In 1991 the Shinobi series was doing big business. Hot off the heels of its 1987 arcade debut, its 1989 spin-off Shadow Dancer, and the Mega Drive sequel The Revenge of Shinobi – Joe Musashi was about to hit handhelds for the very first time. Releasing alongside the Western debut of the SEGA Game Gear in April 1991, The GG Shinobi was developed internally by SEGA R&D 2 who had made a name for themselves as the premiere Master System software developer – being behind such legendary titles as Castle of Illusion, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World and Wonder Boy in Monster Land.

The GG Shinobi puts you in control of our returning hero Joe Musashi, who once again has to take it to the streets to stop an evil organisation from threatening to overthrow the Oboro ninja clan. This time the action takes place in Neo City and a selection of 4 young ninja have been abducted as they attempted to learn more about this new threat. This means it’s over to Joe to rescue the kidnapped ninja and take the fight to the Big Bad himself.

What makes The GG Shinobi stand apart from other entries in the series is its focus on rescuing the 4 ninja and making use of their unique abilities. The game liberally takes influence from the Mega Man franchise by letting you tackle the first 4 stages in any order, and then adding the rescued ninja to your ever-increasing arsenal. You can switch between the ninja at any time using the pause screen, and each ninja as their own unique attack method, ninjutsu, and supplementary ability that lets you explore the stages in different ways. The blue ninja can swing off grappling points, the yellow ninja can walk on water, the green ninja can double jump and so on and so forth.

Despite the Mega Man influence, what really helps the game is that the character controls are beautifully tight and responsive. This is very much continuing the top tier quality of previous Shinobi titles by giving the player extremely robust character controls and dropping you into these expertly crafted stages to explore and unleash chaos in. When you die it’s not the controls letting you down – it’s your own skill. Getting creative and making expert use of the different ninja is definitely a very rewarding experience and you’ll naturally uncover new locations and secrets if you’re inquisitive enough.

However, this is a Shinobi game and as a result it’s not sugar-coating its difficulty. You will die while playing The GG Shinobi. Enemy attack patterns can get infuriatingly cheap, and there’s just not enough screen real estate to accommodate the gorgeous visuals without unfortunately adding the issue of getting jumped by off-screen enemies you can’t react to quick enough. The GG Shinobi demands you keep trying so you can learn attack patterns and enemy locations, because your own skill will not be enough to breeze through this one on the first try.

Things really turn up a notch when you reach the 5th and final stage which tests your knowledge of every ninja. In the final stage you have to explore a massive maze-like labyrinth; revisiting the game’s previous boss battles, while making expert use of each ninja, their abilities and even their ninjutsu. It’s a wonderfully crafted skill-check of a level that has the unfortunate side effect of making you wish there were more stages like it that encouraged more ninja swapping.

Despite this, you do have to remind yourself that this is the first handheld outing for Shinobi. This is an undeniably short game, but a handheld title benefits from brevity as you’ll often find yourself playing in shorter sessions when it’s on a device that’s made to be used during a toilet break. The GG Shinobi packs in a lot of expertly-crafted game design that rewards repeat plays and experimentation. It’s also a gorgeous game – full of detailed but not overly-busy pixel art, and another show-stealing soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro.

Games like The GG Shinobi are a real showcase piece for the humble Game Gear. There are not many titles this beautifully crafted and made for handhelds of the era. As a result it makes the Game Gear look like a beast of a console when compared to the Game Boy. Sure, it might be cribbing a lot of ideas from Mega Man, but those concepts seamlessly blend with the Shinobi formula and create one of the Game Gear’s very best titles. The GG Shinobi simply has to be experienced if you’re a Shinobi fan because it is not a compromised handheld experience in the slightest – this is the real deal.

9/10

Reviewed by Lewis “Sonic Yoda” Clark 23/4/2026