The 80’s and 90’s were buzzing with shurikens and katana wielding ninjas, not only for video games but all media. You had Ninja Gaiden, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 3 Ninjas, Surf Ninjas and on and on. This “ninja-mania” gave us the feeling we were peeking into a mystical world filled with distant culture, rich history and insane weapons that required masterful skill. During the height of this phenomenon, Shadow of the Ninja appeared on the NES.

With every media outlet fighting to cash in on the fad, it would be easy to write this game off as nothing more than an uninspiring ninja trope. While this game does borrow (quite heavily) ideas from other games in the genre it does them very well. More importantly, it has one of the best soundtracks the NES has to offer. So if you passed on this Natsume title back in the day, now is your chance to see what you were missing. For only $5 on the eShop, it’s a steal.

Track list:

0:00:06 Opening

0:05:16 Stage 1

0:14:36 Stage 2

0:25:18 Stage 3

0:36:55 Stage Boss Battle

0:40:00 Stage 4

0:49:05 Stage 5

0:56:03 Final Battle

1:06:10 Ending Theme

1:16:52 Burning City - Remix by Hyde209 (bandcamp | YouTube)

Shadow of the Ninja (NA) | Blue Shadow (EU) | 闇の仕事人 KAGE (JP)

composed by Iku Mizutani and Kouichi Yamanishi