a collection of Koga ninja artifacts from centuries past--from his disgraced rival-turned-assassin, Masazuka (Tsuyoshi Ihara).  Masazuka plans to take control of the Yoroi Bitsu to become Koga clan leader, but the sensei's daughter Namiko (Mika Hijii) has arranged for it to be moved halfway around the world to New York City.  With a guard consisting of Casey, Namiko and other ninjas, there's no way Masazuka will be able to get the Yoroi Bitsu...
...that is, unless he's called in some favors from his secret society friends at the Temple Corporation, run by Mr. Temple (Miles Anderson).  He's got Euro-goons and guns, so finding and capturing a couple of undercover ninjas in New York City should not be a problem.  At all.

It goes without saying that our American ninja (no Joe Armstrong here) is in a relationship with the Sensei's daughter.  Verily, the TV Tropes entry "Me Love You Long Time" is in full effect.  In a related tangent, I remember my friends in college coming up with an inverted scale of White guys and their Asian girlfriends.  I'll be honest: the lead actor Scott Adkins is a chiseled man who is ripped like a panther, which explains why the love interest is not as attractive. I wouldn't put a bag on her head or anything--not that bad.  Just not raging hot, like most Asian female love interests tend to be.  Remaining on the track previous, this movie has a lot of flaws.
Dumb cops acting on plot dictation, mild references to Star Wars (look for it), heavy dependance on uniformed street thugs and obvious ADR work are a sign that the filmmakers made the wise decision to go directly to DVD.