There's a painting by Norman Rockwell called "Freedom of Speech" that's recently become a meme template online, used prior to announcing an unpopular opinion. Well, there's something I gotta say. [i]*stands up*[/i] I admit it: this game filtered my skill issue, and I had to get good. My experience with [i]Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn[/i] has caused me to reflect and be more honest and fair in my criticisms. Sure, we all like to have fun and meme on others online... but what if it's actually true with us? 'Cause it wasn't this game's fault I sucked. It was me all along. So, beware... 'cause if you're not honest, the memes could become your reality, too.

I don't think I've ever hated a game quite as viscerally as I do this game. The in game pixel art is sumptuous and the music and sounds effects are fitting. The praise ends there. The controls, while ok, are both unintuitive and inconsistent. For example to hover and glide the button input is Down + Jump, in order to traverse great gaps I press down???. This was so unintuitive that I only discovered this move after reading the manual, at no point did I accidentally trigger this move. When wall grabbing you have to press jump in the air to grab it, unless you fall from a beam or conveyor, then it auto grabs??? Why the inconsistency The levels are lengthy beyond there welcome, running out of new ideas well short of the games already short run time. Many stages feature auto scrolling platforming sections that are slower than you can imagine, nothing interesting happens in these sections, you wait through them for the actual fun to start. The boss fights are where the game really fall...

A great game that 0% deserves to be in the '< very positive' bracket, there are unfortunately an influx of shìtters that bought this game that can't handle learning anything that is out of the ordinary from a modern action game. Reasonably difficult on the first playthrough on normal / hard, but gets very engaging and fun once you're trying to 1cc the game. Not even that bad considering there's only 6 stages, lots of healing items, and relatively simple bosses. Just as good if not better than Tengo Project's other games, doesn't deserve the flak.

The heart and essence of retro video games perfected. If you consider yourself a lover of classic video games, the understanding of skill perfection vs time grinding, that you level up and not your character, playing against the careful design of the development team, then this is the game for you. Excellent and thoughtful all around. A game to feel proud of for beating not because you put the time in but because you overcame the challenge.

Shadow of the Ninja - Reborn looks beautiful, but the controls feel slightly stiffer than I remember from the NES original.

enemies throwing spears thru walls at you