The Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis)

The Revenge of Shinobi details Joe Musashi's quest to destroy pop culture icons.

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes

Unused Graphics#

Round Start/Clear and Game Over Font#

The game makes use of this font to show the next stage and the game over screen, however, there are some extra unused tiles that can be used to form the whole alphabet and even some extra symbols. Also, the game only goes up to stage 8, so the number 9 goes unused.

Round 5 Boss Missile#

Loaded with the graphics of the Stage 5 boss, is this very small missile. It's possible that the fireballs replaced it at some point in development, or it was supposed to be a background element, given how small it is. Uses Joe's color palette.

Round 5 Boss Smoke#

While the last two frames of smoke/dust are used during the boss fight of Stage 5, all the previous ones from the complete set go unused. The full animation suggests a different purpose for the sprites, that maybe the truck was supposed to release some smoke from itself instead of being repurposed as road dust.

Soldier Aiming Diagonally#

In the final game, none of the soldier enemies are capable of aiming and shooting diagonally, only horizontally.

Glitched Dog Sprite#

In all versions of the game (including the prototype), the dog enemy has its hurt sprite loaded incorrectly, showing some garbage tiles instead. This leaves the full, intended sprite unused. Oddly, the other dog present in Round 3 doesn't have this issue.

In-game	Intended

Obscured Battleship#

In Round 7-1, since the screen doesn't scroll enough for the player to see it, the battleship in the background is not fully displayed, leaving the last vertical row of sprites on the right unused.

In-game	Full Sprite

Unused Sounds#

A loud explosion(?). Heard at S.E. 05 in the Sound Test. Since it's close to the player-related ones, it might have been the original effect made for the Ikazuchi ninjutsu, but the final game re-uses one of the "generic" projectile sounds for it.

A rather quiet beep sound, which is prominently featured in the menus of the Streets of Rage series of games, curiously. Maybe it was intended to have the same use here? Can be found at S.E. 29, in the Sound Test. Also present in the prototype.

Unused Endings#

Watch on YouTubeThere exists two inaccessible endings that appear to imply the death of Joe. One being a role-reversal the game’s used bad ending with Naoko holding Joe’s sword as she stares off towards the sky as a sprite of Joe's face fades in, and the other being similar, except Naoko is replaced with only Joe’s sword overlooking the cliff.

These endings can be triggered in-game by using Pro Action Replay code FF1005:0002 and FF1005:0003 respectively and then defeating the final boss.

Regional Differences#

There are a couple of minor differences between regions. Both the Japanese and international versions of the game are stored on the same cartridge and will change appropriately depending on your console/emulator's region setting.

Title#

Japan	International

A simple logo change. In Japan, the game is known as The Super Shinobi.

Staff#

A staff roll appears during the good ending in the Japanese version and actually syncs well with the music, with both ending at the same time. Unfortunately, the credits are omitted from the international version for some reason, jumping straight to the "The End" graphic and cutting the music short.

Revisional Differences#

This game went through a ridiculous number of revisions.

• REV00 seems to be the only version released in Japan.
• REV02 was the first version to be released in Europe.
• REV03 was included in compilations such as 6-Pak and, a few years earlier on Sega CD, Sega Classics Arcade Collection.
• The version included in Sega Smash Pack for PC is actually a prototype!

Changes in REV01#

REV00	REV01

The flamethrower enemies, cheekily named "Rocky" in the Japanese manual, were changed from Rambo lookalikes to ordinary bald guys called "Gunners".

REV00	REV01

The boss of Round 6, Metamorpher, takes on two forms: one that resembles Spider-Man, who then transforms into one that resembles Batman. The Spider-Man form was changed to resemble the actual Spider-Man. It's mostly just a palette swap, though the eye parts of the mask were also changed.

He also no longer transforms into the second form but instead slinks away through the top of the screen when defeated. The second form then flies down from the top of the screen.

According to a 2003 interview with game director Noriyoshi Ohba, Sega had requested Spider-Man be included as a sort of cross-promotion for their arcade game, Spider-Man: The Videogame.

REV00	REV01

The Batman form was changed to resemble Akira Fudou, post transformation into Devilman, from the manga Devilman.

REV00	REV01

His accompanying bats were also redesigned.

Changes in REV02#

Pre-REV02	REV02

A new screen was added before the title screen to accommodate the copyright notice for the use of Spider-Man. The copyright notices for Sega and Yuzo Koshiro were also moved from the title screen to this screen, losing its unique font and Sega logo in the process.

Changes in REV03#

REV02	REV03

The "TM" on the title screen was removed.

Pre-REV03	REV03

The boss of Round 7, Monster G, was changed from a Godzilla lookalike to a horrifying skeleton dinosaur with exposed organs.

Pre-REV03	REV03

The dinosaur's fire breath was also changed from red to blue.

Changes for Virtual Console#

Presumably due to legal precautions (read; the Round 6 boss), the game was often held back from being re-released (in compilations and such) until 2009, when it was modified one last time and released on the Wii Virtual Console, which was also the basis for all rereleases since, such as on the Mega Drive Mini series or as part of the Genesis game lineup on the Nintendo Classics Expansion Pack. See the notes page for the raw patch code.

REV02-REV03	Virtual Console

Since Sega's Spider-Man license had long since expired, the copyright notice was removed from the copyright screen, sort of negating the reason for its creation in the first place.

REV03	Virtual Console

The face of Joe Musashi that appears on the original title screen was based on that of actor Sonny Chiba, specifically on his appearance in the Japanese TV series Kage no Gundan. For the Virtual Console release, this was expectedly changed to avoid legal issues.

The new likeness is that of Tsuyoshi Matsuoka, a director and programmer at M2 who largely handled Virtual Console releases, as revealed during the M2: Complete Works documentary.

REV01-REV03	Virtual Console

As you could guess from the copyright change, Spider-Man isn't the real Spider-Man anymore. His palette was changed to a questionable shade of pink, but he still acts the same as before.