And now, the Shinobi metanode.

The protagonist

Classic: Joe Musashi
'Next' Gen: Hotsuma
(yeah, OK, and Alex Kidd in that one.)

The enemy

The games (1987-2002)

There is also a game called 'The Revenge of Shinobi' for the Game Boy Advance, which, although it is officially licensed and bears Sega and Overworks's logos, I am loath to include in the list above as it bears no relation to the original Revenge of Shinobi. (In the same way that most 'sequels' to John Woo's Hong Kong blockbusters bear no relation to the originals- i.e. it's a work of shameless exploitation.) It was developed by the now defunct 3D6 Games.

The list is in approximate chronological order. Some games took a long time to get ported to home consoles or released in different territories, so there might be some mistakes.

Props to Leynos for assistance.