Planet Bob

Does it scroll, or are the screens static?

 

And Ninja games of the last 5 years...

Ninja Gaiden (2004)

Ninja Gaiden Black (2005)

TMNT (2003)

TMNT 2 (2004)

TMNT 3 (2005)

Ninja Five-O (2003)

I-Ninja (2003)

Red Ninja: End of Honor (2005)

 

Not sure what you mean by "Ninja" games; probably you didn't mean TMNT games! I didn't realize they were still releasing those until I did a search; crazy.

Does it scroll, or are the screens static?

 

They don't scroll. They have several layers of depth though, so the Ninja can actually go behind or in front of stuff. Also, if you exit a room at the bottom, first your feet will go out of sight, then the body, finally the head. All in all it gives a proper illusion of really being in a 3 dimensional environment.

 

Not sure what you mean by "Ninja" games; probably you didn't mean TMNT games! I didn't realize they were still releasing those until I did a search; crazy.

 

I thought more in the direction of the Tenchu series, not cartoonish stuff like TMNT or I-Ninja

Red Ninja seems to be what I was asking for, albeit like Tenchu not available for PCs.

The graphics in this game are superb.

BTW: I just discovered two videos where someone is playing through the whole game:

 

 

It's not exactly a speed run, it rather seems to show some cool stuff and playing techniques, kinda like a video walkthrough. You see for example how some enemy fighters commit Sepeku when the Ninja manages to sneak past them

The music in this game kind of rules.

 

I'm not really a big fan of games that try to create that psuedo-3D atmosphere by making your character only able to move in diagonals. I imagine that trying to complete platforming puzzles, like jumping from rock to rock across a river, would be rather annoying when your depth perception is so severely limited.

The music in this game kind of rules.

 

Definitely. RKO alone currently hosts 135 MP3s with remixes of tunes from the Last Ninja series

 

I'm not really a big fan of games that try to create that psuedo-3D atmosphere by making your character only able to move in diagonals. I imagine that trying to complete platforming puzzles, like jumping from rock to rock across a river, would be rather annoying when your depth perception is so severely limited.

 

That's one major point that can be criticized regarding the game and admittedly it really takes a lot of practice until you master those sequences. It's only a handful of screens though and once you memorized the required jumps, they're no longer a problem.

That's one major point that can be criticized regarding the game and admittedly it really takes a lot of practice until you master those sequences. It's only a handful of screens though and once you memorized the required jumps, they're no longer a problem.

 

Heh. I see what you're saying, but forcing the user to memorize button press sequences is not my idea of a well-made game. I've played a lot of Ninja Gaiden recently (did a speed run), and it's the same kind of thing: there's no way anyone could ever pass some of the levels without memorizing exactly when to jump and swing your sword. And the time you're spending memorizing where and when to do things is time you're not spending enjoying the game.

 

Reminds me of #19 in A Gamer's Manifesto.

Interesting enough, the designers of Last Ninja came to the very same conclusions and "fixed" this for the sequel. There you can only jump a fixed distance (instead of short, normal and long jumps) and they made the "right" direction a lot more obvious, so there it's more a matter of proper execution than a memorizing excercise

Cruising the 8-bit forum, I ran across this (very brief and old) discussion of a possible 8-bit port of this:

Discussion

 

The link to the screenshots is wrong, should be:

Screenshots and description

I've seen those before. I think Fandal has them for download in his archive