At Summer Games Fest today, we got to go hands on with the newest entry in Sega’s classic franchise, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. For the first entry in the first entry in the series in nearly fifteen years. Boy oh boy, in my opinion, it had to be one of the best games we’ve gotten to go hands-on with this year.  As someone who has never played a game in the Shinobi series before, I was glued to the screen for the hour we played and kept wanting to play when our time was up.

The first thing you notice when you start Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is the incredible art direction of the game. From the style, to the flashiness of combat, the environments, and even the animations are all incredible. The effort the developers put in to make a new entry in the series stand out stylistically, especially when another classic ninja series is returning with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, is seen throughout.

As for the combat, it is full of combos based on light and heavy attacks, but that’s not all that you have in your arsenal this time around.  You also get kunai which can take out weaker enemies in an instant, and we got to use an ability later on that allowed kunai to pierce multiple enemies but consumed two kunai at once. You are also able to do a flashy finishing blow once an enemy is at low enough health. There are also other great abilities such as shooting a fireball. Then, there was also an incredibly stylistic full screen move that can take out all enemies on the screen.

Levels are situated with multiple secrets to find such as orbs which are used as currency to unlock new abilities or stronger elite enemies to take on. While not a Metriodvania type game, levels do have areas that are only accessible once you gain a certain ability later on. Eager fans don’t have to wait much longer as Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is set to release in just a few months on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch, and PC on August 29, 2025.

You can check out 40 minutes of our hands-on time with the game below: