''Last Ninja 2: Back with a Vengeance'' is an

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...

video game developed and published by System 3 for the Commodore 64,

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

and

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

as a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the 1987 game ''

The Last Ninja ''The Last Ninja'' is an action-adventure game originally developed and published by System 3 in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It was converted to the Apple IIGS, MS-DOS, BBC Micro, and Acorn Electron in 1988, the Apple II in 1989, the Amiga, and ...

''. The

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

, 1990: Amiga, Atari ST,

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

and

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

ports followed in 1989. The NES version of the game was named simply ''The Last Ninja''. In 1990, the ''Last Ninja Remix'' edition of the game was re-released for 8-bit systems.

Gameplay

The player, controlling a

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...

, must fight his way through various levels populated by opponents, collecting necessary items in the process. Each level depicts a different locale and is divided into several screens. The game is presented in an isometric view and the ninja can move in eight different directions and jump. Enemies, armed with fists and various ninja weapons, wander around the levels. The ninja must fight them either bare-handed or with the weaponry he finds along the way; in either case, he has a number of blows and attacks at his disposal, as well as the ability to block. There is a special weapon, shuriken, which are thrown in a straight line rather than used for melee combat; if they strike an enemy, they will instantly kill or at least severely damage them. Various items scattered around the levels, such as keys, a rope and a map; collecting these items and using them in a proper place is necessary for completing the game. There are also hamburgers that award an extra life when eaten.

Plot

The game continues from the aftermath of the events of ''The Last Ninja''. With the

Koga KOGA is a Dutch bicycle manufacturer based in Heerenveen, Friesland. The company is known for its long time partnership with Japanese frame manufacturer Miyata, producing bicycles and sponsoring racing teams under the brand name Koga Miyata. As ...

scrolls now in his possession, Armakuni has begun training a new order of shadow warriors. During a training session, he is mysteriously transported to 20th-century

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Torn from his own time, Armakuni must defeat the evil shogun Kunitoki once more.

Reception

''Last Ninja 2'' was an enormous commercial success. According to System 3's Mark Cale, 5.5 million copies were sold for the Commodore 64 version alone; at that time, the user base of the C64 was estimated at 20 million, meaning that one in four C64 owners bought the game. It was a runner up for

Game of the Year Game of the Year (GotY) is an award given by various award events and media publications to a video game that they feel represented the pinnacle of gaming that year. Events and ceremonies British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA Games Awards) ...

at the

Golden Joystick Award The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...

s. In 2004, readers of ''

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became ...

'' voted ''Last Ninja 2'' as 68th top retro game.

Legacy

A sequel, '' Last Ninja 3'' was released in 1991. The ''Last Ninja Remix'' re-release version has an added short intro sequence, minor graphic changes and a remixed soundtrack. The Limited Edition of the original release included a ninja mask and a rubber shuriken (Not available with the Remix versions of the game). In 2015 the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

of the Konix version was discovered.LAST NINJA 2 Konix Multisystem game and source found
on konixmultisystem.co.uk (17 January 2015)

References

External links

* *

at C64Sets.com *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Ninja 2, The 1988 video games Amiga games Action-adventure games Activision games Atari ST games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 64 games DOS games ZX Spectrum games Video games about ninja Nintendo Entertainment System games Superior Software games Video games about time travel Virtual Console games Video game sequels Video games with isometric graphics Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in 1990 Video games set in New York City Jaleco games Single-player video games