| Sinclair User reviewed the ZX Spectrum version in November 1989 under the heading "Big licence gets the Activision treatment". Its Fax Box gives the label as Activision, the author as "In House", and the price as £8.99, and marks it graphics 67, sound 65, playability 74, lastability 69, and 70 overall; the reviewer's name is left blank. The review retells the premise, Zeus raising the player from the dead to rescue Athena from the evil Nelf, and says three power-ups on a level transform the player into a wolf, a bear, or a dragon. It called the coin-op "a fairly wicked affair" with great graphics, which made the conversion seem "a little lacking": the scrolling was slow and jerky, with attribute clash "bordering on the painful". | image 4, contentsp. 10 (image 10), reviewp. 10 (image 10), reviewp. 11 (image 11), reviewp. 11 (image 11), reviewp. 11 (image 11), reviewp. 10 (image 10), reviewp. 11 (image 11), Fax Box, read on the page imagep. 11 (image 11), Fax Box, read on the page imagep. 11 (image 11), read on the page imagep. 10 (image 10), reviewp. 10 (image 10), reviewp. 11 (image 11), review | Magazine |
| Sinclair User reviewed the Spectrum version in November 1989, from Virgin, written by The Sales Curve, at £8.95, and gave it 75 overall (Graphics 69, Sound 70, Playability 79, Lastability 79): "Tried and tested though high quality ninja action". The review likened the game to a cross between Super Mario Bros and Human Killing Machine, colorful and full of exploration but at heart a combat game, in which the player can only punch and throw shuriken, with Ninja Magic once per level to wipe out everything on the screen. It found the graphics colorful but not especially fantastic and the gameplay "tuned very successfully", from an easy start to a virtually impossible end, but thought the game offered nothing new to anyone with a couple of beat-'em-ups already: "A corker, but a tried and tested formula". | p. 35 (image 35), Fax Boxp. 35 (image 35), Fax Boxp. 35 (image 35), Fax Boxp. 35 (image 35), Shinobip. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35)p. 35 (image 35), verdict | Magazine |
| Virgin promoted the Spectrum game in Sinclair User: a Shinobi competition in November 1989 offered copies of the game and posters, and in January 1990 Shinobi was one of six Virgin Games arcade games in a Christmas prize draw entered with tokens from the games. Virgin's blurb there made the player Masashi, a tough ninja warrior on a mission to clear the town from rebel martial arts fanatics, and warned of end-of-level guardians. | p. 84 (image 84), Shinobi competitionp. 84 (image 84) | Magazine |
| Two Newsfield magazines name Special FX as a maker of the game. Crash's review header of November 1989 credits the Spectrum version to "Ocean/Special FX". Zzap!64's Commodore 64 review of the same month says Special FX should be finishing the Amiga game soon, and a Zzap!64 news item of March 1990, on Ocean's licence of Data East's coin-op Midnight Resistance, says Special FX had started on the Commodore 64 and Amiga conversions and calls The Untouchables and Red Heat previous Special FX titles, without naming a version. Sinclair User's Fax Box of November 1989 gives the Spectrum version's author as "In House". | p. 32 (image 32), Fax Box | Magazine |
| Sinclair User reviewed the Spectrum version in November 1989 as a Sinclair User Classic with 95% overall (graphics 95, sound 80, playability 87, lastability 88), calling it "a fine example of how to do the job properly" and "a cracking conversion. Easily one of the most successful and accurate movie licences to date", with six stages that follow the plot of the film closely. Its Fax Box gives the label as Ocean and the price as £8.95. The same issue's cover tape carried a playable demo of the second level, the bridge scene. | p. 30, The Untouchablesp. 30, The Untouchablesp. 32 (image 32), The Untouchablesp. 6, Megatapep. 6, Megatapep. 6, Megatape | Magazine |