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Sega's scrolling beat 'n shoot-'em-up appeared in the arcades eighteen months ago, boasting little more than large sprites, parallax scrolling and fairly average Rolling Thunder-style gameplay. Still, this didn't stop it from becoming a real favourite with arcade goers everywhere.

Master of the Ninjutsu, Masashi, is called upon to rescue kidnapped children from the inevitable group of despicable warlords and their violent entourage. The action takes place against a series of urban backdrops. The Ninja starts his mission armed with an unlimited supply of Shuriken stars with which to despatch long-distance assailants. When in close quarters, combat automatically switches to hand-to-hand, where Masashi unleashes punches kicks or lashes out with any hand weapons collected along the way.

The kiddy hostages are liberated simply by walking into them, at which point either a bonus score, extra weapon or Ninja magic is revealed. This magic -a sort of oriental smart-bomb - can be activated with a flick of the space bar, whereupon dozens of Masashi sprites whizz around the screen, clearing the scene of enemies.

Each level consists of several stages, all of which must be cleared of kiddies within a time limit before Masashi is allowed access to the next. The last stage of each level provides a showdown with one of the five overlord bosses, taking the shape of a huge armoured Samurai, massive helicopter gunship, animated statues, another Samurai (even tougher than the first one) and an assortment of Masked Ninjas. These end-of-level guardians must be conquered before continuing with the mission, and considering the relative ease with which the earlier stages are mastered, can prove frustratingly tricky to beat.

An intervening bonus round sees the display switch to a first-person perspective, where Masashi's Shuriken-throwing talents are required to defeat an advancing horde of enemy Ninja. Total success is rewarded with an extra life to add to Masashi's initial store of three.

Gone are the smooth parallax scrolling and fast-moving detailed sprites of the original coin-op. The scenics are recognisable from Sega's version, but jerk rather than scroll. Masashi's enemies hobble along in a most peculiar fashion and are far less threatening - visually and physically - than their arcade originals: they're large, but drab and poorly animated.

A reasonable rendition of the coin-op soundtrack burbles along in the background, but sound effects are weak and all the better for their scarcity.

Timid action, shallow gameplay, annoying disk access and average audio-visuals do not make Shinobi an immediately endearing proposition. The game's visual and technical deficiencies would have been forgivable a year ago, but ST owners now expect a bit more polish for their notes. If you're willing to put up with its drawbacks, Shinobi does provide a challenge of sorts, and is (amazingly enough) moderately addictive. If you're no great fan of the coin-op and don't have money to burn, though, forget it.