For me, there’s a Mount Rushmore of Metroidvania games: “Super Metroid,” “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night,” and “Hollow Knight” are all on it. I don’t know what the fourth game would be, but in the past few years we’ve gotten quite a few contenders. “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” is excellent, and “Silksong” is out by the time you’re reading this, but man, oh man, could that fourth prolific title easily be “Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.”

I’ve never played a Shinobi game before, and from the looks of it, there’s not a whole lot of stealth involved with being Joe Musashi. The early games are straight-up 2D action platformers where you fling kunai and shuriken as you jump around. It’s not too different than the early years of “Castlevania” that gave way to more elaborate titles that added RPG elements, more interesting traversal, and all of the other details that crystalized its subgenre.

It took the series nearly 40 years to become a Metroidvania, but I’m glad it did because this game is a stone cold stunner.

Sega got the very underrated Lizardcube (“Streets of Rage 4”) to bring their painterly touch to the Shinobi series, and they knocked it out of the park. Immediately, this game grabs you by the collar and never stops shaking. This game makes “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound” look like “Mighty No. 9.”

Going in, it’s important to understand that this is not like a traditional Metroidvania. There isn’t one gigantic, sprawling map like you’d find with Dracula’s Castle or in “Bloodstained.” Instead, it’s several smaller levels that are not quite bite-sized, but definitely shorter and separated by the occasional auto-scroller. But in this case, it’s riding on a wolf through a gorgeous landscape, and later riding a surfboard while dodging missile strikes from an aircraft carrier.

What style this game oozes. It’s a beautiful rendition of Japanese art — like how “Okami” is hand brushed and inky, but here it’s animated in that slightly exaggerated and laggy “Spider-Verse” way. The animation, the music, the enemy variety, the locations each level takes place in, and the attention to detail with particle effects are all what stand out to me.

And then, underneath, is an exceptionally engaging and challenging action game with sick combos and build flexibility.

It might only last you about seven to ten hours, but not a second of it is wasted. It’s a perfectly paced package that balances the difficulty curve exceptionally well — the economy of gold and new items in the shop is dolled out precisely as you’d want it to be. Plus, there’s enough hidden secrets and goodies that I ended up with 100% completion.

It didn’t overstay its welcome, and anymore would have maybe been too much of a good thing, but I will happily jump back into this game once again if there’s DLC on the way. More levels and upgrades are more than okay with me. Hell, even some new colors for our hero Joe wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

The one downside to all of these Metroidvania games is that there’s no motivating force behind the story. The narrative is ultimately just to play the game and fill in the map. That’s what is satisfying to me about these games — not the conversations you have with the boss before you beat the shit out of it.

Oh, by the way, the boss fights are incredible.

Run, do not walk, to buy this game. The price is right ($30), it’s insanely fun, and I find it hard to complain about anything. Like “God of War” before it, you’ll be chaining together complex strings, and keeping your streak counter going. Which, in turn, powers up your passive perks. It’s an addicting loop, and you’ll definitely see this on my top ten of the year come December. This shit is just that good.

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“Shinobi: Art of Vengeance” is available for PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, and PC.

Image Credit: “Shinobi: Art of Vengeance,” Lizardcube and SEGA