Relive this uncommon, however celebrated GBA recreation from the consolation of your personal Swap.
Like a lot of you on the market in Readerland, I liked my Sport Boy Advance to demise. If reminiscence serves, the GBA was my first Day One system buy alongside Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I performed that little system to demise, in reality, necessitating an improve to the GBA SP when it got here round. I skilled numerous 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 Smooth-developed sidescroller that delivered to 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 turn into probably the most sought-after GBA carts on the aftermarket.
However now we’ve got an antidote: a Ninja 5-O “assortment” developed by Restricted Run and printed 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 actually only one recreation–there are not any clear variations between the 2 variations) throws some high quality of life bells and whistles on high of a stable, if brief, motion platformer.
A legal group referred to 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 powerful set of expertise at his disposal, together with a melee sword strike, shurikens, mystical powers, and the power to degree up. He may also use a grappling hook to swing across the surroundings. All of those strikes take some getting used to, as Joe strikes relatively stiffly. Nevertheless, 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 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 practically ineffective in boss fights. At lower than full energy, he can turn into invincible till the meter runs out, which is way more helpful. By amassing lightning power-ups, Joe may also degree up, which modifications his shade and shuriken injury. Nevertheless, getting hit knocks him down a degree.
Basically, you have got 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 phases and a boss. Boss fights are enjoyable as a result of there’s all the time slightly little bit of a puzzle ingredient to them. When you 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 very useful on this explicit 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 taking part in the unique with no rewind characteristic would’ve been considerably extra irritating.
Different commonplace options embody toggling the display measurement (I daresay it’s virtually unattainable to play at true native decision), numerous display borders, an LCD filter, and a “prime quality sound” possibility which doesn’t appear to be significantly better than the usual sound. There’s additionally an artwork gallery and music participant. The music is sort of good, however repetitive. I couldn’t assist however not discover artwork from David Liu, who you would possibly keep in mind from the stunning animated intro of River Metropolis Ladies Zero and the quilt artwork for Metallic Slug Techniques.
I loved my temporary time with Ninja 5-O. When you’re feeling nostalgic for the heyday of the GBA, this can be a nice strategy to expertise an apparently uncommon entry in its library.
