''Ninja'' is a beat 'em up game developed by Sculptured Software and released by Mastertronic in 1986 for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and ZX Spectrum, then in 1987 for the Amstrad CPC,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

, and MS-DOS. An arcade version of the game was released in 1987 for Mastertronic's Arcadia Systems which is based on Amiga hardware. The Amiga, Atari ST, and Arcade versions were released as ''Ninja Mission''. As a Ninja, the player attacks a fortress made of individual fixed screens which can be explored non-linearly. ''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 (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

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

''Ninja'' received mixed reviews. Bob Chappell writing for '' Atari User'' found the game very good with "first rate animation and sound. ..For the low price, an unmissable bargain". ''

Computer Gamer ''Computer Gamer'' was a video game magazine published in the United Kingdom by Argus Specialist Publications, covering home gaming from April 1985 to June 1987. It was a colourful relaunch of the failing magazine '' Games Computing'', a mor ...

'' reviewer praised graphics, animation and sound of the game. On the other hand '' Zzap!64'' reviewers found the Commodore 64 version awful and boring and gave it an overall rating of 25% concluding "One of Mastertronic's weakest releases." '' Commodore User'' gave the game a rating of 4/10.''Ninja Mission review''
at amr.abime.net

References

External links

at Atari Mania

at Atari Mania
''Ninja''
at Lemon64 1986 video games Amiga games Arcade video games Amstrad CPC games Atari 8-bit family games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Mastertronic games Beat 'em ups Video games about ninja Video games scored by David Whittaker Video games scored by Rob Hubbard Video games developed in the United States {{arcade-stub