Shadow Ninja: Story of the Ninja is a side-scrolling action/dark art style game, where you play as a samurai named Shimazu. As soon as you start playing, you need to defeat enemies by your sword, while trying to keep your health. In order to gain more health, you have to defeat more enemies and gain more experience.
You can also upgrade your skills by using the coins and diamonds you collect. The skills of the samurai that you can upgrade include dash, disappearing, throw shuriken, and checkpoints.