Our hero faces the chill of November

SEGA has found itself pushing back the releases of two upcoming 3DS titles lately: CRUSH3D from Zoë Mode and the other being Shinobi from Griptonite Games.

The latest press release from the publisher states the new release date as 11th November ― two months later than what was previously planned.

Shinobi for the 3DS puts players in the role of Jiro Musashi, the father of Joe Musashi from the original arcade release in 1987. The story mode will shine some light on the Musashi family history and the game's "innovative" StreetPass feature will be announced by SEGA at a later date.

Interestingly, it was Griptonite Games ― the studio behind DS titles Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions ― that approached SEGA about bringing the Shinobi series back.

Stephen Frost, a producer at SEGA of America spoke with Siliconera and revealed that a group of guys over at Griptonite Games were big fans of the series, and that influence was drawn from the work developed for the Spider-Man DS games and Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines for the PlayStation Portable:

They had worked on Assassin’s Creed [Bloodlines] for PSP and [Spider-Man] Web of Shadows, which had a great combat system, and things like that, and we started to talk about bringing back Shinobi but in a classical sense... If we were to put together a spiritual successor to the old classic Shinobi games, what would that be like?

Frost went on to describe what the studio then pitched, and whether the essence of the old Shinobi games was captured:

They put together this nice sort of pitch video of Assassin’s Creed, but with a ninja... So, using some of the build for Assassin’s Creed, but dropping a ninja in there and sort of the platforming and action sequences of that... We saw that and, it’s like, that’s great because it’s modernizing the gameplay to today’s expectations, but also still capturing the essence of what was magical and classical about the old Shinobi games.