''Maru's Mission'' is an action

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

released in 1991 by

Jaleco was a corporate brand name that was used by two previously connected video game developers and publishers based in Japan. The original Jaleco company was founded in 1974 as Japan Leisure Company, founded by Yoshiaki Kanazawa, before being renam ...

for the original

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...

. It was released in Japan as on September 28, 1990. The game was released to the Japanese 3DS

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

in January 2012 and later in North America in February. It is the first game from the ''Jajamaru'' series, aside from the loosely related ''

Ninja Taro ''Ninja Taro'', released in Japan as , is an action-adventure video game for the Game Boy by NMK. It was released in 1991 in both Japan by UPL and North America by American Sammy and is part of the ''Ninja Jajamaru-kun'' series. Story When rumor ...

'', to be released in North America, until the release of ''

Ninja JaJaMaru-kun is an action game, action-Platform game, platform video game developed and published by Jaleco for the Famicom. It was released in Japan on November 15, 1985 and was ported to the MSX in 1986. The MSX version was released in Europe as ''Ninja II'' ...

'' through the

. The soundtrack, as well as many sprites and some cut-scenes of the North American version are different from the original Japanese.

Gameplay

Maru's girlfriend Cori is kidnapped and hidden in a secret location. The player is Maru, and moves through six levels based on various folklore monsters.

Worlds

# North America: A forest #* Mini boss: Eyeclops #* Boss battle: Insector # Romania: First level is a desert. Second is a cemetery. #* Mini boss: Wolfman #* Boss battle: Dracula # Greece: An underground bone cavern #* Mini boss: Golem #* Boss battle: Medusa # Egypt: A desert #* Mini boss: Sphinx #* Boss battle: Isis # Brazil: First level is a mountain. Second is a cemetery. #* Mini boss: Hydra #* Boss battle: Kelbelos # Japan: A Ninja dojo #* Mini boss: Nioh #* Boss battle: Muramasa

References

1990 video games Action games Game Boy games Jaleco games Ninja Jajamaru Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Video games set in New York City Video games set in Japan Video games set in Romania Video games set in Greece Video games set in Brazil Video games set in Egypt Virtual Console games for Nintendo 3DS Single-player video games {{action-videogame-stub