Throughout the history of early computer games it can be noted, that nearly every game title which had the word ‘ninja’ in it was instantly meant to be a hit (or rather: a title which was sure to sell in large quantities). Unfortunately, in the swarm of all those “ninja games” most of them simply used the popularity of the word to force themselves into the market. There were however exceptions to this rule. This game was one of the few.

 “The Last Ninja” takes you to the land of ancient Japan, sometime during 13^th century. You are Armakuni, the last remaining ninja after a great slaughter of your kind by the evil shogun Kunitoki, set out on a quest to avenge your murdered bretheren and retrieve back the ancient Koga Scrolls stolen by the shogun. To do this you will have to fight through the wilderness, swamps and dreaded dungeons on the island of Lin Fen, where Kunitoki’s palace is located. This means 6 action packed levels full of enemies and puzzles for you to discover.

Even though the game originates from the late 1980s it used new and quite innovatory ideas that contributed to its popularity. Most notable is probably the isometric view of the game world: player is seen from a certain angled perspective, creating an imitation of semi-3D environment which in addition resulted in more possibilities to move around. There were some limitations introduced though: the ninja could only walk on the roads (can’t step on the grass here, sorry) and the entire game level was simply a set of interconnected screens that created the impression of a large (and endless) area. This however was complemented by lovely climatic graphics and incredible gameplay which infused “The Last Ninja” with a very high replay factor.

However it was not just wandering around a beautifully drawn landscape that made the game very attrictive. There were enemies. There were puzzles. And there were the ninja weapons of course! Starting from a simple sword and nunchaks, the ninja would encounter deadly shurikens (which would strike down an enemy in a single hit) and a very powerfull bamboo staff (which quite paradoxically seemed to be more efficient than a sword). Fighting the enemies was not very complex, limiting you to only 2 different types of hits when barehanded and extending this to 4 different types of attack when holding a melee weapon. These short fighting sequences were in fact just a small break from the key aspect of “The Last Ninja” gameplay: puzzles. These varied in types, from a simple set of acrobatic jumps through swamps or rivers to figuring out how in the hell you should get past a deadly trap in your way. At some point in the beginning of the game you even had to get past a live dragon! To make your life easier (or more confusing, depending on how you look at it), some levels would introduce a certain spot on the map, where you could obtain a so called “ninja magic”. The effects would vary, depending on the purpose of the given “magic stash”: it could make you invulnerable to flames or some other deadly trap. While quite handy, sometimes it was quite difficult to actually discover where ninja magic was hidden on the level, making it a bit more difficult (and frustrating) to finish.

What is important to mention here is that “The Last Ninja” was originally developed for the Commodore 64 platform and was ported to PC afterwards. How does that effect the overall game impression? At the first glance we don’t see that much of a difference: sprites and backgrounds all look the same (although the colors are a bit distorted due to different graphics hardware) and the gameplay itself is not so different from the original. But then comes the shock: NO MUSIC in the PC edition! What greately influenced the atmosphere of the game was ambient, orient-styled music on every level of the game. Limitations of the early PCs is understandable here, but having the music reduced to completely nothing (with small exceptions in the intro screen) is pure heresy in this case. Nevertheless “Last Ninja” is still a game that I would consider cult and I highly recommend it to all fans of good old beat’em ups.

Sound – 1/10 – Apart from poor quality sound effects there was no music and no sound during the game. Undoubtly the whole atmosphere of the game dramatically suffered because of it.

Graphics - 8/10 –  For a 1980s game graphics were very impressive (even though they only supported the EGA and CGA graphics card).

Overall - 7/10 – Despite lack of music “The Last Ninja” is still a game worth playing. I would however recommend the C64 version a lot more, than the PC version though.