Ninja Golf

"FORE! Now where did I put those shurikens?"

Reaching into your midnight black golf bag you nervously pull out a Driver. You cautiously set up your tee and ball, looking around to make certain it is safe. Lining up your shoulders and body with the ball, you eye the 8th hole, which seems miles away. You rear back your club and swing with full force smacking the ball and propelling it on to its destination, the 8th hole. Now, preparing for the arduous trek to the hole, you pull out your 3rd century katana, un-strapping it from your back, and run toward the horde of evil ninja that await you in your quest to the green. Knowing that if you finish this one round of golf you will be a Ninja Master!

Ninja Golf Story
The background story for Ninja Golf is simple. Your master has said that for you to become a ninja master, you must defeat the evil ninja in 9 holes of golf. Of course this is a setup, because evil ninja clutter the fairways, litter the sandtraps, and clog the water traps. At the end of each hole awaits an evil ninja boss, which is a giant fire-breathing chinese dragon.

What Will I See
The graphics for Ninja Golf are quite well done when considering the other games released for the Atari 7800. Your character, a black ninja, is easily recognizable and a fairly large sprite so it is easily viewed on the screen. The enemy ninja are exact duplicates of your character except that they vary in color; red, blue, green, yellow, yada yada yada. The other enemy graphics include a giant hopping frog, a mammoth shark, a monstrous snake, and some sort of gopher thing that chucks what looks like poop-balls at you. Other graphics include power-ups. These power-ups are extra lives, health, shurikens, and other helpful items.

What Will I Hear
The music in ninja golf is horrendous. I really suggest that you listen to something else while playing this game. When you turn the game on the title music blares out of the tv with a psychotic tenacity not seen since David Hasselhoff. The blips and bleeps and well more blips make out what resembles a classic eastern style melody—but I could be wrong. The game music...there is no game music until you reach the level boss and that is just as annoying as the title screen music.

Ninja Golf Game Mechanics
Ninja Golf is a straightforward 2D arcade to home game. You control the character and continue traveling to your right until you reach the boss for that hole. Along the way you can choose different paths to take depending on the direction and strength of your tee-off. On these various trails you have the opportunity to discover hidden items. It will take longer for you to get to the hole if you do this, and your score will suffer, but you need some of these items to make it past the final hole. Your ninja can throw shurikens, jump, duck, and run with use of the two buttons and directional pad. The enemies tend to become annoying as the game progresses and the difficulty rises. These evildoers speed up, gain energy, and throw more things, while you still just jump and punch. This game has four different difficulty settings; easy, medium, difficult, and kamikaze (I thought it was a chinese game—guess not).

Ratings (compared to games at the same point in time)
Graphics – 6/10
Character, background, and enemy graphics look great. Ninja are easily recognizable, enemies are large and vary in color. This is a game that you can play and not be confused as to where your guy is at and what you should be hitting and where you are going.

Sound – 2/10
The sound effects are decent. A shuriken sounds like something being thrown. The music on the other hand, is awful. During gameplay there is no music, until the hole boss, and the title screen music is unbearable. But this game does have some music unlike other 7800 games.

Story – 3/10
The story makes no sense. Why would a ninja master send his pupil to play golf and battle evil ninja, frogs, and poop gophers at the same time? The game was certainly thought of while someone was on the toilet thinking of the Sonny Chiba movie he just watched while reading the latest issue of Golf Digest. Of course the end result, Ninja Golf, is the same as what was flushed.

Replay Value – 3/10
This game has no replay value. If you are able to beat it once why would you play it again? To find the extra items hidden in certain holes, I don't think so. Once you finish this game you will not want to play it again except out of boredom.

I would not recommend this game to anyone, except an Atari 7800 owner that needs to collect 'em all. I would however recommend this game for placing underneath the leg of that coffee table that is off kilter.
Total Rating – 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/02, Updated 01/10/02