Sega's impressive lineup of Switch ports is about to welcome another classic title to the mix. Sega Ages Shinobi is coming in the near future and developer M2 is working its magic once more. In addition to including now-standard features like different region variations, Shinobi's new re-release will include the fairly ninja-like rewind feature.
M2 is providing a faithful recreation of the arcade title with the option to turn on a rewind function. Similar to what players can utilize in the Sega Genesis Classics collection, this will allow players to make as many mistakes as they please on the way to thwarting ZEED. If you want to go old-school, you can opt-out and play the game as originally released.
If you're finding the arcade version's difficulty a bit much, a new easier variation will also be available. This mode will see the main protagonist Joe Musashi don a white outfit (an homage to the Genesis titles this would spawn) and give him higher health and attack values. You can combine this new variation with the rewind function, as well.
As mentioned above, both the Japanese and international versions of Shinobi will be selectable. A level select feature will allow you to start at any level you please and all controls can be rebound to your liking. Different borders will let you put wallpaper up if you're scared of black bars and one will even recreate the arcade cabinet's artwork.
Finally, online scoreboards will be present to test your mettle against the world. There will be different rankings for each mode (Rewind On, Easy Difficulty, Japanese Arcade, etc.) and players can download and watch ghost data to improve their scores. It's all very standard for Sega Ages, which has produced ports that could be considered the definitive releases of these classic games.
We still have no firm release date for Shinobi, though the official website lists "soon." Most of these ports land in Japan before coming west, so we're likely in for a small wait. M2 has yet to fail to deliver, so I'm fine with biding my time a little.
Source: Sega Ages