Along with Alex Kidd and Sonic the Hedgehog, Joe Musashi has long been one of Sega's flagship characters, acting as a mascot for a short time in the late-1980s when ninjas were popular in mainstream media.

[3][4] In the arcade version of Shadow Dancer, Joe Musashi is replaced by a nameless new ninja and his canine companion as the game's protagonists.

[5] The game was remade for the Mega Drive/Genesis under the title Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, with the protagonist's identity differing between regions.

The elder brother becomes corrupted and abducts the master's daughter in search of the ultimate ninjitsu technique, and Sho has to prevent him from destroying the world.

[3] Following a seven-year hiatus in the series, the lead archetype returns in Shinobi for PlayStation 2 as Hotsuma, another member of the Oboro clan.

In a similar theme to Shinobi Legions, the game starts with Hotsuma slaying his elder brother Moritsune during a full moon Oboro ritual.

The main plot revolves around Hotsuma's battle to defeat a powerful sorcerer called Hiruko and put an end to anarchy in Tokyo.

Hotsuma appears as a hidden character, though it requires a completed Shinobi PS2 game save on the memory card to unlock him.

One of the most important moves in the games is Shinobi's somersault, performed by tapping the jump-button a second time at the height of a jump.

Standard Shinobi stages include bamboo forests, dojos, docksides, and industrial complexes filled with biological monstrosities.

Sega released a home conversion for the Master System, followed by licensed ports for the IBM PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and MSX, as well as the PC Engine (via Asmik) in Japan, and an unlicensed port by Tengen for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America.

Shinobi introduced several novelties to traditional platform mechanics, such as sophisticated enemy AI and multiple layers in each level.

The plot follows an unnamed ninja and his canine companion who must disarm various bombs spread across a city and defeat the terrorist group responsible for planting them.

In a take on the Japanese Super Sentai series, Shinobi revolves around the quest of five coloured ninjas (red, pink, blue, yellow and green) to bring down a powerful crime organization.

At least two known beta versions of Shinobi III are currently in circulation, featuring almost completely different levels from the final game.

Shinobi's gameplay is based upon a combo system called the tate-system, which produces a very fast and smooth style of play.

Although this reboot of the franchise was generally well received by critics and fans alike, some of the bigger complaints waged against the game were for its average graphics, somewhat repetitive gameplay, and (as noted earlier) steep difficulty.

In the game, Alex Kidd has to rescue his girlfriend, a native of Shinobi World, from an evil ninja named Hanzo.

In 2014, Sega and Hakuhodo DY formed the production company Stories International for feature film and TV projects based on their Shinobi games.

[19][20] In October 2024, Sega announced a partnership with Universal Pictures to release a feature film adaptation of Shinobi, which will be directed by Sam Hargrave and written by Ken Kobayashi with Platt and Siegel on board as producers.