Thanks to Ratalaika Games for the review code
Title: Ninja 1987
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $4.99
Release Date: 12/12/2024
Story
In this action platformer inspired by a certain Ninja action game, you take control of a Ninja warrior on a quest to go to America and defeat evil! Very light on story compared to that other Ninja game, and you can immediately tell what the developer wanted to go for.
Presentation
So, this little game was developed by a company named SEEP, and I happen to enjoy a couple of their little retro throwback titles they put out on Steam. A lot of them have presentations which pay tribute to the older JP computers, but Ninja 1987 happens to shift away from that usual routine in favor of yet another 8-bit NES inspired action game, and unfortunately a done to death presentational style doesn’t make Ninja 1987 as interesting as some of SEEP’s other titles for me.
You do have decent looking NES-style sprites, but you also have a bunch of stage designs and backgrounds which come off as incredibly generic, with some of the color palette choices during levels really making me wonder if they were trying to outright copy the palette from Shadow of the Ninja without doing it 1:1; thankfully the level designs are completely original, but that also means there’s hardly anything to write home about. The limited cutscenes here are fine, but nothing compared to Tecmo Theater work.
The audio is incredibly average too, with not even a chiptune to be heard. Just a bunch of very generic music that empties out of my brain anytime I close the game, and a very strange audio balance where the sound effects are far louder than they should be, with no option to adjust the audio levels. Once I defeated a boss and the explosion sounds piled up on each other so quickly I almost felt like I was going deaf. Considering pretty much all of the NES Ninja games I can think of had outstanding soundtracks, Ninja 1987’s OST is absolutely not close to that milestone.
Gameplay
With seven stages to clear, each with a boss at the end, Ninja 1987 is very true to the NES style in that regard, and not much else. You have your typical jump (including a double jump from the start!) and attack setup, with two extra attacks that can deal different kinds of damage if you have the ammo for them. First is the shuriken, which are ranged weapons that do as you’d expect them to, and they are often dropped by enemies, while the other is a Ninja Dash attack which uses up a bunch of points on the lightning energy bar. Sometimes this can be used to cross gaps and defeat a bunch of enemies in the process, but once while using it I got stuck in the ground and had to let the enemies defeat me to continue, so this move is a bit finicky.
With those very simple controls explained, you’re off to do some typical 8-Bit platforming, only without much of interest to make Ninja 1987 worth remembering. The stages are incredibly tired, boring 8-bit tropes, some of which like stage 2 go on for way too long with a ton of boring climbing and big rooms with not much during those besides enemy swarms, and the game is still pretty darn easy. You have infinite continues which is nice, and you can easily challenge yourself to beat the levels 1CC, but even that isn’t too tough once you realize you can just avoid most of the enemies and rush to the boss, where the most fun in Ninja 1987 is had.
Seriously, these bosses, while equally simple, are at least engaging enough to keep you on your toes and are all fun to fight. Sometimes I found a cheese strat making them incredibly simple to destroy, while others had me struggle a few times until I memorized the pattern. Some are also pretty generic takes on 8 bit bosses, but others were actually really darn fun to fight, and I wish there was some sort of Boss Rush mode to enjoy. If there is one, I’d not unlock it since the sixth stage would make me lose all my interest due to how dull it ended up being, as once you’re done with a cool fight, you’re back in more generic 8-Bit stages with little to remember about them.
Which is truly the saddest part of Ninja 1987! The controls are pretty tight, and dashing into a bunch of enemies and racking up combo points produces a brief rush of excitement. It looks convincing enough, is decently fun, and something you can totally enjoy and blaze through in a night while watching a youtube video. Sadly, there isn’t much else besides that, nor anything that would incentivize most folks to go back to play it. Score chasing is encouraged and seems to be the only reason point items even exist, but I couldn’t seem to get any of the stages to save my high scores at all, even my 1CC attempts, so this might just be broken. All in all, a generic, yet inoffensive action platformer.
Conclusion
While I am happy to see SEEP’s interesting catalog get introduced to a new audience, Ninja 1987 is a pretty disappointing start to that trend. Decent controlling platform action is bogged down by incredibly boring level designs that range from too long and empty to way too short and easy, and while I feel it would make for a better starting point to have a Ninja Gaiden tribute not be as insanely hard as that original game, this is just overkill.
Seven stages, all control well, all play well, and you’ll be done in no time if you keep at it. Unfortunately, this is not the game from the developer I was hoping to see, and could have been so, so much better. At the current price, this is really just another middle of the road game to add to a buy it later pile to beat quickly in a night.
I give Ninja 1987 a 5 out of 10.