What is pretty confusing is the naming convention. In Japan, the title of Shibobi 3 is "The Super Shinobi II", clearly implying that is the sequel to the Genesis/Mega Drive game, and that the gameplay should be different from the arcade titles (I'm assuming they are considered separate series. However, the Western releases deemed it "Shinobi 3". So which was "Shinobi 2"? Revenge of Shinobi? Shadow Dancer? Or perhaps the atrocious Cyber Shinobi? No one really knows for sure... Strangely, there was later a saturn shinobi that is FUCKING AWESOME -- it's just called Shinobi. THere are like 5 COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GAMES called Shinobi, that are all fucking awesome. I never played the ps2 one, though I played the sequel, Nightshade, which was quite cool!
YUZO KOSHIRO- -my favorite video game composer of all time -- did the music for the Shinobis. The only game he created (as well as doing the music to) was Beyond Oasis, by far my favorite game on the Genesis, and in my opinion, the best 16-bit game ever (aside from tetris attack, super metroid, and yoshi's island). Check it out. Imagine Landstalker meets Streets of Rage 3.
Anyway, SHINOBI 3:
This boss fight is a lot like a level in Alien Soldier and a level in Contra Hard Corps (not surprising, since the Konami team who made the best Contra Game -- Hard Corps -- defected and formed Treasure).
What a great game.
Oh shit, it's MECHA GODZILLA
vs
GODZILLA
!!!!!!!!!
I love the Shinobi games, but the last boss on Revenge of Shinobi (with the hair) is nearly impossible ,and the ending is horrible.