- Shadow Dancer
, who was brought over to America raised by a
Japanese-American named "Dick C. Kato", along with his pet dog nihongo|Yamato|大和. Hayate and Yamato sets out to avenge Kato's death after he is killed by a mysterious organization called the Union Lizard.cite web|url=http://vc.sega.jp/vc_shadow/|title=シャドー・ダンサー ザ・シークレット・オブ・シノビ | Wii(R) バーチャルコンソール メガドライブ 公式サイト|language=Japanese|accessdate=2007-08-06] In the English localization of Mega Drive/Genesis game, the main character is actually Musashi himself (instead of his son) and Kato is made into one of Musashi's students, who is also killed in this version of the plot. Yamato is made into Kato's pet dog, which Musashi adopts after his original owner's death.Gameplay
The gameplay is very similar to previous "Shinobi" games except with the addition of the dog as a game mechanic. The dog can harass enemies, allowing the player to kill them more easily. Some enemy types are designed in such a way that killing them is extremely difficult without the assistance of the dog. In the arcade version, you can press down and attack to call the dog. It is not possible to summon the dog while standing up. When the dog is hurt, it shrinks into a puppy, incapable of attacking until the next powerup. In the Sega Genesis version, the dog is always present, and must be given manual attack orders by holding down the attack button to charge a meter. If the dog is hurt, it automatically heals after a short amount of time.
Bombs (or hostages in the Mega Drive/Genesis version) are scattered across the stage waiting to be disarmed. The goal of each stage is to disarm a certain number of bombs before facing the boss.
Hayate's standard weapons are an unlimited supply of throwing stars, along with punches and kicks when attacking at close range. He can also perform "ninja magic," which may be used only once per stage and kills (or damages, in the case of bosses) all enemies on the screen. A single power-up exists, which upgrades the shuriken into energy bolts and changes the close-range attacks to more powerful sword slashes.
The game contains 4 rounds divided into sub sections totaling 15 stages. Sega Master System port is the shortest game among all versions. Every round has only one regular and one boss stage.
The arcade version of Shadow Dancer featured bonus stages where Hayate will go up against a group of ninjas climbing down a building in the style of a
first person shooter . The bonus stage is the same on all the ports except for theSega Genesis . In the Genesis version, Hayate/Joe Musashi is depicted free-falling between two buildings while enemies wall-jump back and forth between them. The player moves left and right, throwing shuriken to hit the enemies before they jump past the top of the screen. Sega Master System version has both bonus rounds.References
External links
*KLOV game|id=9499
* [http://www.shinforce.com/ Covers and Sega Master System screenshots]
* [http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/shinobi/shinobi2.htm Classic Gaming]
*moby game|id=/shadow-dancer
*WoS game|id=0004421
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