"Ninja conference in Washington!! And it's not friendly one..."

DragonNinja, or Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja, which was the name of the american version of the game, was a great beat-em-up arcade hit from Data East in 1988. The game was ported to be enjoyed on several home systems, such as NES, Amiga, Commondore 64 and others. Some conversations, such as the Amiga version, were very good, close to the original arcade version, while others, like the Commodore 64 version were pathetic attempts, where the programmers didn't even bother to make them equal to the arcade version. One thing is at least for certain - you did not play the *real* DragonNinja, if you did not play the original arcade version.

The story so far...President Ronnie (You could guess what president the game is referring to. The games was created in 1988!) has been kidnapped by a gang of ninja terrorists in the USA, lead by the hyper evil ''DragonNinja''. Now it is up to two ''bad dudes'' to rescue Ronnie. The game is as simple as it possibly could get. Go to the right and kill everything that moves. Pick up weapons and powerups and have plenty of quarters prepared!

Graphics - 9 points
I'm really impressed about the graphics. The graphic is very clear, all ninjas, as well as the ''bad dude'' is moving very smoothly. I would dare to say that the graphic was above average to be a game from 1988. To make the graphic smoother, the programmers even bothered to give the ''bad dude'' two animation frames as he turns around to another direction. It may sound trivial, but such trivial things give bonus points and should not go unnoticed. Backgrounds are very clear as well.

Sound - 9 points
There are overall two stage musics in the game as well as a boss melody. The stage musics are suiting as they are, thrilling enough and encouraging to keep going (specially the music for stage 2 and 5, that song gives me goosebumps). The boss music is a remix of Karnov's theme (Karnov was another platformer from Data East). The sound effects are standard, so is the voice sampling.

Control - 9 points
There is nothing really to complain about the control really. You walk left and right, kick and jump with the buttons and you are also able to make a super punch if you press and hold the attack button and release it. Some jumps over some holes may be just a tiny bit tricky to perform, but then again, it is just adding to the challenge.

Challenge - 9 points
The first time I played the game was back in 1991, and back then I was not a very good player, as I was only 12 years old. I had 14 credits back then, but even so I failed (very close to the finish!). Now I have been able to practice much more (*cough cough*) and could now finish of the game in 3 credits. As with any beat-em-up game, it gets easier and easier everytime you play it, and there is a great working technique for every boss. Once you found it, the bosses are easy to beat, and the stages hardly get any harder either.

Fun Factor - 8 points
The game could easily get boring for some people, as 80% of your enemies are blue ninjas, all looking exactly the same. The rest are red and gray ninjas, sword ninjas, mini ninjas, female ninjas, and some mutts. It could get pretty repeating overall, but that's also the charm of the game. To beat up all ninjas to reach further and further in the game while you pump more and more credits into the game to reach further. And that's hardly something common in arcade games nowadays.

Repeat value - 8 points
Again, it is clearly understandable that you would lose interest in playing the game again when president ''Ronnie'' (another clue: He was an actor in the 50s) has been saved, but even so, this is a very nice classic arcade fighting game well worth to be played more than once.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/04