NES CHALLENGE - The Last Ninja in

Описание: The Last Ninja - Game of the Year!! per Golden Joystick Awards. Won for great graphics and sound for the Commodore 64 (The Last Ninja 2). If only BEAM could have programmed it halfway decently for the NES it would have been pretty decent. The premise is pretty good sneaking around, avoiding enemies if possible and doing some basic puzzles.

Graphics are pretty good. The screen does have its flaws eating up the whole bottom of the screen, but the scenery is pretty decent and there are a variety of different places to show it off. The characters are distinguishable but just basic thugs.

Sound is really good as far as I'm concerned. There were some decent tracks and each stage was unique. Not too much in sound effects, but the tracks don't screw up between screens and fit levels nicely.

Gamplay is where this falls apart. The level design is great, I love the exploration aspect and different levels. The password feature is good and as scene with the second attempt I was able to bring lives across and gave me enough for the final boss. The hitboxes and action detection is the whole issue with the game. The enemy being able to hit you and you can't hit back is absolute trash. NO EXCUSES! The enemies hitboxes should have been more generous since the CPU knows exactly where to be, but you have to guess and hope you get it. This goes for many of the interaction items as well. If my shadow is on the item or I am in front, I should be able to interact and pick up the object or use the switch or whatever. In all honesty, I got luck with the candles at the end; I fully expected to spend an hour trying to figure out where to align myself properly, manipulate the ghost, and try to figure out how to do it without getting hit. The boats fall in that catagory as well. I just know from the AVGN video you need to time it well and consistently.

I hate doing this, but this game falls to below 500 on the collectability list. The isometric nature and the game style is the only reason it gets that high of a ranking; otherwise it would be sub 600. If the hitboxes and collision detection were fair / usable, I would rank this closer to the top 200 because there are good ideas in here.