Ninja 5-O Assessment – Assessment

Like lots of you on the market in Readerland, I liked my Sport Boy Advance to loss of life. If reminiscence serves, the GBA was my first Day One system buy alongside Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I performed that little system to loss of life, in actual fact, necessitating an improve to the GBA SP when it got here round. I skilled loads of wonderful transportable titles on that handheld, however one I’d by no means heard of till now was Ninja 5-O. This was a Konami-published, Hudson Gentle-developed sidescroller that dropped at thoughts such classics as Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and Shadow of the Ninja. Though critically lauded in 2003, Ninja 5-O was a industrial failure and has now develop into one of the vital sought-after GBA carts on the aftermarket.

However now we’ve got an antidote: a Ninja 5-O “assortment” developed by Restricted Run and revealed by Konami which brings collectively Ninja 5-O and its PAL localization, Ninja Cop, in a slick package deal of emulated goodness. This duology (which is de facto only one recreation–there are not any clear variations between the 2 variations) throws some high quality of life bells and whistles on prime of a strong, if quick, motion platformer.

A felony group known as the Mad Masks has taken hostages on the metropolis financial institution, harbor, and airport, and solely city ninja Joe Osugi can take them down. Joe has a formidable set of abilities at his disposal, together with a melee sword strike, shurikens, mystical powers, and the flexibility to degree up. He can even use a grappling hook to swing across the atmosphere. All of those strikes take some getting used to, as Joe strikes fairly stiffly. Nonetheless, when you get the cling of it (particularly the grappling hook) you shouldn’t have a lot bother taking down baddies.

Joe’s legendary powers are available in two flavors primarily based on how full his magic meter is. At full energy, he can unleash a devastating assault to all enemies on display, though it’s almost ineffective in boss fights. At lower than full energy, he can develop into invincible till the meter runs out, which is way more helpful. By accumulating lightning power-ups, Joe can even degree up, which modifications his colour and shuriken harm. Nonetheless, getting hit knocks him down a degree.

Generally, you’ve two jobs: rescue hostages (don’t kill them accidentally) and discover colourful keys, which let you enter like-colored doorways to progress in any given stage. Every degree has three levels and a boss. Boss fights are enjoyable as a result of there’s all the time a little bit little bit of a puzzle aspect to them. For those who die (and you’ll), you possibly can proceed from the start of the mission. That stated, the most effective QoL characteristic added to Ninja 5-O a rewind, which is commonplace for retro re-releases lately however is particularly useful on this specific recreation, what with its stiff controls and frequent environmental hazards. I used to be capable of beat Ninja 5-O with out an excessive amount of bother, though enjoying the unique with out a rewind characteristic would’ve been considerably extra irritating.

Different commonplace options embody toggling the display dimension (I daresay it’s virtually inconceivable to play at true native decision), numerous display borders, an LCD filter, and a “prime quality sound” choice which doesn’t appear to be significantly better than the usual sound. There’s additionally an artwork gallery and music participant. The music is kind of good, however repetitive. I couldn’t assist however not discover artwork from David Liu, who you would possibly bear in mind from the stunning animated intro of River Metropolis Ladies Zero and the duvet artwork for Metallic Slug Ways.

I loved my transient time with Ninja 5-O. For those who’re feeling nostalgic for the heyday of the GBA, this can be a nice method to expertise an apparently uncommon entry in its library.