The new Shinobi game started off as Assassins Creed.

The last Shinobi game was released back in 2003 for the PS2 (under the name Nightshade) but now the series is due to be revived on the 3DS later this year. What inspired this revival? As it turns out it wasn't Sega's idea but rather Griptonite Games', who are developing the 3DS title.

Griptonite Games was working on Assassins Creed: Bloodlines for the PSP and, according to Siliconera, approached Sega with a Shinobi prototype using Assassins Creed: Bloodlines as a base.

Sega's Stephen Frost told Siliconera about how the project came to be because of the pitch. The team were so passionate about reviving the series that they produced a sample that enticed Sega to create a game that modernised the "gameplay to today's expectations, but also still capturing the essence of what was magical and classical about the old Shinobi games". The pitch sounds like a mash up of different elements but it seemed to work:

"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? 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."

Whether or not it works will be discovered when the game is released in September.