Game Review: Game Ninja (Amstrad, Entertainment USA)

Porting Games from the Americans

Mastertronic were known for bringing games coded in the USA for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit line of computers and porting them over to the native British systems like the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum with variouslevels of success. Ninja is more of the in between. This was brought to the CPC by Icon Design programmed by Brian Beykan (Rockford – Mastertronic, Championship Baseball – Activision, DJ Puff – Codemasters) with graphics by Jim Wilson (Ninja is the only credit I can find for him) based on the C64/Atari original from Sculptured Software (also behind the much hated L.A. Swat).

According to the tape and loading screen, this was released on the M.A.D (Mastertronic Added Dimension) label although the inlay states it is an Entertainment USA range game, the game sees you play as the unnamed Ninja of the game where you have to enter a temple in order to recover seven idols which have been stolen in order to prove your worth to the Princess Di-Di.

Never the Same Game Twice

A good point about the game is that it’s not the same game twice as everything is totally randomised from what enemies are in which room to the placement of the idols.

Ninja has 22 rooms spanning five different areas of a temple, plus the outside, each floor of the temple having fewer rooms than the floor before. In the first room, you can pick up three weapons, which look like daggers and ninja throwing stars. There are a wide variety of enemies like an Evil Ninja, Karateka and Thug.

Go Ninja Go!

The bottom screens have one enemy per screen, but not every screen has a baddie to get past. Holding down fire and left or right lets you through one of your weapons, which then drops them to the floor after impact, allowing you to pick them up again. They can also be thrown off the screen where they will be on the next screen to be picked up. However, after you use your weapons, the enemy can also pick them up and use them against you. You can also use punches and kicks against the bad guys, and can even do rapid kicks.

Even when there is more than two enemies on screen, only two attack you at any one time, their name and energy bar being shown on the screen alongside yours. However, you only have one life and when your energy bar runs down, it’s game over. But when you collect an idol, it does replenish your energy.

Proving Your Worth

You progress upwards by jumping through a hole in the roof of a fixed point in a fixed room. Besides the bottom row of rooms, the rooms you enter also have a hole which lets you go back down to the previous level, but it is very easy to fall back down through these holes and that can be hazardous, as when you go back down a level, the enemies have respawned, but completely different enemies.

Once you get the first six idols, you have to go to the top room which is only opened once you get the six idols. In this room, you get the seventh and final idol and defeat the enemies. Then instead of the standard game ending, you have to go back to the starting screen, which means re-spawned enemies. However, you are not told you have to do this.

Sometimes you might be lucky and get out of a screen without getting into a fight and if you’re even luckier, you can move down levels without getting into a fight. When you reach the first screen, you greeted with the message Winner before the colours in the room all go to black, then back to normal..

The game does suffer from a few bugs though – sometimes you can walk over the hole that would take you back to one of the lower levels without falling through. Also sometimes, when you’ve beaten an enemy, they can be represented by two piles of clothing on the floor, although one pile looks like it’s suspended in the air.

Graphics and Sound

The game uses a split screen mode, with the game graphics being in MODE 1 medium resolution and while the gameplay graphics look MODE 1, they are MODE 0 as 16 colours are used, especially in rainbow rooms. You can tell the difference between your character and the enemies. The Evil Ninja however, is supposed to look like you but not wearing anything besides his black belt and mask. Thug looks like someone with a 1970’s haircut. The idols look like flashing manhole covers.

All of the rooms have nice backgrounds, most of which are very well done.

The loading screen is a nice 16 colour effort with you and two of the enemies wielding ninja weapons. The title screen is just a page of text with credits for the game. Unusually, in between each screen, you get a message saying “Entering …… “

Sound is very minimal and not very well done. There is a bang type sound in between every room and a pinging type sound every time you pick up an idol. There are also sound effects when you’re fighting, but the sound throughout the game is so bad and annoying, especially the bang when you enter a room, you might as well play the game with the sound off.

Overall

While not one of the best games to come from Mastertronic, it also isn’t the worse. While it’s rather short (22 rooms) and if you’re lucky, you can complete the game in less than ten minutes, the fact it’s never the same game twice works in it’s favour and the graphics are rather nice. It’s worth having a play at least once, although with the sound off, and be thankful that it’s not like a ninja offering by a certain other budget house owned by a telephone company.

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