Dec 3, 2025
The late
’80s were packed with pop-culture obsessions: arcades, action
movies, neon aesthetics, and of course, a nationwide fascination
with ninjas. Sleek, masked warriors showed up everywhere from toys
to TV, shaping the era’s love of fast, flashy combat. But no arcade
game captured the ninja craze as perfectly as Sega’s iconic
side-scrolling adventure, Shinobi.
How did Shinobi perform a bait and switch on poor kids at the
arcade? Is a mining engineering degree the perfect educational
pursuit to get into game design? Did Pastblaster enjoy Free Play
Florida 2025? What is the earliest ninja arcade game and can the
hosts guess it even with one of them owning it?
Listener questions include what our favorite “one then done”
fighting game is and if you could have one power from an original
video game character what would it be? Join the Podouken Discord
and ask your own questions that could be included in a future
episode: discord.gg/k5vf2Jz
You can also like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube
channel where we post our listener question segments and additional
content: https://www.youtube.com/@podoukenpodcast2716.
Thanks to Talysman on the Podouken Discord for the Listeners’
Choice game nomination!