Shadow Dancer is part of the long-running Shinobi series, but is perhaps seen as something of a black sheep by fans. The original arcade version was created for the Sega System 18 arcade hardware, and was ported to a wide range of home systems, including the Master System, ST and Amiga.
For the Genesis / Mega Drive port, Sega followed the same approach it had taken with the 16-bit version of ESWAT and totally overhauled the game, creating an all-new adventure.
Critical opinion was divided at the time; UK magazine Mean Machines decided against reviewing it as it deemed it to be a poor follow-up to Revenge of Shinobi, while its sister publication, C&VG, gave it a disappointing 63% rating. However, other mags were more positive, with Sega Power awarding the game a glowing 90% score.
While few would argue that the Mega Drive version of Shadow Dancer is as good as Revenge of Shinobi or Shinobi III, it's still a great game with some attractive visuals, challenging gameplay and toe-tapping music – so the news that it could be ported to the Commodore Amiga is very welcome indeed.
The work is being carried out by msmalik681, who is rebuilding the game using the powerful Scorpion Engine. "The Mega Drive version was much better than the original arcade game," msmalik681 says. "I played this game to death when I was younger and I loved it."
As you can see from the footage above, the project is still very early in development, and it remains to be seen if it progresses to a fully-fledged release. Even so, it's already looking very close to the original game.