SHADOW DANCER (Arcade) and MD/Genesis "The Secret of Shinobi" article scans

[Parallax Scroll]

I hope you all enjoy these scans and other material on Shadow Dancer, the System 18 arcade game, and the Mega Drive / Genesis exclusive version. Shadow Dancer The Secret of Shinobi.

 

The first time I had ever heard of Shadow Dancer was in the Letters section of EGM #10 May 1990.

 

Shadow Dancer was released in arcades in late 1989, just prior to The Super Shinobi / The Revenge of Shinobi on the Mega Drive / Genesis, so there was some degree on confusion as to Shadow Dancer coming to Sega's 16-bit console.

 

 

 

GamePro later featured Shadow Dancer in its Hot At The Arcades column, along with ESWAT.

 

 

UK magazines also featured the coin-op. This one is from Commodore User, February 1990.

 

 

ACE magazine.

 

 

 

Amiga Joker

https://i.imgur.com/MozQxSl.jpg

 

 

At last, Shadow Dancer was coming to the Mega Drive in Japan, but it was a different game. The first preview from EGM #13 August 1990. Note the non-final title screen.

 

 

Another EGM mention of Shadow Dancer, with the unused title screen.

 

 

This websites describe more about the prototype screenshots

 

http://rq87.flyingomelette.com/RQ/SS/S2/qa.html

http://hiddenpalace.org/Shadow_Dancer:_The_Secret_of_Shinobi_(Oct_2,_1990_prototype)

 

 

 

A later EGM Fact-File

 

 

Mega Play issue #2

 

 

 

Video Games & Computer Entertainment

 

 

EGM's review

 

 

Another EGM Letter, this one noting the prototype title screen and final title screen of Shadow Dancer.

 

 

Sega Visions

 

 

GamePro (this time, the Genesis version)

 

 

Computer & Video Games / Mean Machines

 

 

Arcade flyers

 

 

 

Mega Drive Japan and Genesis U.S. boxart.

 

 

 

Also, the owner of Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL, (suburb of Chicago) talking about hisShadow Dancer arcade cabinet

 

https://youtu.be/YyVgyaV16xM?t=15m27s

 

1 credit clear Shadow Dancer at Galloping Ghost Arcade

 

 

Here is the Genesis Does commercial featuring Strider and Shadow Dancer

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Parallax Scroll

[pablum]

I'm pretty sure I first heard of Shadow Dancer in that same EGM letter's section and I believe I got the Genesis version Christmas of 1990. I finally played the arcade version in the summer of 1991 when I saw it at the King's Island Ohio amusement park arcade room.

 

The Genesis version was very tough. I could only beat it by turning off shurikens. The levels towards the end that were nearly exclusively ninjas that blocked all your projectiles and sword slashes and jump kicks that hit them weren't reliable unless shurikens were disabled.

[mbd30]

I'm pretty sure I first heard of Shadow Dancer in that same EGM letter's section and I believe I got the Genesis version Christmas of 1990. I finally played the arcade version in the summer of 1991 when I saw it at the King's Island Ohio amusement park arcade room.

 

The Genesis version was very tough. I could only beat it by turning off shurikens. The levels towards the end that were nearly exclusively ninjas that blocked all your projectiles and sword slashes and jump kicks that hit them weren't reliable unless shurikens were disabled.

 

It's tough but I've found that you can rack up a bunch of extra lives in the bonus rounds by keeping all the way to the side (which makes it far easier to shoot all the ninjas). I've never disabled shurikens. I think that would make the game a lot harder over all because you have no long range attack.

[Parallax Scroll]

Here is the Japanese Mega Drive Shadow Dancer commercial, I forgot to include it in my OP.

 

 

Also, this great video: Shinobi: The Complete History

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Parallax Scroll

[Cynicaster]

Recently I was looking at some photo albums at my parents' house and there was this picture from spring '91 or so where I was holding up a Genesis cartridge I had just received as a gift. The glare from the camera flash blanked out most of the cover, and all I could see was a red smudge of the title down at the bottom, too blurry to read. I really wanted to figure out what game it was, so I just started searching the net for Genesis box art and quickly determined the game was Shadow Dancer. I've normally got a pretty good memory for this type of thing, but I had completely forgotten about Shadow Dancer, let alone the fact that I used to own it. Shortly thereafter I was on an airplane and loaded the game up in an emulator on my tablet and played through the whole thing (with save states, like a chump). It's a nice looking game -- and after playing it, I did recall actually playing it back in the 90s -- but honestly I found it a bit generic. I think that's why I didn't really remember it; I probably played it a few times and it ended up collecting dust.

 

I also played a bit of E-Swat in MAME a few months ago, for the first time since playing it during my prime arcade days back when it was current. I can't believe it never occurred to me at the time that E-Swat is pretty much just a re-skin of Shinobi. In retrospect it's clear to see that arcade games of the early 90s were not nearly as creative and varied as they were in the golden age that I was too young to enjoy.

[Silverfleet]

I love the Genesis version of Shadow Dancer! It's a ton of fun, the music rules, and sending your dog/wolf to hold up enemies is a great play mechanic.

 

I used to always confuse it with Shadow Blasters. They came out around the same time and had "shadow" in the name.

[Parallax Scroll]

I can't edit the OP, this is one of the arcade reviews I didn't put image tags for. Not that it matters, it's not in English but here it is anyway.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Found another mag that had a good look at the arcade Shadow Dancer.

 

This one comes from the May 1990 issue of S: The Sega Magazine.