Have you ever run into something that's frustratingly close to being good, but doesn't quite make it there?

Kaze Kiri makes a great first impression. The music's solid, the graphics are nice, and it controls are well thought out and responsive. It gives the impression that it's going to be a good take on the old Shinobi formula. But you'll soon realize that there's no platforming, environmental hazards, or anything like that. It's just hallways full of guys you can fight or just jump over. But then you'll find the level just stops. It turns out that there's a health meter for the enemies on the floor, that gradually depletes as you kill regular enemies, and the boss won't appear until it's gone. I understand that they wanted you to fight things rather than just avoid them, but this has to be one of the most forced ways they could have gone about that, and it makes the levels feel like busywork. This isn't helped by the fact that the regenerating health means that there isn't much challenge. Even most of the bosses are pushovers. And while there's some nice spritework and impressive parallax for the system, the environments don't vary much, so it can feel a bit monotonous.

It feels like this had the foundation of a great game, but was let down by poor design. It isn't a bad game, but if you want a great action game with a ninja from this period, get Shinobi 3. If you want to stick with the PC Engine/TurboGrafX-16, then go with Ninja Spirit. This one might be worth a shot if you're getting your games through less legal methods, but it's not worth the absurdly high price legit copies go for.