There are several different revisions of The Revenge of Shinobi, which change little things in the game. The first revision, Rev00, was most likely only released in Japan. Not long after this came Rev01, which was released in the United States and Europe.


Rev01 differences

Rev00
Rev01
The flamethrower soldiers became bald in Rev01 and onwards -perhaps to look less like Rambo? SEGA did have the Rambo lisence at the time, as they released a Genesis game based on Rambo III.


Rev00
Rev01
Web-Bat's sprite was changed to look even more like Spider-Man, especially color wise (this palette was originally from the prototype version). Web-Bat also just crawls off the screen when defeated in Rev01.


Rev00
Rev01
Web-Bat's second form was changed for Rev01. In Rev00, he quite clearly becomes Batman, but in Rev01, he becomes Devilman.



Rev02 differences

Rev01
Rev02
Rev02 removes all copyright notices from the title screen -the reason for this is because there is a new screen before it which has this information, along with adding a copyright notice for Spider-Man. SEGA held the Spider-Man licence at the time, and would release both arcade and Genesis games.



Rev03 differences

Rev02
Rev03
The dinosaur boss from round 7 becomes a skeleton in Rev03. This was possibly done to make him look less like Godzilla. His fire breath becomes blue instead of orange.



Virtual Console differences

Rev03
Virtual Console
The Virtual Console revision gets rid of the Spider-Man copyright, for reasons that will be shown below.


Rev03
Virtual Console
In previous versions of the game, the title screen featured Sonny Chiba from Kage no Gundan as Joe. The Virtual Console revision changes his face so it doesn't look like him.


Rev03
Virtual Console
Spider-Man's sprite was changed yet again for the Virtual Console. Whilst he attacks and moves in the same way as previous versions, his sprite is now completely pink.