Last Ninja 2: Back with a Vengeance

The Good
(I choose the Atari ST version, but I could choose the Amiga or the PC version as well, it's really the same bullshit ported over and over again.)

The Atari ST port has beepy rendition of the loader musics of the C64 game, nothing special, it's decent enough by Atari ST standards, I guess (they may be annoying after a while). It also has some sound effects what everyone missed from the C64 original, although the sound of punches are as cheesy as in Bud Spencer movies.

The graphics in the 16-bit versions of the game is more detailed, enhanced (unsurprisingly). The graphic style is a bit different than the original, (I found the addition of graffitis on New York's streets a nice touch).

Looks like everyone did at least a semi-decent job, except the programmers.

The Bad
So, what can really screw up an isometric adventure game? Yes, the weak collision detection and places with confusing perspective. In addition of the original's clunky control mechanics, it is major annoyance. Picking up objects is a hassle!

The enemies are stupid, often get stuck, or just run through things where they aren't supposed to normally. When get knocked down, their health regenerates really quickly, and stand up to block your way again. They never can get killed permanently here (this pisses me off in LN3 also). If you're not careful take away your health really quickly.

The ninja's movement is really slow, we can move way faster by jumping (somersaulting), especially away from enemies. The sprite animations are laggy. The entire thing just does not play right!

The Bottom Line
The Last Ninja 2 is one of the best in the Commodore 64's game library. What we love that it is an action adventure with a time travelling ninja, who wants to get back the sacred scrolls from his arch nemesis ghost samurai, and has to make his way through the parks, streets, severs, and skyscraper rooftops of modern day New York, chased by drug dealers, cops, and punks, with rocking awesome music setting the mood. Well, it has it's flaws, it falls short on the puzzle solver and also on the fighter side, not to mention the occasional platforming parts. It actually didn't age so well, but if you want to play it, take the C64 version and forget those unplayable ports.

The Good
I remember getting this for xmas when I was a kid - I got a special edition one, complete with ninja mask and shuriken! I was a hit at all the fancy dress parties that year ;)

Possibly one of the most atmospheric 64 games ever - everything about it is slickly done especially the music and level designs. Imaginative puzzles - though many people found them frustrating. The mixture of beat em up and puzzle elements has never been done better to my knowledge. I disagree with the previous reviewer, this game harks back to a time when games were TOUGH, watching videos of the game is no way to experience it. Get a good guide for it and only refer to it when you are absolutely stuck!

The Bad
Instant deaths could be very annoying, and the difficulty level may be too much for some, but other than that I cant fault it.

The Bottom Line
A stylish blend of a beat-em up with puzzles

The Good
The Last Ninja 2 is one of the most impressive-looking C64 games I've ever seen. The graphics are simply amazing. There are a great number of little graphical gimmicks. Animation is great as well.

Also, the music is one of the best C64 soundtracks that I've heard - quite clearly this thing has the most impressive-sounding synthetic electric guitars I've heard. It's even better than the music for all other platforms the game was released for. Clearly a testament to whatever SID chip is capable of. This game is worth getting even for the amazingly cool first level music.

The game concept holds water. Isometric action adventure format is a fun one, and combining it to simple beat 'em up controls is a good idea.

I've watched the whole game playthrough (from C64 Longplays, highly recommended), and it seems that this game is far less of a maze than The Last Ninja or The Last Ninja 3. The other two videos left me impression that those two games are gigantic mazes that are impossible to follow (well, LN3 doesn't suffer from this as much as LN1, but still), but LN2 looks like it'd be memorizable.

And hey, "you're that Ninja..." Ninja games are always cool. =)

The Bad
I have to admit I've almost passed the first level myself. This game is staggeringly hard! The controls are acceptable, even when they clearly need some getting used to.

Jumping puzzles suck, especially if failure means instant death.

In conclusion, fire up VICE and arm yourself with a handful of free hard disk space for snapshots. You'll end up suffering far less than I did back in the day with the real thing.

The Bottom Line
Armakuni, the last ninja of his clan, travels through the time to revenge the murder of his clan to the evil shogun. Travelling through time, this time, means that we're in modern New York City. As a ninja, your job is to ninja some bad guys (street thugs, mafia guys, who knows?), as well as the police who, for some reason, want to kill you with your own weapons.

The environment is divided to screens with each of them having at most one bad guy. Everything is drawn from isometric perspective. Controls are unusually usual: Move with just the stick, use weapons, kick/punch, pick up items, and jump with button pressed.

Along with collectible weapons, there's items that are mostly related to different kinds of puzzles (which appear to be trivial if you just use your head a bit). There are, as mentioned, precise jumping puzzles as well.

Combat is mostly about button-mash... er, mad stick wagging with button pressed, but most of the times it seems to be a better idea to run past the enemies.

It is a relatively short game - without instant deaths, there's apparently less than a hour to play. With instant deaths, it will take a while as you need to replay the first levels.

If you ignore the frustrating instant deaths, this game is actually pretty fun, not to even mention beautiful and it has excellent music. Definitely worth playing.