okay so I ended up randomly deciding "hey you know what I should listen to the Shadow Dancer megadrive OST ya?" and then I was like "OH! I should check out the ARCADE soundtrack! :D... :| ... why does it sound completely different??" so I looked up a video of comparison of versions and...
...wow the Megadrive version is basically utterly different to p. much EVERY SINGLE other version. ALL the others so far, INCLUDING ZX Spectrum and Amstrad and C64 are based on the arcade.
EVEN THE EUROPE AND BRAZIL ONLY SMS CART was based on the Arcade version O_o
I mean... honestly I prefer the Megadrive one both for its music and gameplay and god it's so smooth and fast compared to the original arcade version, and it looks great, and god the bonus stage is way more fun :| but...
wow it's like an utterly different game, dang.
(as a side note why, WHY does the Amiga version look and sound like so much ass what the fuck. I mean sure the Atari ST version soudned WAY WORSE but at least it looked real close to the arcade graphics. the Amiga version is...
...wrong somehow. Idk. It looks like a tacky DOS port or some shit)
(also the only sound effects are a couple voices and white noise for the shurikens and impacts. wtf. no doggo.)
@Nine That's weird, there was definitely a doggo in the Amiga version I played as a wee lad.
(is it possible some rascal has uploaded Shinobi and labelled it Shadow Dancer? Hacked the title page, even? I remember there was some of that happening in pirate days)
@Nine (oh you mean no sound effects for the doggo. Sorry, my bad, carry on)
(The amiga had MODule tracker formats for its music it surely could have done better than... whatever the fuck that music is, yikes.)