the game's lack of originality, particularly what he saw as a striking resemblance to the Sega Genesis installments of the Shinobi series. Game Informer magazine gave it an overall score of 7.5 Maniac magazine gave the game an 82 out of 100. In a retrospective review, Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 called Hagane a "cult classic" and "sleeper hit" despite some lost potential. He found the gameplay to be heavily influenced by Shinobi III and overall challenging, although there were some frustrating platforming sequences. Additionally, he liked the wide variety of gameplay mechanics available but criticized the game design for not utilizing them. The set pieces and enemy sprites were praised for their detail, but the environments were found to be too dark and boring in tandem with the forgettable music. Kalata believed many of Hagane'''s design flaws, such as enemy placement and level design, would have been alleviated in the hands of a more skilled developer. In 1995, Total! ranked the game 45th on their Top 100 SNES Games writing: "The graphics are moody and the gameplay is not only fast but furious also. It’s classically demanding shooting action." Notes References External links 1994 video games Action video games CAProduction games Cyberpunk video games Video games about ninja Red Entertainment games Side-scrolling video games Super Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games about cyborgs Video games about samurai Video games set in the future Platform games