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1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...
shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and released by Shin Nihon Kikaku (today's
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 ...
) in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. The game is a fixed shooter with the player at the bottom shooting upward at enemies traveling and shooting down the screen. In contrast to the outer-space theme of most such games of the era, ''Sasuke vs. Commander'' is set in a magical world with ninja-like enemies and alternative waves of simple attackers and more powerful bosses. ''Sasuke vs. Commander'' was popular in Japan; according to ''Game Machine'', it was in 10th place overall in 1981 grosses, tied with the older, but still popular, '' Space Invaders'' and '' Missile Command''. It is historically notable as among the earliest examples of recurring boss fights.


Gameplay

The player controls Sasuke, a
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 ...
dressed in blue who moves back and forth across the bottom of the vertically oriented screen. The game alternates between two types of levels. The first type of level takes place on a background showing a road leading to a castle seen in the background. A number of ninjas dressed in red or green appear in a puff of smoke and then attack with various weapons while moving down the screen. Sasuke is killed if he touches either, and loses one of his three lives. He returns fire with shurikens, and if he hits an enemy it turns purple and falls directly down the screen, presenting another way to be killed. When the first type of wave is completed, or Sasuke is killed, the second type of wave begins, the "magic bonus". These start with a
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 ...
appearing out of the castle while a fanfare plays, at the end of which the action moves to a new background scene showing a mountain landscape. On these waves, the bosses remain near the top of the screen and use more powerful weapons. These levels are timed, and the player receives a bonus if he kills the bosses based on how much time is left. If he is killed on these levels he receives no bonus but does not lose a life. The game ends if Sasuke loses all of his lives, or completes all eight levels. If he successfully reaches the end, a cutscene shows Sasuke tripping over a rock and not getting up.


Reception

Although few English language materials refer to the game, the Japanese arcade trade newspaper ''Game Machine'' lists it as being the 10th most popular arcade game in 1981 based on income, tied with '' Space Invaders'' and '' Missile Command''. It has since become better known as one of SNK's earliest releases, as well as one of the first arcade games to include multiple boss fights, along with ''Phoenix'' and Cidelsa's ''Destroyer'' of the same year. The game has since been re-released on the Sony PS4 and
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
.


Notes


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * {{cite magazine , title=ベストスリー 本紙調査 (調査対象1980年) 〜 アーケードゲーム機 , trans-title=Best Three Book Survey (Survey Target 1980) ~ Arcade Game Machines , magazine= Game Machine , issue=159 , publisher= Amusement Press, Inc. , date=15 February 1981 , lang=ja , url=https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19810215p.pdf#page=2 , ref=CITEREFGameMachine1981


External links


Sasuke vs. Commander Playthrough
SNK games 1980 video games Arcade video games Fixed shooters Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Video games about ninja Video games developed in Japan