Continuing the esteemed ninja legacy of Shinobi, the side-scrolling Genesis classic Shadow Dancer is now available on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console! First released in the arcade as a sequel to the original Shinobi in 1989, Shadow Dancer made its way as a high-quality port to the Genesis in 1991.

The game takes the same style as the previous Shinobi and adds a new wrinkle, an attack dog who follows the player and can be commanded to attack and distract enemies. This ends up being a fairly clever mechanic, and adds a layer of strategy, along with the mainstay Shinobi weapons of throwing stars, Ninjato sword, and magic spells. The other hallmark of the Shinobi series is here as well — the easy-to-jump-in-and-play feel of being a deadly ninja, combined with a ferociously difficult gameplay that demands careful attention to enemy attack patterns, and steely ninja wits.

It’s a pleasure to see some of these Genesis gems, and in particular to find out that 16 bits could crank out some very excellent backgrounds and scenery, combined with the unique, dark, look & feel of the Shinobi series. Also, the Genesis version may actually have a leg up on the Arcade version, at least for playing at home — while the arcade version was designed to eat your quarters with its insane difficulty, the difficulty of the Genesis version, while still extremely high, is more balanced around actually playing a game at home, where you want to have the time to learn & master its nuances.

Shinobi is one of the longest running SEGA characters, and Shadow Dancer is one of the most unique entries in the series; check out this game on the Wii Virtual Console!