While I can’t say that I played the original Shadow of the Ninja way back on the NES, I’m certainly quite familiar with games made in the same general mold. Checking out a video of its gameplay, I was actually quite shocked by even back then how much it was obviously trying to push the expectations for side-scrolling action games to new and exciting heights. Featuring very nimble characters with movesets I don’t recall being very common back then at all, the concept of taking that title and giving it more modern trimmings absolutely makes sense.

The bulk of the action actually quite closely adheres to the style, layouts, and general flow of the original. You’re a nimble ninja, picking up a variety of power-ups and very efficiently dispatching of your enemies. The challenge in games in this classic mold, is that while you may feel nigh invulnerable while running through the game at full power, the moment you take a hit you’ll want to cut things back a little, while you try to build back up your power since you’ll have lost your mojo. The good news is that you’re very capable, even with just your default weapon, but you’ll be even more formidable if you make smart use of the different gear you can pick up along the way.

One stumbling block I absolutely had was that not having played the original game, the controls and their depth initially baffled me a bit. In particular, some of the moves you can make that aren’t related to pressing a button so much as pushing the D-Pad (or joystick) in a specific direction when you’re set up a certain way. Specifically, knowing to press up when hanging from a ledge is a critical skill, but if you’re new to the game that isn’t necessarily just an intuitive thing to presume. So while you can find a manual in the options to review, having some help being sure players understand how capable you are could have been very helpful if shared more openly.

Those misgivings aside, and perhaps throwing in that the game isn’t all that incredibly long overall, this feels like a very successful value-added upgrade to a far more primitive NES-era title. The surprise if you’re new to it is how ambitious the original was, but regardless you should also find this refreshed take on the action to be a lot of fun.