Hardcore SEGA fans will no doubt be aware that The Revenge of Shinobi on the Mega Drive / Genesis had a few different incarnations during its lifetime due to copyright issues. It’s a proud person who still owns the original Mega Drive cart which features boss characters such as The Hulk, The Terminator, Spider-Man, Batman and even Godzilla!

Two further versions of the game were released in subsequent months to avoid any nasty copyright issues, but Spider-Man remained intact as the level 6 boss as SEGA were able to officially license the famous Marvel superhero, with a credit even appearing on the title screen. The full lowdown on these changes can be found over at Hardcore Gaming 101.

Fast forward to 2009 and we were curious to find out what has become of the Spider-Man boss in the Virtual Console release of Revenge of Shinobi. Predictably Spidey is no more and is now replaced by a pink web-slinger instead, and Batman is still the mutated form that we found in the later versions of the Mega Drive cart.

Check out these badly aligned snaps taken from a webbed camera in the corner of the room while we battled through this epic boss fight.

Nah Nah, you missed me pink spidey!
Your webs are no match for the mighty Ninjutsu of Ikazuchi
You're nearly finished!
What! Now you are Batman? Seriously?!!
So YOU go pink too!

Despite these amusing cosmetic changes Revenge of Shinobi is still an excellent buy on the Virtual Console. Check out our lovely Revenge of Shinobi review if you need any further persuasion.

[source en.wikipedia.org]