Planet Bob - The Last Ninja

RSS Bot · March 5, 2007

Hi there!

Well, it's been a while since since I announced the System 3 series of articles. I actually played The Last Ninja weeks ago, yet I had no chance of posting an article since I was forced offline at home.

Anyway, here it comes:

The Last Ninja (1987):

Programming: John Twiddy

Graphics: Hugh Riley

Musician: Ben Daglish, Anthony Lees

Ratings:

Zzap! Rating: 94%

Lemon64: 8.6

Overview:

You are Armakuni, the Last Ninja! All other Ninjas have been killed by the evil Kunitoki and of course you're now seeking revenge! Off you go through an isometric world, fighting all and everything blocking your path!

Back in the day The Last Ninja was considered an Action-Adventure, though by todays standards the almost non-existent storyline would probably no longer qualify for the "Adventure" part

The game is broken down into 6 separately loaded levels, each composed out of 15-25 unique screens, making the maximum use of the C64's graphic capabilities, as you can see on the screenshot above. They are themed like "Wilderness" or "Palace Garden".

You're basic mission now is to make your way from the levels entrance screen to the exit spot. This is much harder than it sounds. For one there's lots of enemies spread in the levels, usually about one on every other screen. Then your path is not plain linear, you often have to explore your surroundings. Then there's two kinds of objects:

1. Weapons: Katana, Nunchaku, Shurikens, Bo...

2. Items: Key, Apple, Rose, Gauntlet

It is essential that you quickly find all the standard Ninja weaponry, else you'll have to fight your enemies with bare hands: Possible, but hard!

The items are also essential. They'll make some mini riddles, like bring item A to B to access C

For an example, you can only get past this dragon here after you found the sleeping powder:

(Tip: Stand were I stand, use the weapon I use, and... )

The controls of the game take a while to master, but once you do, they are incredibly versatile. You can walk around, jump various distances, climb, pick up stuff and even make a nice variety of attack moves, all with a standard Joystick and one fire button. The actions you can do depend a bit on were you're standing and what weapon/item you're holding, it's really incredible. You can even walk backwards

Fun in 2007:

Well, when thinking of the Last Ninja, first thing that comes to my mind is music. It still is one of the best game soundtracks ever. (In fact I'm planing on buying these :music: )

Really. Try the Lemon link I gave above, and click the "Listen Online" link at the page, to hear what I mean.

Well, I'm not sure wether a gamer from today can still manage to get into the controls. I still had it in the blood, so I had lot's of fun playing it. And the often criticized river jumping sequences sure ain't that hard using an emulator with save states. (Personally I'm not considering them too hard anyway, I beat the game often enogh the hard way back then )

I think the game would still work today, maybe within a Tomb Raiderish engine. I bet it would be pretty cool, as I can't think of too many Ninja games in the past 5 years. (Is there actually one? At least not for PCs, or?)

BTW: Stay far away from versions other than C64. This is a C64 game through and through and it just doesn't work without a SID

The Last Ninja compared to other System 3 games:

Well, this is the first System 3 title I'm reviewing, so this is more like a forecast. When it came out in 1987, it set complete new standards in every respect: Grafix, music, animations, complexity - it almost immediately had a cult following. Of course System 3 knew how to ride a wave, so the next years they released 2 more Ninja games and two spin offs "Tusker" and "Vendetta", which were using similar game engines.

Greetings,

Manuel

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