Shadow Dancer Amstrad CPC

Master the Ninja Art, jump and fight your way to victory with Sega's ambitious martial arts game SHADOW DANCER. You are Joe Mushashi, Master Ninja, your hands and feet are lethal. Battle against merciless Streetfighters as you seek revenge for Kato, your loyal student's killing, whilst trying to foil the evil Sauro's attempts to obliterate the US Shuttle. With your Shuriken (Ninja Stars), Shinobi Sabre and canine companion YAMOTO you are virtually unstoppable. — Game Box

Shadow Dancer is a side-scrolling action game produced by Sega originally released as an arcade game in 1989. It is the second arcade game in the Shinobi series, following the original Shinobi itself. The game was developed on the Sega System 18 motherboard hardware. Home versions were released for the Master System and various home computers. A remake was also developed for the Mega Drive/Genesis titled Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi.

Gameplay

The play mechanics of Shadow Dancer are not much different from the arcade version of the original Shinobi. The controls and almost all of the player's moves from the original Shinobi are present here as well. The biggest change is the addition of a canine companion that follows the protagonist around. When the dog barks towards an enemy, the player can sic the dog on the enemy by pressing the attack button while crouching, allowing the player an opportunity to attack the enemy while he's being bitten by the dog. However, if the player takes too long to attack the bitten enemy or the enemy has a strong defense, then the dog will be hurt and he will turn into a harmless pup and will remain in that form until the player acquires the next time bomb or finishes the stage. The dog does not appear during boss battles.

Shadow Dancer was released on various home computer formats in Europe during 1991. Versions released for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. These versions were published by U.S. Gold and developed by Images.

Source:Wikipedia