Ninja Princess

The Good
I liked it basically because I found it fun and didn't get killed right away, though you can get into "shuriken hell" at times. The game has the same soft colours and shapes as other Sega games of the time e.g My Hero, Teddy Boy, Fantasy Zone(a little later), but you play as a "Ninja Princess" Kurumi, one of Sega's first game heroines (possibly their first heroine in an arcade game). Boys who didn't want to play it, thinking it was for girls, may well have been envious of Kurumi's cool, mini-teleport move, which their heroes didn't have, a move that is especially useful for dodging shurikens and also boulders and stampeding horses on those stages. I also liked the map at the start of each stage, showing you how near you are to your goal, the Japanese castle at the top of the map, giving one a sense of progress.

The Bad
It seems a little more giving than other arcade games of the time, but still very demanding, swarming you with shuriken-throwing ninjas right from the start. Certainly the stages look and feel very similar, though the stage variation would be better than the 1985 average. There doesn't appear to be a unique final boss either, there are two bosses through the whole game, who keep returning after being defeated. I would rather have a final boss who fights you for the first time at the end of the last stage or at least a previous boss with an impressive new weapon or attack.

The Bottom Line
It's not the first up-scrolling, "run and gun" game, but one of them and it pre-dates Commando by a couple of months. It's of course more "female" than Commando, but probably enough shurikens and swords to keep boys happy ;) Regardless of whether it's a girls' game or not, it's fun to play :D