Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master/Hidden content
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Contents
Alternate Sega logo sequence
There is an alternate Sega logo sequence that will occasionally appear after a soft reset where an enlarged Sega logo scrolls across the screen. The best way to see this would be to let the first rolling demo play after booting the game.
Infinite shurikins
On the options screen, set S.E. to "Shurikin", then set the number of shurikins to 00 and wait without touching the controls. After a while, the number will change to an infinity symbol[1].
Unlimited health
On the options screen, highlight 'Music' and play 'He Runs', 'Japonesque', 'Shinobi Walk', 'Sakura' and 'Getufu'. There is no need to listen to each track in full, just starting each track in order is sufficient. If entered correctly, 'Getufu' will not play and the previous track will be silenced.
When you start a new game you no longer take damage (but you can still lose a life by falling off the screen)[2].
Six-button controls
Shinobi III contains support for the Six Button Control Pad, but is locked behind a cheat code. To activate it, have a Six Button Control Pad inserted into port 1 and any other Control Pad in port 2, then highlight "Options" on the title screen. Hold MODE on Control Pad 1 and 
+
on Control Pad 2, then press START on Control Pad 1. The "OPTIONS" header will change to "OPTION" to confirm correct entry. The following control scheme will now be used by default:
- Guard
- Slash
- Jump
- Use Ninjitsu
/ 
- Throw shurikins- MODE - Select Ninjitsu
With this control scheme, actions such as slashing and guarding are no longer context-sensitive, and selecting Ninjitsu no longer requires pausing the game. However, only 
, 
and can be reconfigured, and are mislabelled as the game still uses the three-button labels ("Ninjitsu" and "Attack" instead of "Guard" and "Slash"). The dive kick is performed using Slash and thus the same default button ().
At the time of Shinobi III's release, Six Button Control Pads (including official ones) were not yet available until the release of Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition in most regions months later. According to Yosuke Okunari, the six-button control scheme was a last-minute inclusion at the very end of the game's development cycle as the original development team had learned that the Six Button Control Pad was due for release soon, though it was too late to make the control scheme available by default[3].
3D Shinobi III makes this a standard option called "Expert Ninja Mode" in its menu. Though the Mega Drive Mini supports six-button control schemes it is impossible to enable six-button controls in the Mega Drive Mini release, since the System Menu is mapped to the MODE button.
References
