Introduction

Shadow of the Ninja, originally released in Japan as Yami no Shigotonin Kage (闇やみの仕事人しごとにん KAGE, The Dark Operative: Kage) and later released in Europe and Australia as Blue Shadow, is a 1990 action-platform game developed and published by Natsume for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game revolves around a pair of ninja sent to assassinate a dictator in a futuristic version of New York City. A port was planned for the Game Boy, but was released in a rebranded form as Ninja Gaiden Shadow. A remake, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn, was released in 2024.

Game Play

In 2029, the evil Emperor Garuda has taken over the United States of America, building a stronghold in the middle of the nation's "largest city". To stop Garuda and avenge the innocent lives that were lost in his reign, two ninja masters from the Iga clan, Lord Hayate and Lady Kaede, are sent to infiltrate the dictator's well-guarded stronghold and kill him.

Shadow of the Ninja is a side-scrolling platform game that can be played by up to two players simultaneously, with one player controlling Hayate (a ninja in purple) and the other as Kaede (a kunoichi in orange). In either mode, the player can decide which character they want to control before the game begins. There are no actual performance differences between either character.

The player can run, crouch, climb ladders, attack, and jump like in most side-scrolling action games as well as hang onto an overhang and move under it. If the player has more than half of their vitality remaining, they can perform a special attack by holding a button for an extended period, summoning a thunderstorm that will damage all on-screen enemies, but at the cost of roughly half of their maximum vitality.

This guide is based on information from the original source: Shadow of the Ninja Wiki.