is a 1990 side-scrolling

beat 'em up The beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, ...

video game developed by

Alpha Denshi , formerly known as , was a Japanese video game developer founded in 1980. ADK began as a developer of arcade games and is best known for their library of SNK Neo Geo titles, including for its home consoles, produced in partnership with SNK. Mos ...

and published by

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

. It was one of the launch titles for both the

Neo Geo Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. On the market from 1990 to 2004, the brand originated with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES. The Neo Geo MVS was su ...

MVS (arcade) and AES (home) systems.

Gameplay

The journey takes the ninja heroes from an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

to the top of a tower. Along the way, they must survive endless attacks from the members of Kage Ichizoku and their minions. The protagonists Joe and Hayabusa use

shuriken A ''shuriken'' ( ja, 手裏剣; literally: "hidden hand blade") is a Japanese concealed weapon that was used as a hidden dagger or metsubushi to distract or misdirect. They are also known as throwing stars, or ninja stars, although they were ...

as their primary weapon, although other weapons that aid them along the way are

nunchaku is a traditional Okinawan martial arts weapon consisting of two sticks (traditionally made of wood), connected to each other at their ends by a short metal chain or a rope. It is approximately 30 cm (sticks) and 1 inch (rope). A person wh ...

, maces, ratchets, battle axes, spiked clubs, and

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

swords. A special

somersault A somersault (also ''flip'', ''heli'', and in gymnastics ''salto'') is an acrobatic exercise in which a person's body rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the head. A somersault can be performed forwards, backwards ...

attack can be used to knock down a multiple enemies in a row. As an art of ''ninpo kairou'', a fire dragon (Joe) or lightning strike (Hayabusa) can be summoned to destroy all enemies on the screen.''Ninja Combat'' user's manual (Neo Geo AES, US) The heroes die if their life force runs out or time expires. Per 1,500 points scored or they pick up a gold capsule, they earn an extra life. There are seven levels in all.

Plot

The story, set in the year "199X", follows the twin

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...

warriors named Joe (ジョー) and Hayabusa (ハヤブサ, lit. "Falcon") (not to be mistaken with

Joe Musashi is a player character and main protagonist in Sega's ''Shinobi'' series of video games, first introduced in 1987. This original Shinobi hero has achieved great popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was used as one of Sega's m ...

or Ryu Hayabusa), who are waging a battle against an evil ninja clan Kage Ichizoku (影一族, lit. "Shadow Family"). Their mission is to fight their way into the enemy home fortress, the Ninja Tower (ニンジャタワー, "Ninjatawa"), which has emerged from the ocean in the center of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to once and for all defeat the Shadow Family and its leader, the long thought-dead demon sorcerer Genyousai. When defeated, three of the minibosses: Musashi (ムサシ), Kagerow (カゲロウ, lit. "Mayfly") and Gembu (ゲンブ), become allies and fight alongside Joe and Hayabusa as optional player characters. If the heroes are victorious, Genyousai is destroyed and the Ninja Tower crumbles.

Release

''Ninja Combat'' was originally released in Japanese arcades on July 24, 1990. Its home version was released internationally for the

in 1991 and for the

Neo Geo CD The is the second home video game console of SNK, SNK Corporation's Neo Geo family, released on September 9, 1994, four years after its Neo Geo (console), cartridge-based equivalent. This is the same platform, converted to the cheaper CD format ...

on October 31, 1994 in Japan only. The original

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for both ''Ninja Combat'' and ''

The Super Spy is an early Neo Geo game released by SNK in 1990. It is a first-person shooter and beat 'em up game with action role-playing elements in which players move through the many floors of an office building shooting terrorists. It is a first-person g ...

'', along with the arranged versions by SNK Sound Team and KONNY, was published by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

and

Scitron is a Japanese record label that publishes video game music albums. List of video game albums released A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z ...

on November 21, 1990. ''Ninja Combat'' was re-released through

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

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 ...

download service in Europe and Australia on October 26, 2007, and in North America on June 2, 2008. It is also one of the five games ported to the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

in the game compilation ''

ADK Damashii ''ADK Damashii'' is a compilation of video games by SNK Playmore released on December 18, 2008 for PlayStation 2, exclusively in Japan. It was later ported outside of Japan for PlayStation 4 in 2017. It includes 5 arcade/Neo Geo games which were ...

'' in 2008.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed the game on their December 15, 1990 issue as being the eighteenth most-popular arcade game at the time. It was more successful in North America, where it was an arcade hit. The ''RePlay'' arcade charts listed ''Ninja Combat'' as the second most-popular software conversion kit from November to December 1990, and then the top-grossing software conversion kit in January 1991. The title received mixed reception from critics since its release in arcades and other platforms. ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

''s four reviewers commended the audiovisual presentation and playable characters having their own fighting style but criticized the Neo Geo AES version for using unlimited continues, short length, easy difficulty and repetitive gameplay. '' Raze''s Julian Boardman also shared a similar opinion, stating that the use of unlimited continues hampered both gameplay and challenge. However, ''

ACE An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

''s Tony Dillon argued with this sentiment by claiming on his review that the unlimited continue feature was a hardware design flaw on the first batch of AES systems. Dillon praised the game's audiovisual presentation, stating that "this game is fulfilling what the Neo Geo promises - a standard arcade machine for the home" but criticized its short length. French magazine ''

Joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

'' regarded ''Ninja Combat'' as one of the best beat 'em ups on consoles and comparing it with ''

Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technōs Japan and released as an arcade game in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against various adversaries and rivals. The original ...

'' and ''

Final Fight ''Final Fight'' is a series of beat 'em up video games by Capcom, which began with the arcade release of ''Final Fight'' in 1989. Set in the fictional Metro City, the games focus on a group of heroic vigilantes who fights against the control and ...

'', praising the audio and visuals as well as the sprite animations and controls highly but criticized the overall short length. ''Superjuegos'' Alberto Pascual praised the game's ability to recruit defeated minibosses as playable characters and two-player mode but felt mixed in regards to the originality on-display. ''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

Mean Machines ''Mean Machines'' was a multi-format video game magazine published between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Origins In the late 1980s '' Computer and Video Games'' (''CVG'') was largely covering the outgoing generation of 8-bit computers l ...

'' compared the title with '' Shadow Warriors'', commending the audiovisual presentation but criticized the gameplay for being dull and boring to play, easy difficulty and short length. In a similar manner, Italian publication ''Consolemania'' also compared it with ''Shadow Warriors'', praising the graphics but criticized certain aspects of both audio and playability.

Retrospective

Retrospectively, the Neo Geo and Wii releases hold a 38% score on the video game review aggregator ''

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

'', based on three reviews. ''

AllGame RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publ ...

''s Kyle Knight heavily criticized its overall design, unacceptable graphics, audio, controls, technical issues and cheap gameplay, stating that "''Ninja Combat'' is a poorly conceived, poorly executed game." ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

''s Dan Whitehead claimed ''Ninja Combat'' to be a "rip-off" of other titles in the beat 'em up genre such as ''

Shinobi 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. 21� ...

'' (1987), ''

Ninja Gaiden is a series of action video games by Tecmo featuring the ninja Ryu Hayabusa as its protagonist. The series was originally known as in Japan. The word "gaiden" in the North American ''Ninja Gaiden'' title means "side story" in Japanese. The o ...

'' (1988) and ''

Streets of Rage ''Streets of Rage'' is a series of side-scrolling beat 'em up video games, centering on the efforts of several ex-police vigilantes trying to rid a fictional, large American city from a crime syndicate that has corrupted its local government. ...

'' (1991), praising the graphics and ability to recruit additional characters but criticizing the collision detection, stiff animations, poor controls, lack of ideas and short length. ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

''s Lucas M. Thomas called it "a profoundly unappealing gameplay experience," opining that "anything potentially innovative or interesting about ''Ninja Combat'' gets totally defeated by its terribly stiff control and overly difficult programming." ''

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...

''s Damien McFerran criticized the visuals for being uninspired and character designs, while stating that its gameplay is not comparable to ''Streets of Rage'' or ''Final Fight''.

Notes

References

External links

''Ninja Combat''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

''Ninja Combat''
at

Giant Bomb ''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by ''Time'' mag ...

''Ninja Combat''
at

Killer List of Videogames Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) is a website featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for pla ...

''Ninja Combat''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

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Gameplay

Plot

Release

Reception

Retrospective

See also

Notes

References

External links