The Ninja Warriors

Ninja warriors hen you see a game that looks and plays like The Ninja Warriors it is infuriating. If you consider the number of wasted arcade licences you see in any one year it is difficult to see how anyone can have an excuse for not turning in something of this quality. Not only is The Ninja Warriors a faithful coin-op conversion, it is near perfect. The last time we said that was when we saw Silkworm. it should come as no surprise then that not only is the same company responsible, but the same programmers are involved. Back in May we picked out Silkworm as an early front-runner for conversion of the year. With that feather tucked firmly in their caps Dutch coders Ronald Pieket Weeserik and John Croudy have been slaving over The Ninja Warriors attempting to go one better. It seems they have.

The graphics are small but very colourful and detailed. The sound is great, with the title tune taken straight from the coin-op. A must-buy for fans of the immortal murder machines.

Graphically as impressive as the Amiga version, the ST game contains the same rip, mangle and maim fun. Once all six levels have been completed interest may wane, but it will take many hours of slaughter to reach old Bangler himself.

I was not a big fan of the arcade version, but CD has made me a believer. After seeing how close the graphics, music and sound effects are to the original, I have become a new fan. If all coin-op games can be translated this well on CD, it will become the new standard for home play.

Fans of the genre are in for a real treat: this one is immensely playable and well put together. The shrunken screen works brilliantly and though it is no fault of the conversion, all the original needed was a bit more variety and it would coveted the Format Gold award. As it is, it comes just about as close as it could. A great game.

Bearing in mind the C64's limited colour and resolution, the graphics are an accurate representation of their arcade selves. Sound is mediocre and does the job.

Adequate attract mode accompanied by lengthy arcade-perfect intro music. Direct from the coin-op with great backdrops to fight across. No in-game tunes but clear effects with some great speech. As instantly hookable as any Ninja game with the action starting off thick and fast. Four continue-plays don't make it any easier, especially with six long levels to hack through. A top notch conversion of a somewhat unoriginal coin-op.

Beim Automaten wurden drei Bildschirme nebeneinander montiert, um eine Art Kino-Panoramaeffekt zu erreichen. Um beim Heimcomputer eine ähnlich große Spielfläche zu erreichen, wurde kurzerhand das Bild zu einem schmalen Balken zusammengepreßt, und die Sprites entsprechend verkleinert. Was normalerweise als Riesen-Spielkatastrophe enden müßte, entpuppt sich als halbwegs gelungene Umsetzung. Die Sprites sind gut gezeichnet und animiert, die Roboter hinken sogar nach einigen Treffern, und sogar die Musik, die allerdings nur im Vorspann spielt, ist verdammt gut gelungen. Angesichts Dutzender gekillter Menschen mag sich der Spielspaß jedoch nicht so recht einstellen. Aber auch wer keine Skrupel hat, wird mit den recht unfairen Gegnern keine Freude haben. Ohne Lebensverlust kommt man kaum durch den ersten Level. Ninja Warriors ist nur etwas für Fans des Automaten.

Novel 'Cinemascope' display layout. Dynamic Loading System is a boom but doesn't get rid of irritating swapping. Extremely repetitive action palls quickly. Even for a game of this type, the gameplay is too limited to hold the attention for any length of time.