Shien's Revenge
| Shien's Revenge | |
|---|---|
 Japanese cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Almanic |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Designer(s) | Go Nagai |
| Composer(s) | Akihiko Mori |
| Platform(s) | Super NES |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Rail shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Shien's Revenge, known in Japan as Shien: The Blade Chaser (紫炎～ザ・ブレイドチェイサー Shien ze Bureido Cheeisaa), is an action game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. It was the first video game designed by the famous manga and anime artist Go Nagai.[1]
Story
Shien and Aska are a pair of highly skilled ninja fighting in a bloody war. After defeating hundreds of enemies, monsters suddenly appear from the Time Gate and kidnap Aska. The mastermind is a mysterious force known only as the Undertaker. Shien must now travel through the Time Gate to defeat this unknown evil and rescue his girlfriend.
Gameplay
Shien's Revenge is played from a first-person viewpoint as the player aims a cursor at enemies to either throw shurikens or slash with a kunai dagger. There are six long levels, each with scaling bosses that nearly fill the screen. A set of candles indicates the Shien's life meter. Power-ups such as rapid fire and magic scrolls can be picked up by defeating enemies; the use of scrolls produces a powerful attack that damages everything on the screen. The game uses the SNES Mouse or a light gun as optional controllers and includes a password save option which allows players to continue their journey at a later time.
Reception
According to Electronic Gaming Monthly, the game has "a great concept and the mouse interface is totally cool", but it "can get repetitive after few levels of the same action".[2] GamePro remarked that the gameplay concept is unique, but suffers from poor design and difficult controls, even when using the SNES mouse. They concluded that "you want to like SR because it throws something fresh into the hack-n-slash ring. Vic Tokai gets credit for a good try. Unfortunately, the game play problems put up too much of a wall, and ultimately Shien doesn't get around it."[3] Shien's Revenge was rated the score of 74% by Game Players and given 3 out of 5 stars by GamePro.