- Back to: The Revenge of Shinobi.
Version comparisons
Title screen
Due to Sega's relaxed view on copyright law, there are no less than five different revisions of The Revenge of Shinobi. Aside from copyright information, the title screens happily showed a ninja with the face of Sonny Chiba until revision 04 (the version intended for the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2009), where he is now portrayed by M2 director Tsuyoshi Matsuoka.
Rambo
These flamethrower enemies (called "Rocky" in the Japanese manual) resemble John Rambo in the revision 00 of the game.
Spider-Man
Players fight Spider-Man as part of the boss of round 6. Unlike the others, Sega actually acquired a license to use the character starting with revision 01 (reportedly as a cross-promotion with Spider-Man: The Videogame. That license had expred by revision 04, wherein Spider-Man was recoloured pink.
The original Shinobi also included Spider-Man-like enemies without seeking permission from Marvel Comics.
Batman
Upon beating Spider-Man, players have to fight Batman. Batman becomes Devilman in revision 01.
Godzilla
Up until revision 03, players would fight (a much smaller) Godzilla as the boss of round 7. He was changed to a skeleton dinosaur with exposed organs, with his atomic breath becoming blue.
Other comparisons
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| Kage no Gundan II print advertisement
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| JP The Super Shinobi cover
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The Japanese cover art (and indeed most title screens) of The Revenge of Shinobi lift this promotional image from the 1981 TV series, Kage no Gundan II (影の軍団II) starring Sonny Chiba. The image was originally made for the first season of Kage no Gundan, but it is believed Sega used this flipped and cropped version as a reference. Aside from not looking like Sonny Chiba, protagonist Joe Musashi wears white in-game.
References
