Games which I love but which can be irritating: Part 2: Shinobi and Sonic

Shinobi (Game Gear)

I never got far into this game but it was one of my favourites as a child, I think I mainly liked it because you could switch between different coloured ninja who had unique powers depending on their colour code. I guess I have liked colour coded heroes ever since I got into the power Rangers and Captain Scarlet, neither of which I am into anymore. I outgrew them but the colour coded aspect still remains, this was a major factor of me becoming a fan of Green Lantern comics when I read Geoff Johns' "Rebirth" arc.



Go go Power... oops I mean lantern Corps!


Anyway I digress. These ninja had different powers but you could only use their special powers so many times before you had to find a power up to restore your ninja magic meter, or whatever it was called. Sometimes it was difficult to work out which ninja to use in a situation but there were also times where you knew which ninja to use but don't switch in time so you fell into some bottomless cavern, acid pit or spikes. It was made even harder as was the case with other older games, the lack of a save point.


Sonic (Megadrive, Master System, Playstation 2, Gamecube, Nintendo DS)


The classic Sonic games are amongst my favourites. Generally with the classic four (1, 2, 3 and Sonic and Knuckles), the lack of savepoints was a problem, because with a bit of practice you could do it in stages even if you are crap like I was. Even without using the save function (a permanent save rather than just checkpoint saves) I was with practice able to get to the ending of the first Sonic game with all 6 chaos emeralds in one go without saving.

However I couldn't finish Sonic 2 or 3 at all never mind get all 7 Chaos Emeralds without saving. In Sonic 2 the chaos emeralds are harder to get the more you get. You need more rings in each progressive Chaos Emerald minigame. I managed to finish the first 3 Sonic games but even though I enjoyed Sonic and Knuckles I could never finish it. The levels were too long and the game got really hard at about the Egypt themed level.

And now over to my regular guest and his approvals: Norman Osborn!

My thanks Geordie Green Lantern. Today I approve of: colourful but deadly ninja and chaos emeralds.