Shinobi (series)

Shinobi series
The logo from Shinobi (2002) bears the shinobi kanji (in red) that adorns every title in the series
Genres	Action
Developers	Sega
Publishers	Sega
Platforms	Various
Year of inception	1987
First release	Shinobi November 1987
Latest release	Shinobi 3D November 2011

Shinobi (忍 SHINOBI^?) is a series of video games created by Sega. The ninja (shinobi) Joe Musashi is the protagonist of the original series of games (Shinobi to Shinobi III).

The first Shinobi game debuted in video arcades in 1987 and has since featured in a dozen other Shinobi titles. Along with Alex Kidd and Sonic the Hedgehog, Joe Musashi has long been one of Sega's flagship characters, acting as a mascot for a short time in the late 1980s when the ninja boom was in full force. The series' games are a showcase of Sega's technical accomplishment, noted for their high quality of graphics, gameplay and music, as well as their high level of difficulty.

The titular character of Shinobi (the original Japanese word for "ninja") is most commonly associated with that of Joe Musashi, the protagonist of the original arcade game and many of its sequels. His name is a combination of both an archetypical Western first name and Japanese last name, Musashi likely being derived from the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. In the manual of The Revenge of Shinobi, Musashi's backstory is told as that of a weak boy who first entered the dojo of the Oboro clan at a young age and gradually, through tireless practice and meditation, worked himself up to become the most skilled and respected ninja of his clan. His peaceful existence in the mountains of Japan is shattered when the ninja crime syndicate Zeed rises to power and attempts to revert Japan into the Sengoku period of civil war when the ninja thrived.