This somewhat lesser known action-platformer from Hudson Soft for the SNES looks on first sight like an excellent Ninja Gaiden replacement. The animation is beautiful, showing again that platformers had their peak on the 16bit-systems. The style and atmosphere is great, making the best with the admittedly absurd story (Ninja clan gets destroyed by another clan, only one survivor whose brain is placed inside a cyborg and who seeks revenge). The level design is varied enough that you never get bored (although a bit too simple at times) and the bosses are okay too.
The big problem of the game are the controls. While the fighting is rather easy (at times even too easy), the exceedingly important jump-glide, which is essential in many situations, works only half the time as it should. Very often the controls just don’t respond as they should and you will see your Ninja fall to his doom through no fault of your own. This can be extremely annoying later on and makes for a very frustrating experience.
Despite this rather big flaw it’s a very beautiful game, and if you manage to get through it, your frustration with the gameplay will be tempered by some of the best 2d-animations on the SNES.
