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

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These days, many video games freely include characters and elements from other popular franchises. Games like Fortnite and Dead by Daylight are great examples, bringing together heroes and villains from different worlds and even letting players battle them. This is a fun way to expand a game’s content without overshadowing its core gameplay and characters.

Creating a game requires developers to secure the legal rights to all characters used, or they could face having to remove or completely remake parts of the game. But 36 years ago, a Sega Genesis game stood out with an unusual lineup of bosses, including characters from movies, superheroes, and even a famous actor. This is the story of how Revenge of Shinobi ended up featuring battles against Godzilla, Rambo, and another pop-culture icon that was later officially added to the game.

Revenge Of Shinobi’s Wild Boss Swing

First launched in North America 36 years ago, The Revenge of Shinobi was the first game in the Shinobi series created for the Sega Genesis. The action-packed game follows Joe Musashi, who must protect his loved ones after defeating the criminal group Neo Zeed in a previous encounter. Critics praised the game for its stunning graphics and music, highlighting the power of the Genesis. Even today, it’s considered one of the best Shinobi games, known for its well-designed levels and challenging gameplay.

The game featured new additions like a health bar, and each area was structured with two platforming stages followed by a challenging boss battle. What really stood out was how the original game subtly paved the way for the cross-over approach seen in today’s popular titles like Fortnite. However, The Revenge of Shinobi did this without permission, so many different versions of the game were released over time, attempting to remove the most obvious references to popular characters.

How Shinobi Pit Players Against Rocky, Batman, And Godzilla

The game Revenge of Shinobi features a surprising number of boss characters inspired by popular culture. When the game’s director, Noriyoshi Ohba, struggled to come up with ideas for these bosses, he looked to the trends of the time. He sketched designs clearly based on figures like Rambo, Spider-Man, Batman, the Terminator, Jackie Chan, and Godzilla. While not exact copies, the references were obvious through their distinct appearances.

The game’s bosses were subtly renamed to avoid direct copying, changing Rambo to Rocky and Godzilla to Monster-G. In a clever twist, both Spider-Man and Batman were actually the same character, a shapeshifter named Metamorpher, designed to challenge the player. While the game’s creator jokingly admitted these changes showed a lack of originality, the goal was to create references to other popular franchises rather than outright copies. Unfortunately, the game launched with these bosses unchanged, meaning players encountered familiar faces like Spider-Man and Rambo during their adventure as Joe Musashi. Some bosses, like Batman, simply looked similar to their inspiration, while others, such as Monster-G, were clearly inspired by their counterparts.

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

Early versions of the game ran into copyright problems, leading to multiple updates over time. Characters were redesigned – for example, Rocky and Monster-G were altered to look different – to avoid infringing on existing designs. The original Batman boss was quickly swapped for a character inspired by Devilman, a popular manga character. One boss received full approval, however: Spider-Man. Sega’s connection with Marvel led to a complete overhaul of that boss, turning him into a recognizable Spider-Man. Interestingly, players don’t actually defeat Spider-Man; if he takes enough damage, he runs away and is then replaced by the Devilman.

The Spider-Man character appeared in several versions of the game during development. However, the game couldn’t be re-released for a long time because the license to use Spider-Man was temporary, and they worried about copyright issues. Finally, in 2009, when Revenge of Shinobi was re-released on Virtual Console (and later on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in 2012), they changed Spider-Man’s appearance. They simply recolored his costume, making it different enough from the classic Spider-Man to avoid any legal problems. While these kinds of licensing adjustments are common in games today, it became a noteworthy part of Revenge of Shinobi‘s history.

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2025-12-06 01:13