Ninja (1986 video game)


Ninja is a flip screen beat 'em up game developed by Sculptured Software and released by Mastertronic in 1986 for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum, then in 1987 for the Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. An arcade version of the game was released in 1987 for Mastertronic's Arcadia Systems which is based on Amiga hardware.
Ninja was written by Steve Coleman, who previously created the Atari 8-bit games Rainbow Walker and The Pharaoh's Curse.

Gameplay

The player controls a ninja who has to penetrate a Japanese fortress by fighting enemy ninjas with karate moves and by throwing shurikens and daggers. On his way, he has to collect all of the idols. The fortress is a series of horizontal, flip-screen segments that are stacked vertically. The player is not forced along a specific route, but can explore both sides of a branching path and also backtrack to earlier screens.

Reception

The C64 version of the game was reviewed in the November 1986 issue of the magazine Commodore User and received a rating of 4/10