Retro Weekends Episode 68: Legend of the Mystical Ninja

"I really enjoyed this game, its good fun and the presentation is excellent, the game beautifully uses the hardware on all levels. The game play is awesome and if any game has two player support its a thumbs up in my book, especially when its integrated as well as this. On the bad side I do think the difficulty curve was a bit too steep but its not too much of a game changer. Scoring it is difficult for me, I don't think its as good as Super Mario World or as unique as Sonic the Hedgehog but I still don't think I can justify giving it lower than a 5/5, just barely."

"This is a great early release for the SNES that shows off the system very well. The graphics here are fantastic and the music is great too, and is very memorable, some of these early SNES games sound a bit muffled but the fidelity here is actually quite good. Where the game play is concerned there's piles of variety here, not only do you have the two separate game play types (the beat-em-up sections and platformer bits), but you've also got all these shops you can visit plus you can kill time playing the minigames or arcade games too. You've also got to keep track of your money in the game to make sure you can buy the equipment and items required for the levels. There's a lot of elements you have to balance here. The game's difficulty does ramp up fairly quickly but this is a game with password saves so you don't want it to be too easy, also the way the shops and abilities work means that someone who finds the platforming too difficult can spend more time amassing money to buy abilities to make the levels easier so there is a balance there too. One of the best games of its era, and I think it remained one of the best SNES games even at the end of its lifespan "