Joe Musashi

Joe Musashi
Shinobi character
Joe Musashi as seen in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
First game	Shinobi (1987)
Fictional profile
Birthplace	United States
Nationality	Japanese-American
Fighting style	Ninjutsu

Joe Musashi (ジョー・ムサシ, Jō Musashi) is a player character and main hero in Sega's Shinobi series of video games, first introduced in 1987. The character has achieved great popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was used as one of Sega' mascot characters. During this time he was cast as the protagonist of the original arcade game as well the Mega Drive/Genesis sequels The Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (a loose adaptation of the Shadow Dancer arcade game), also starring in two Game Gear titles. The Mega Drive/Genesis game Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi also starred Joe Musashi in its overseas release, although the character was originally written to be his estranged son in the Japanese version. In more recent Shinobi titles, he appears as an unlockable character in the 2002's Shinobi and its follow-up Nightshade and in Shinobi 3D, which stars his father Jiro.

Joe Musashi is the protagonist of Shinobi (1987), The Revenge of Shinobi (1989), The G.G. Shinobi (1991), The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury (1992), and Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (1993), the second of which introduced his bride Naoko (ナオコ). Musashi also appears as an unlockable playable character in the 2002 version of Shinobi for the PlayStation 2, and its 2003 sequel Nightshade (Kunoichi in Japan), as well as 2011's Shinobi 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. His primary weapons in most games are shuriken or kunai. He also has the sword Hazy Moon (朧月, Oborotsugi), which he is able to charge for a powerful special attack, and knows various ninjitsu skill techniques and spells.