Shinobi Spirit

Shinobi Spirit Review

Shinobi was admittedly a word we’ve never heard of before, but apparently it’s derived from the Japanese verb "shinobu", which means "to hide" or "to endure”. It refers to higher level ninjas which are highly skilled, and you get to meet quite a few of them in this release. Shinobi Spirit comes with a cartoonish presentation, and the Shinobi symbols appear on reel 5 to possibly collect Bamboo Prizes on reels 1 to 4.

This only happens when the Shinobi appears on the same row as a prize symbol, however, and the prizes can go as high as 1,000x your stake. You get indefinite free spins in the bonus round, just as long as at least 1 Shinobi is present, and they collect bamboo prizes with help from different special symbols. A Golden Shinobi will appear on occasions as well, and he boosts all present prizes when he collects a prize. The 20,000x potential is solid, and Shinobi Spirit is an innovative and enjoyable game that also comes with an ante bet feature.

Shinobi Spirit Slot Features

The Scatter Boost ante bet can be turned on between any base game spin, and this increases the RTP to 96.67 %. Keeping it on means you pay 50 % more per spin, but the benefit is extra scatters added to the reel strips. This increases your bonus round hit rate from 1 in 302 spins to 1 in 114 spins. The premium symbols pay between 5 and 100 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, and there are no wild symbols in this game.

You can land Bamboo Prize symbols on reels 1 to 4 in the base game, however, and these symbols come with prizes up to 1,000x your stake. You need a Shinobi symbol to collect the prize however, and he can appear on reel 5 only. He will run to slash any bamboo prize symbols on the same row, which is how they are collected.

The Shinobi Bonus Round triggers when you land 3+ scatters in view, and it plays out on a 5x5 sized grid with at least 1 Shinobi symbol present from the get-go. If you trigger the bonus round with 4 or 5 scatters, you win 20 or 100 x your stake up front, respectively. The feature goes on indefinitely as long as there is at least 1 Shinobi symbol present.

The Shinobi characters start with 3 lives, and they lose 1 life per free spin. However, the life tally increases by +1 each time the Shinobi symbol slashes a symbol on the same row. The life tally cannot exceed 3 lives though, just to be clear. The Bamboo Prize symbols double in value after each slash, and you can also land special Event symbols:

• The Green Box - adds its own value to all unslashed bamboo prize symbols.
• The Mask - makes the Shinobi slash in the direction of the highest value bamboo prize, and this repeats until there are no more prize symbols in its sight.
• Shuriken - makes the Shinobi perform an extra slash, and this will be in the direction of the highest value of the total prizes in view.
• Dragon - effectively collects each prize two times, and this feature is persistent as long as the Shinobi is present on the grid.

The bamboo prize symbols can merge at the end of any given free spin, and this means that one bamboo symbol remains with the value from all the symbols added to it. You can also land a Golden Shinobi, and it comes with 6 lives instead of 3. When the Golden Shinobi slashes a prize symbol, the prize value is added to all present unslashed bamboo symbols.

The 200 Spins Shinobi Spirit Slot Experience

You get to see a big win in the base game, before we purchase the bonus round. The feature starts right after the 1-minute mark, and it plays out for the remainder of the 4-minute highlights video. You can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

A lot of developers out there should look for inspiration, and we don’t mean in a copycat fashion. This small developer proves time and time again that innovation is still possible in the world of online slots, and Shinobi Spirit is another highly enjoyable release from this creative bunch. The base game can land you decent prizes via the Bamboo Prize collect system, but we still recommend turning on the Scatter Booster in this game.

This significantly increases the bonus round hit rate, from 1 in 302 spins to 1 in 114 spins, and the average number of free spins you can expect is 13. The Golden Shinobi appears once in 25.7 feature triggers on average, and this increases the average bonus round returns from 96.19x to 521x your stake. It’s good fun watching these little samurais do their slashing thing, and it can be quite lucrative as well. The max win clocks in at a solid 20,000x your stake, and Shinobi Spirit is a highly enjoyable game that you should check out immediately.