Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is the first new Shinobi game since 2011, and it arrives with an 8.7/10 critic aggregate across six outlets. Sega published it. Lizardcube developed it. It is out now on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is set to be released on September 24, 2026.
That last line matters more than it should. The game is already finished and already reviewed, and one of its announced platforms is a console that will not have it for another stretch of months. We will come back to that.
Trailer, via SEGA.
Joe Musashi Loses Almost Everyone
The setup is blunt and it works. ENE Corporation, a paramilitary outfit run by Lord Ruse, storms Oboro Village and kills nearly the whole clan. Joe Musashi leads the Oboro, a line of mystical shinobi who have guarded mankind for centuries. He confronts Ruse and his lieutenants and drives them back, but his wife Naoko and his student Tomoe are the only survivors.
Then it gets worse. Musashi sends Tomoe to gather intelligence on ENE activity in the region. Ruse uses the absence and hits Musashi’s home again, killing Tomoe and Musashi’s dog Yamato.
Grief is the engine here, not duty. That is the right call for this series and Lizardcube plays it straight.
The Ankou and the Stolen Scythe
The plot takes a turn into the supernatural that the marketing does not advertise. While Musashi mourns, an Ankou appears — a mortal man chosen to be the Grim Reaper, a role that keeps the cycle of life and death running. A new Ankou is picked each year. Ruse was chosen. Ruse refused, because he did not want to leave his loved ones behind, and he stole the Ankou’s Death Scythe and used it to pull power from the souls he reaps.
The Ankou’s warning is the stake of the whole game: if this keeps up, the balance of life and death topples and the world goes with it. Musashi agrees to get the scythe back.
It is a strange pairing — a revenge story bolted to a cosmic maintenance job — and it holds together better than it has any right to. Ruse stops being a warlord and becomes something closer to a man who broke a law older than he is. That is a real villain, not a boss with a health bar.
Chiyo, the Brainwashed Kunoichi
Musashi tracks Ruse and runs into Chiyo, a kunoichi who heads ENE’s combat division. He beats her, then finds out she was brainwashed, and pulls the mind-control device.
Lucid again, Chiyo explains she led an anti-ENE resistance before Ruse crushed it and turned her into one of his lieutenants. She wants payback. She joins Musashi and the Ankou and points them at ENE’s major bases of operations, weakening the corporation and buying time.
Three allies, three different reasons to be there. The Ankou wants the order of the world restored. Chiyo wants what was taken from her. Musashi wants Ruse dead. The game does not pretend these are the same thing.
Swords, Kunai and Ninpo
The combat is 2D action platforming with a sword and kunai, plus magical powers called Ninpo. Enemies can be staggered and tagged, and then Musashi triggers Shinobi Execution to kill every tagged enemy at once. Amulets add combat bonuses.
Movement is where the game separates itself. Musashi double jumps, dashes through the air and dodge-rolls. Gold buys new traversal tools, combat moves and upgrades.
Here is how the pieces line up:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sword and kunai | Standard attacks |
| Ninpo | Magical powers |
| Tagging and Shinobi Execution | Kills all tagged enemies at once |
| Amulets | Extra combat bonuses |
| Gold | Unlocks traversal tools, moves and upgrades |
The tagging system is the sharpest idea in the kit. It turns crowd control into a setup problem rather than a mash problem.
Metroidvania Bones and Arcade Mode
This is the break from earlier Shinobi games. Art of Vengeance leans on Metroidvania-style exploration to hide secrets and side content, rather than running you down a straight line to the next boss.
Every stage, once cleared, can be replayed in Arcade mode, which times you and asks how fast you can do it. That is a smart second life for levels you already know.
Then there is the downloadable content. Five additional stages arrived April 3, 2026, built around boss fights with three villains from other Sega franchises:
- Death Adder from Golden Axe
- Goro Majima from Yakuza
- Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog
The DLC also adds outfits and Ninpo themed to each franchise.
What the 8.7 Actually Says
An 8.7 across six outlets is a strong score, and it is earned by the parts of this game that are specific: the tagging, the movement, the willingness to let a revenge plot turn into a story about a man who stole Death’s own tool so he would not have to say goodbye.
The Metroidvania pivot is the risk, and it is the right one. Shinobi had been a coin-op memory for over a decade. Burying secrets in a map gives the series a reason to exist beyond nostalgia.
The Switch 2 delay is the part worth watching. A September 24, 2026 date, announced for a game that has been out and reviewed since 2025, is not a launch — it is a port with a long runway, and it will arrive in a market that has already made up its mind. That does not hurt the game. It does mean the version nobody has played yet is the one carrying the most unanswered questions.
What holds the score back is the plot’s willingness to keep killing people Musashi loves to keep him angry. Tomoe and Yamato both die to service the same emotion, and the second death does less work than the first. Grief has diminishing returns as a plot device.
Still, the Ankou twist gives all of it a floor. Ruse is not evil for the sake of it. He is a man who was handed a job he could not accept and decided the rules did not apply to him. That is a better villain than most action games bother to write.
The 8.7 is the number, but the Ankou is the reason to play. A revenge story that turns into an argument about whether death should be negotiable is a stranger, harder thing than this series has attempted before, and it is the part that will still be worth talking about after the Switch 2 port finally lands.
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