Ninja Commando (1992)

Game: Ninja Commando

Release Year: 1992

Time to complete: 1hr
Played on: Neo Geo CD

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Presentation: 5

Difficulty: 4

Fun: 5

Rating on a 1-10 scale

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For a system that only had 100 or so games it's funny to me that 3 of them have Ninja in the title but are not related in any way, I guess that’s just the early 90’s for you. Anyway, what we have here is Ninja Commando, developed by ADK in 1992. For obvious reasons, Ninja Commando and Ninja Combat have always got mixed up in my head. I knew one was good and one was crap. This is the good one, kinda...

Visually its not a bad looking game, but it's not amazing. It has some nice colors but the animations and overall style fell a bit clunky. Music wise there is also nothing of much of note, get it, note? Sorry, so the best part about the presentation, and really the best reason to play this game is the storyline or rather how it’s told. There is not much original here, you are a team of heroes/super soldiers trying to save the world from a time traveling villain named Spider and his evil Mars Corporation. This sets up the level design where you jump from one time period to the next, similar to SNK's 1987 Time Soldiers. In fact one could even consider this a spiritual sequel to Time Soldiers. Now to the best part, how the story is told. There is a surprising quantity of dialog and story told in Ninja Commando and it's really, really badly written. Here are some of my personal favorites: "You have defended the history from enemy!", "There must be more tough guys ahead..." I could go on but I'll resist. You really need to play it to get the full effect. 

Gameplay wise, you can think of Ninja Commando as the love child Aero Fighters and Shock Troopers would produce. The game it actually reminds me of is TechnoSoft's Elemental Master. As you play through the different time periods it gets a bit dull. You are also are given unlimited credits, so you can just continue you way through the story, but unlike Metal Slug it's not especially enjoyable or unique.

I know this game is generally well liked in the Neo Geo community but I don't really see it. It’s not a bad game; it's just a game that does not really interest me to every play again.