Retro Weekends plays and reviews The Ninja for the SMS. All gameplay footage taken from real hardware.
What we thought
"I liked the game. It plays well, the music is quite good (when you can actually hear it, as when powered up the stage music is replaced), and the presentation is nice too, including a well done map screen reminiscent of Ghosts N' Goblins. I definitely prefer this game to Commando, its main rival on the NES."
4/5
"This is a good game for the year it came out, this is arriving at around the same time as the NES port of Commando (though not the earlier computer ports). I think this comes out well in the comparison as you've got the power-ups, the better controls that allow you to retreat fire and do an invisibility trick, and much more variety in the levels and environments. There's more of a journey here than in Commando and the simple adventuring aspects included force you to explore a little bit more. The game is fast, responsive, and has pretty good graphics for 1986 too. Whilst I like the game I think the computer ports of Commando somewhat beat it to the punch and provided much of the same run n' gun experience earlier so I'm not going to give it the full score, better Run n' Gun games that featured 2-player options were also just around the corner at the time."
