Yuzo Koshiro Triumphantly Returns to Shinobi - His New Music in Shinobi Art of Vengeance

by Gamatroid

Sega recently released a new entry in its classic SHINOBI series, titled Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. It was developed by the same team that did the outstanding Streets of Rage 4, and just like in that game, the original composer of Sega's classic Revenge of Shinobi, Yuzo Koshiro, returned to create a few new tracks for this latest entry.

The only issue is, it's hard to find information online which details the tracks Koshiro contributed to the soundtrack.

Luckily, when I purchased Shinobi Art of Vengeance, it came with a digital art book and soundtrack download, and in that it lists the tracks Koshiro composed.

Here are all of the tracks on the soundtrack, and which ones were composed by Koshiro:

1. The Silent Oath (Tee Lopes)
2. A Tale of Vengeance (Yuzo Koshiro)
3. Secret Steps (Tee Lopes)
4. Whispers in the Bamboo (Tee Lopes)
5. Deep Voids (Yuzo Koshiro)
6. Festival of a Thousand Lights (Tee Lopes)
7. Unleased Fury (Tee Lopes)
8. Shadow District (Tee Lopes)
9. Rogue Tides (Tee Lopes)
10. Fortress Zero (Tee Lopes)
11. Trial of the Warborn (Tee Lopes)
12. Broken Hourglass (Yuzo Koshiro)
13. Bloodlust Express (Tee Lopes)
14. Dark Experiments (Tee Lopes)
15. Inside the Titan (Tee Lopes)
16. Crimson Plains (Tee Lopes)

If you want to hear the tracks composed by Yuzo Koshiro, you can check out my video below:

If you want to check out the tracks he composed for Revenge of Shinobi on Sega Genesis, you can check out this YouTube video:

Hell is Us Hands-on Impressions - A Surprisingly Badass New Game Coming Soon

by Gamatroid

I recently played the demo of Hell is Us... twice. I first saw, downloaded and played it on Xbox Series S, and it impressed me enough that when I saw it was also available on PlayStation 5, I downloaded and played through it there as well.

Holy Hell.

I absolutely love it when I discover new games that I had absolutely zero knowledge of beforehand that just completely wow and impress me.

I highly advise if this is all the information you need to make you want to go play the demo, then just do it first and then come back to read my impressions.

If war is the closest we get to hell on earth, it's because Earth harbours the worst of demons: humankind. In an isolated country ravaged by infighting, discover the secrets of your past and deal with the repercussions of a mysterious calamity.

HELL IS US

• RELEASE DATE: 9/4/2025
• MSRP: $49.99
• DEVELOPER: Rogue Factor
• PUBLISHER: Nacon
• PLATFORMS: PlayStation, Xbox and PC
• PLAYED ON: Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5

Hell is Us is being developed by Rogue Factor, who previously released Mordheim: City of the Damned, and Necromunda: Underhive Wars, neither of which were exactly award winners, but all that seems set to change with this game.

The game reminds me of some blend between The Last of Us, Dark Souls and Stellar Blade, however its really none of those things exactly.

The story is rooted in a future Earth and seems gritty and realistic, kind of like The Last of Us, and it has good voice acting and writing (at least so far). Then the combat is kind-of souls-like, but more action oriented like Stellar Blade. It's hard to exactly describe, but its a very cool combination that feels perfect in practice.

Even on Series S the graphics are impressive, and the whole thing comes together in a cohesive package that proves why releasing demos can be so important. This demo completely made me want to get the game upon release. The exact opposite that the Final Fantasy XVI demo had on me (that one convinced me NOT to buy it).

You can watch my playthrough of the demo in the video below, and see if you can spot the differences between the Xbox Series S version and the PlayStation 5 version (played on quality mode). Honestly I think they both look great and any differences weren't obvious to me.

I wholly suggest, if any of this sounds interesting, that you download and play the demo and see how good it is for yourself. 

Perhaps I'm overselling it, but I'm completely sold.

Shinobi Art of Vengeance - Another Great Reboot of a Classic Series

by Gamatroid

Unleash the power of the Shinobi!

Sega's iconic SHINOBI returns in an all-new 2D action platformer with a unique hand-drawn look created by the team behind the hit brawler Streets of Rage 4.

Play as the legendary Joe Musashi, master of the ninja arts. After finding your village burned to the ground and your clan turned into stone, you must set off on a quest for vengeance, ready to face an unparalleled evil and avenge your clan.

SHINOBI: ART OF VENGEANCE

• RELEASE DATE: 8/29/2025
• MSRP: $29.99
• DEVELOPER: Lizard Cube
• PUBLISHER: SEGA
• PLATFORMS: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC
• PLAYED ON: PlayStation 5

Sega's classic series SHINOBI returns in an all new 2D adventure by the creators of Streets of Rage 4, and practically everything about it is absolutely excellent.

The gameplay is fast, smooth and responsive. The way you can perform finishing moves on enemies and obliterate them is super satisfying (even more so if you execute it on multiple enemies at once), and the dodging and combat mechanics are a lot of fun. Traversal is also very smooth, responsive and intuitive. Honestly no complaints in the gameplay department.

The music is good as well, but maybe not quite as good as the music in the classic Revenge of Shinobi, by legendary video game composer Yuzo Koshiro, but hey, that's a really high bar (same was true in Streets of Rage 4, outside of the tracks Koshiro did).

I've been playing it on PlayStation 5 and overall its a very enjoyable experience, outside of the very-mid story and awful/cringy English voice acting (in my opinion). Honestly to me, that's the only thing I have a complaint with, but if you change the audio to Japanese that at least solves the bad voice acting issue. Then you can read the text as quickly as you want and just skip ahead. To me that's a much better experience.

Ignoring that one complaint, however, I've very happy with the way Shinobi: Art of Vengeance turned out, and it makes me hopeful that SEGA might be as thoughtful in picking excellent development partners for the rest of the classic series reboots they have announced. Probably a long shot, but hey I can certainly hope can't I?

You can check out my beginning gameplay video below:

I would highly recommend picking this one up.