Kid Niki: Radical Ninja

"A really short Super Mario clone"

Kid Niki: Radical Ninja was a game released roughly in 1987. You played as Kid Niki, a..Radical Ninja, and you had to rescue Princess Margo from the clutches of the evil Stone Wizard. There's not much to say other than that, so on with the ratings:

Graphics: 5/10- The Graphics are happy and colorful, and put you in a happy mood if you take the time to look at them. There's no cool parallax scrolling or anything like that, but the backgrounds ARE different for every level, and the enemies look silly as well. One of the weapons an enemy uses looks like a slinky! Also, Kid Niki looks nothing like a Ninja as you or I would think of one. His sword doesn't look like a sword, either. It looks more like a mace.

Sounds: 4/10- The music while playing through the levels is very happy and upbeat, almost to a fault in fact. Furthermore, that same music plays over and over through all the levels except for 2: Level 4 (Where the music is just as upbeat), and level 8 (Where the boss music plays throughout). As far as sound effects go, there's swinging your sword, hitting enemies, and grabbing power-ups, none of which I can describe accurately.

Control: 8/10- The hit detection is a bit off, and you can't really control the height of your jumps, but in general, the control is pretty good. You wish the sword had a bit more range at times, though, and that it didn't fly out of your hand whenever you hit a boss (Though that probably is realistic).

Story: 3/10- Rescue the Princess from the Evil Meanie(tm). *Yawn* At least her name is somewhat original....

Challenge: 5/10- There are some parts of this game that will be difficult no matter HOW many times you play them--those stupid bubbles in level 4 for one-- but in general, it's the same old hop 'n bop action throughout. Eventually it becomes pretty easy, if you play it long enough.

Replay Value: 5/10- One strange thing about this game is its element of chance, if you will. There are actually hidden rooms and shortcuts you can find by doing certain things in certain places. On the overall, though, once you beat it, the ending isn't going to make you want to go back and play the game again.

Overall: 6/10- The Ninja concept is alright, but Kid Niki doesn't really look like a ninja. All in all, this is one of a group of strictly average Mario clones that came out in the early days of the NES, and there isn't even any 2-player mode. Buy it if you find it, but only for the nostalgia factor.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99