Arcade Archives THE NINJA KIDS - (Akane, Normal Difficulty, International Version)

Описание: The Ninja Kids was developed by Taito and released in 1990. It is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that runs with the popular 4-player setup, similar to games like The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Metamorphic Force, to name a few.

The story is pretty straightforward, if not really left of field or bizarre, even. There is an evil group attempting to summon Satan... oh excuse me, "The" Satan... (because are there really any OTHER Satan-esques fallen angels anywhere else in existence?) in the year 1999. We all know 1999 was a popular year to use in 80's/90's arcade games, but two things that can be mentioned. One, at least The Ninja Kids took a page from Nostradamus' prophecy of the return of the Anti-Christ in July 1999. Two, at least it wasn't 199X this time. What a relief. For the second part. Not the first part. I wouldn't cheer for anticipation for the summoning of The Satan.

Anyway - there's only one group that can stop this travesty from happening, and that's... THE NINJA KIDS! Four ninjas... who are actually puppets. Yes, puppets. In fact, every character that shows up in this game, sans the enemy animals, are puppets. Oh, I forgot to mention the only human character seems to be the gi-wearing sensei that is shown in the intro. Whom I'm assuming, is the sensei of our four heroes.

Our quartet ninja garbed troop consists of Hanzo, a blue ninja who uses a katana and is the well balanced stats wise. Sasuke, a yellow ninja who wields a kusari-gama, and is a long range fighter. Akane, a red ninja who tosses shuriken and is the fastest but weakest health-wise. Lastly, there's Genta, a green ninja who carries a sansetsukon (a three-sectioned staff), who is the strongest but slowest.

In addition to their weapons, they also possess the ability to collect scrolls which allows to them use special ninja powers that helps decimate their enemies. Hanzo uses water, Sasuke uses wind, Akane uses fire, and Genta uses Earth. The ninpo attacks changes in strength depending on the number of scrolls you have on hand before pressing the attack and jump buttons to use said ninpo.

You go through a few stages fighting various enemies such as fat mafia men, muscebound sunglasses-wearing meatheads, floating hooded magicians, zombies, skeletons, and molotov cocktail thowing terrorists. The various baddies you fight all seem very mish-mashed and doesn't really mesh together as an overall theme for the game. Hell, even the first boss in the first stage is a random tied-up fast food employee that transforms into a werewolf. Seemingly very out-of-place for a legion of Satan summoning sect members, yeah?

Controls are very simple, as you have your standard attack button and jump button. Pressing them together activates your ninja power, as mentioned before. You can rescue tied up civilians (although trying to do so is VERY finicky because the detection is a bit weird, kinda reminds me of how fucked up the X/Y positioning in Crime Fighters was). You can pick up various items that boost your score and ninja scrolls, but that's about it.

Other than the bad translations in some parts, which was standard in some beat 'em ups, there's not much to say on The Ninja Kids. I first played it back in 2007 on my Japanese copy of Taito Memories II Jokan for PlayStation 2. It never struck me as a particularly exciting or memorable game to play at the time, and it still leaves the same taste even now. I wouldn't call it bad, of course, just not nearly as gripping or exciting as other beat 'em ups.

Although you could say Taito's released far worse stuff. Dino Rex, anyone? Yep, I've played that on the same compilation. Dino Rex isn't a beat 'em up, rather, a vs. fighting game, and the comparison wouldn't be fair. But... to wit. If you know, you know........ you know?

See you next game!