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!