Commodore User


Ninja
By Entertainment USA
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore User #38

Ninja

With a title like this I wonder if it's worth the bother of telling you what this game is about [It is - Ed].

Well, let me surprise you by telling you that it's a martial arts game. But not just any martial arts game. No those software houses marketing brains have come up with a great new formula. We all love cheap games, right? Good. We all love karate games? Of course we do and now we're going to be buried under cheap karate games. Brilliant! Or maybe not. After seeing Ninja "Ken luvs it" Master, one wonders whether this formula will work.

The highly original plot goes something like this. Ninja must go around the land of death collecting idols dropped by imprisoned lovely Princess Di-Di (hee-hee, infantile sense of humour) to prove his worth. Who and why they imprisoned her is not made clear - no-one cares anyway.

Ninja

Naturally, there are opponents to fight, a considerable number too. Most of these are easily disposed of using the standard karate like the moves low and flying kicks.

To add some variation, you can also pick up objects to throw at you enemies such as ninja stars and knives. If you miss, your opponent may decide to take a leaf out of your book and chuck it back resulting in a 50% loss of your energy.

When all else fails you can always let the enemy have it with a quick flash of your lethal samurai sword. An effective move, since it deals with any thug in one blow.

Also when your energy is low, you can avoid trouble and wait for it to build up before going up to the higher levels.

Graphically, Ninja is nothing special and the sound is reasonably good, but the game lacks variety. It is neither a really substantial beat-'em-up, nor is it much of an arcade adventure. Still I suppose many people won't listen and buy it anyway since the awful Ninja Master went top ten after we told you how bad it was. The same goes for Hole In One. I don't know about you but I'm getting decidedly bored of martial arts games.

Ferdy Hamilton

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