is a vertically scrolling

run and gun video game Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...

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 ...

for 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 ...

arcade and home systems in 1992. It was released 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 ...

in 1994.

Gameplay

The overall gameplay is similar to this of the run-and-gun classic ''

Ikari Warriors ''Ikari Warriors'', known as in Japan, is a vertically-scrolling, run-and-gun shooter arcade video game released by SNK in 1986. It was published in North America by Tradewest. The game was released at the time when there were many ''Commando'' ...

'', with the players battling their way up the top-down perspective screen. The players can choose between three

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 ...

characters, all with differing abilities. Each of them has

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a video game genre, genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappli ...

-style input commands that unleash their scroll-based ''ninpo'' special moves. As usual in the genre, the game's stages end with

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

battles.

Plot

An elite group of three young Ninja Commandos (Joe Tiger, an American descendant of the

Kōga-ryū Kōka-ryū (甲賀流, "School of Kōka"; occasionally transliterated as "Kōga") is an umbrella term for a set of traditions of ninjutsu that originated from the region of Kōka (modern Kōka City in Shiga Prefecture). The samurai of Kōka-ryū ...

ninja whose weapons are

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 ...

, Ryu Eagle, the 23rd descendant of the famous ninja

Fūma Kotarō was the name adopted by the leader of the ninja during the Sengoku era of feudal Japan. He was retainer of Later Hōjō clan. According to some records, his name was originally Kazama Kotarō (風間小太郎). The Fūma clan and Fūma Kota ...

(from the ''

World Heroes is a series of four fighting games created originally by ADK with assistance from SNK for the Neo Geo family of arcade and home consoles. Over the years, the games have been ported to various non-SNK platforms as well including the Super NE ...

'' series), who is using ninja magic fireballs in combat, and Rayar Dragon, the

female ninja is a Japanese cant term for . In popular culture, it is often used for female shinobi or practitioner of ninjutsu (''ninpo''). The term was largely popularized by novelist Yamada Futaro in his novel ''Ninpō Hakkenden'' (忍法八犬伝) in 1964 ...

of the group, a British girl who has learned the ways of the

Iga-ryū is an umbrella term for ninjutsu traditions that come from the Iga region, according to Japanese legend. It became one of the two most well-known ninja traditions in Japan. The ''Iga-ryū'' traditions originated in the Iga Province in the area ar ...

ninjutsu , sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some tradit ...

and whose weapon is a bow with flaming spirit arrows) from around the world must team-up to stop the villain Spider and his

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

Corporation from using a

time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

to destroy the past and control the future. The three heroes chase after their enemy in seven time periods, including the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

in Japan (where Ryu avenges his ancestor by killing

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

), Ancient Egypt (fighting a floating recreation of Tutankhamen), the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

, China in the era of

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Han dynasty#Eastern Han, Eastern Han dynasty and wa ...

(fighting against

Lu Bu Lu, Lü, or LU may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Lu (music), Tibetan folk music * Lu (duo), a Mexican band ** ''Lu'' (album) * Character from Mike, Lu & Og * Lupe Fiasco or Lu (born 1982), American musician * Lebor na hUidre, a manuscri ...

), and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Release

''Ninja Commando'' was originally released for the

arcade machines on May 29, 1992. The

was released on October 31, 1994. The game has been re-released on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

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 ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

on July 14, 2008 (though the Wii Virtual Console version, like most other Neo Geo games, only allows three continues per player, which makes the game very difficult to complete without saving progress). It was also re-released in December 2008 as one of five games in 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 ...

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 ...

''. The highest score is by Ian Albrecht with 177,150 points.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Ninja Commando'' on their June 15, 1992 issue as being the eleventh most-successful table arcade unit of the month, outperforming titles such as '' Raiden''. ''RePlay'' also reported the game to be the tenth most-popular arcade game at the time. The title was generally well received. The game's review in ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' praised its "phenomenal!" graphics and called it overall "an excellent two-player cart" that "does an excellent job of filling the void of top-view fun-and-gun game in the Neo-Geo library." Three staff members of ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

'' rated ''Ninja Commando'', respectively, 6.75, 8.0, and 8.75 out of 10. ''

Famicom Tsūshin formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' scored the Neo Geo version of the game a 25 out of 40.

Retrospective reviews

Notes

References

External links

''Ninja Commando''
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 Commando''
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 Commando''
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 Commando''
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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ninja Commando 1992 video games ACA Neo Geo games ADK (company) games Arcade video games Cooperative video games D4 Enterprise games Fictional special forces personnel Multiplayer and single-player video games Neo Geo games Neo Geo CD games Video games about ninja Nintendo Switch games PlayStation Network games PlayStation 4 games Run and gun games Science fiction video games Sengoku video games SNK games SNK Playmore games Video games based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms Video games about time travel Video games featuring female protagonists Video games scored by Yuka Watanabe Video games set in Africa Virtual Console games Windows games World War II video games Xbox One games Video games developed in Japan Hamster Corporation games

Gameplay

Plot

Release

Reception

Retrospective reviews

See also

Notes

References

External links