Ninja Spirit

~ NINJA SPIRIT ~

Irem / NEC

HuCard

1990

I've always thought of Ninja Spirit as an extremely cool game. It's like they took the few decent concepts that Legend of Kage had going for it (mainly the wild jumping) and placed them in a context where the fundamentals are actually sound. Some of the bosses are embarrassingly easy, but most of them look pretty darn cool, and the boss music is wonderfully fast and intense. In fact, the soundtrack on the whole is superb.

The high-flying leaps, ceiling walking, multiple weapons, and impressive enemies contribute to Ninja Spirit's high fun factor, which makes up for its lack of difficulty (though Arcade Mode is significantly tougher than PC Engine Mode and does offer an extra scene during the ending). As far as old-school ninja games go, I'd say NS doesn't come close to Shinobi III, but it can hold its own against any of the rest.

The tragic opening.

NEC was very proud of this big boss back in the day. He appeared in lots of ads and preview/review screens.

You can defeat some bosses with the powered-up bomb weapon before they even come close to touching you.

Moonlit Stage 3 has its fair share of challenging parts. First, musketmen try to sneak up on you while you concentrate on ghost warriors who can take you out with a single slash...

...then these staff-twirling monks make nuisances of themselves in the marshlands.

Do a little ceiling walking in Stage 4.

The Stage 6 stormlands look pretty cool and give you plenty of dangerous enemies to deal with.

The last stage's famous ninja pit (and the equally famous safe spot).

The bit of ending text that appears for only a split second so that no one ever has enough time to read it.