Decades Before Fortnite, This Classic Game Had Rambo, Godzilla, Batman, Jackie Chan & More

In modern gaming, it’s not uncommon to see games that can incorporate all sorts of IP into their worlds. Titles like Fortnite and Dead by Daylight bring together characters from all sorts of franchises, throwing them into the same space as the player and even giving gamers the chance to bring the icons down. It’s a fun way to incorporate more concepts into the game worlds, all while keeping the central mechanics and characters front-and-center.

To achieve this, game developers have to go out of their way to ensure that the rights to all the characters are legally cleared; otherwise, they risk having to pull certain editions of their game or reworking it entirely. However, 36 years ago, a Sega Genesis game featured one of the wildest collections of boss characters possible, pitting players against a mix of movie characters, superheroes, and even an iconic actor. Here’s why Revenge of Shinobi pits players against the likes of Godzilla and Rambo, and which pop-culture icon was even formally put into the game in future editions.

Revenge Of Shinobi’s Wild Boss Swing

Released in North America 36 years ago, The Revenge of Shinobi was the first Shinobi title developed for the Sega Genesis. The hack-and-slash action game focused on Joe Musashi, whose loved ones are targeted by the criminal organization Neo Zeed after his successful defeat of them in the previous game. At the time, the game was heralded by critics as a great showcase of what the Genesis was capable of, with impressive graphics and memorable music. It remains one of the better entries in the Shinobi series as a whole, thanks to its tight design and solid difficulty curve.

The title incorporated new elements like a life bar, with each district consisting of two platforming levels and then a major boss confrontation. One of the most memorable elements of the game remains how the original release was quietly a pioneer in the kind of IP-blending approach that modern titles like Fortnite embrace. Of course, The Revenge of Shinobi did that without legal clearance, leading to several copies of the game being published over the years that tried to hide the more blatant character pop-culture riffs.

How Shinobi Pit Players Against Rocky, Batman, And Godzilla

Revenge of Shinobi has a wild number of boss characters that include clear riffs on plenty of pop culture icons. The game’s director, Noriyoshi Ohba, was hard at work on the game when he hit a creative wall while designing the boss enemies. Ohba turned to pop culture of the time for ideas, sketching out character ideas that clearly resembled Rambo, Spider-Man, Batman, the Terminator, Jackie Chan, and Godzilla. While these characters weren’t precise recreations of the characters, they were visually distinct enough to make the reference clear.

The bosses had slightly different names to further distance them, but not by much. Rambo was renamed Rocky, Godzilla was called Monster-G, and both Spider-Man and Batman were actually the crafty shape-shifter Metamorpher trying to overwhelm the hero. Although Ohba jokingly referred to these bosses as a sign of lack of creativity on his part, the intention was to tweak and modify them enough to feel more like references to the other franchises rather than be clear facsimiles. However, the game was published while these bosses were intact, meaning players who set out on another Joe Musashi adventure found themselves opposite the likes of Spider-Man and Rambo. Some of these bosses, like Batman, really just bore a physical resemblance. Others, like Monster-G, were clearly designed to resemble their inspiration.

Spider-Man Actually Got Approved As A Boss For Revenge Of Shinobi

The potential issues with the rights led to there being several software revisions over the years. Characters like Rocky and Monster-G were tweaked visually to distance themselves from the original idea. The Batman boss was quickly replaced with a character who resembled Devilman, a popular manga creation of the era. Notably, one boss who got the full seal of approval was Spider-Man. The first revision was to fully turn the boss into a clear representation of Spider-Man, reflecting Sega’s relationship with Marvel. Notably, players no longer kill Spider-Man. Instead, if he takes enough damage, he flees the scene and is replaced by the Devilman.

The Spider-Man boss remained present in multiple revisions of the game. However, because the license to use Spider-Man was only on a limited-time basis, the game was eventually kept from being re-released out of fear of infringing on the copyright. It wouldn’t be until 2009, when Revenge of Shinobi was put back out on Virtual Console (and subsequently Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network three years later), that the game was tweaked to change Spider-Man. His costume was given a palette swap, giving it enough of a distinction from the traditional Spider-Man to not breach any rights. It’s the kind of deal that happens more often in modern gaming, but became a unique aspect of Revenge of Shinobi‘s place in gaming history.