No Shinobi Game between Genesis and Saturn, why?

Shinobi was one of the star franchises for Sega in the 80s and early 90s. The original arcade game was a success, and the subsequent releases for the Master System and the Genesis were all big hits as well. Shinobi was considered one of the main Sega mascots in certain advertising campaigns in the early 90s. Based on this, it seems short-sighted of Sega to fail to develop a Shinobi game for either the Sega CD or the 32x. From 1987 to 1993 Sega released at least one Shinobi game per year, if not multiple, for each of its systems (Arcade, SMS, MD, GG), and even 3rd party systems. Why then, did they fail to develop a Shinobi game for either the Sega CD or 32x? There was certainly a market for one. Yes, this topic derives from a rant on my part as a Shinobi fan, but I'm hoping someone with more knowledge of Sega's game development during that period can enlighten me because this baffles me.

There is no 32X shinobi, because Shinobi Legions was released in 1995, meaning it was likely in development around the time the 32X was released in the first place. Why develop a separate game for an add-on already on it's death bed when you're already creating one for it's successor?

And technically, Revenge of Shinobi was released on the Sega CD.

^a re-release on a compilation disc isn't exactly a new game. And I get that a 32x release would have likely been an effort in futility, but I don't see why a game was never developed at least for the Sega CD. Perhaps one was started and scrapped, I don't know.

This is a huge miss in the Genesis library. Shinobi 3 was 8-Meg and brilliant (came out mid 93' and it was originally planned for mid/late 92' I believe?) If they met there original release date I think we would have most likely gotten a 16-Meg Shinobi 4 and that would have been amazing (Alien Solider sized Shinobi sprite) I can dream.

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Originally Posted by cowboyscowboys

This is a huge miss in the Genesis library. Shinobi 3 was 8-Meg and brilliant (came out mid 93' and it was originally planned for mid/late 92' I believe?) If they met there original release date I think we would have most likely gotten a 16-Meg Shinobi 4 and that would have been amazing (Alien Solider sized Shinobi sprite) I can dream.

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Agreed. The 32x made a great platform for older arcade style releases, why SEGA didn't bother with Shinobi is beyond me.

Yeah, the 32X needed to have an absolute ton of Sega Arcade games ported to it. I don't mean adapted, I mean ported, I would have bought every single one and forgotten entirely about anything else.

If a Shinobi game was released for the 32X I would have bought the game in a heartbeat! On a similar note, I recently bought Shinobi for the 3DS. I am so excited to play this game but am a little worried it may not live up to my expectations. The game has been sitting on my shelf for 3 weeks now still sealed!!!!!!

The Sega CD and 32X both needed more of a lot of things, in terms of first party support, but as far as Shinobi goes I'd think the bigger question is why there wasn't a single Shinobi game between 1995 and 2002... that's a big gap. Did Legions sort of kill the series or something?

Shinobi's just another victim of their franchise shift. Sonic became Nights, Space Harrier/Afterburner became Panzer Dragoon, Phantasy Star became PD Saga, SoR became, well, I don't know, but perhaps EC turned into Virtual on. This effort of shifting seems to have cost Sega another franchise for every new born: Ecco didn't get another game till DC, Outrun didn't get another game till Xbox, Sonic didn't get a Saturn game and barely can be said to have got a 32X one, SoR, GA, and so on. The real shame is that Shinobi became nothing at all, Sega just did nothing to replace him.
Legions seems more like a Sega CD game than anything else. Mega Man X4 and 8 are vastly better as ninja games on the Saturn. That cheap digitized crap is sub 32 bit. The usual wishful wondering is what Legions would've looked like with Taromaru's sprites but how about with Iron Man XO's? Hell it could've been done in a flamboyant anime style and been ten times better. ------ This line's not helpful is it. >>>
So I think Legions the SCD game the SCD never got. Why? Presumably because there was doubt about the SCD needing action titles (a stupid doubt but typical); then, about wasting the game on a small user base the Saturn would expectedly enlarge upon. Then once the Saturn came out there was nothing else to do with an already finished Legions. -- Once more on the graphics, they don't even look optimised for 32 bit, they ought to be twice cleaner and crisper were they actually developed on 32 bit hardware.

Hmm, I always thought Legions had a ton of detail not possible on previous platforms. I hate the digital characters, but everything has a lot of color and detail.

Phantasy Star Didn't become Panzer Dragoon Saga, it stayed Phantasy Star and then went online when it made the jump to 3D. Which I think was a smart move on Sega's part. Regardless of how much we love Sega, we have to admit a Single Player Phantasy Star coming out up against Final Fantasy VII-X would have failed miserably. Sega had no where near the resources to compete with Square Enix in the Single Player RPG genre. I think going Online with it was one of the smartest things they did during that time period.

Sonic again stayed Sonic. While there wasn't a Sonic 4 or a Sonic Adventure on the Saturn, there were Sonic games on the Saturn and Sonic Team was working on Sonic Adventure for the Saturn, and we all know about Sonic Xtreme. So it's not fair to say Sega shifted focus and tried to turn Sonic into NiGHTS. That's not what happened at all.

Eternal Champions didn't become Virtual On either. That idea makes no sense since the games have nothing in common and are made by different people. There was a Saturn Eternal Champions Planned, but it was canceled. And the reason had nothing to do with Virtual On. It had to do with Virtua Fighter. Sega of Japan ordered the cancellation of the third Eternal Champions game because they felt it would hurt the US sales of Virtua Fighter.

These franchises didn't turn into other games, what happened was the Saturn was pretty much Sega of Japan running the show. All those great Genesis franchises we all know and love failed miserably over in Japan. So it makes sense that Sega of Japan would want to try pushing new and different franchises to win the Japanese Market.

I'm glad sega is not like Nintendo, releasing the same fucking game every two years. I mean come on how many times can you play Zelda? It is always the same freaking game with a small add on gimmick. I love the sega franchises and I'm glad that there are so many...

I agree with highlandcattle. One of the reasons Sega was so awesome is that they were always coming up with new stuff.

As much as I love Shinobi games, any more of them during the 16-bit era probably would have been overkill.

I absolutely love Shinobi games but I was surprised back in the day that they even made Shinobi III. I does not shock me one bit they did not make it for the add ons.

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Originally Posted by TrekkiesUnite118

There was a Saturn Eternal Champions Planned, but it was canceled.

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The story of the Saturn.

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So it makes sense that Sega of Japan would want to try pushing new and different franchises to win the Japanese Market.

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This is what I was saying with the "francise shift" (my opening term). Each of those franchises I mentioned was retired, not necessarily forever, in favour of something new in the same category. The premise was not that Virtual On is Eternal Champions with a last second sprite swap, the premise is that VO was Sega's newest fighting game--albeit Vipers may have been later; I skipped VF since I thought it went the furthest back in the arcades. The premise was pretty clear.
Sonic did not stay Sonic. What Sonic had been on Genesis was Sega's mascot and a 2D sidescrolling game. He had no pride of place on Saturn and only 1 full scale game in a bastard format; Flickies' Island is nice but it never received the push Nights did. Sonic R is more on a level with Spinball. Sonic Jam adds about 2% of a game to its compilation disk, and if compilation material counts toward a mascot image Sega might as well have adopted the Pirate Ship Higemaru.

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Originally Posted by sheath

Hmm, I always thought Legions had a ton of detail not possible on previous platforms. I hate the digital characters, but everything has a lot of color and detail.

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It shows up better than it would on SCD due to the Saturn's capabilities but I feel anything strictly developed for the Saturn would've looked better, it's surpassingly flat. Maybe not, Mr Bones isn't exactly an optical treat--different graphical methods but a comparable situation.