Jajamaru no Daibouken

"Jajamaru-kun embarks on his biggest adventure yet!"

It's truly unfortunate that this series never made it to America. Ninja Jajamaru-kun is the star of quite a few famicom and super famicom games; many of them single-screen arcade-like games. This one, however, is a full on sidescroller, filled with powerups, enemies, and bosses! Follow Jajamaru-kun in a quest that takes him through dark woods, spooky swamps, and... public zoos?

Graphics - 5/10

Like most of his games, the graphics were fairly simple. Jajamaru-kun himself and most of his enemies are small an undetailed, but still look pretty good. Some of the powerups, however, cause the screen to flash in a very disconcerting manner. Were you TRYING to give us seizures, Jaleco?

Control - 8/10

This controls like your basic platformer. Throw a shuriken or jump from block to block. The jumps are easy to control, so if you fall you've either got a meddling enemy or your own clumsiness to blame.

Sound - 7/10

The music, although short, is catchy. The sound-effects are the usual bleeps and bloops from 1986. They're not spectacular, but if they really bore you, just put on a CD.

Gameplay - 9/10

No longer is Jajamaru-kun forced to kill a certain amount of enemies on a one-screen mountain. This time he's got 20 or so side-scrolling levels to tackle, filled with respawning enemies and powerups! For those familiar with the series this will feel like the old ones, with a new dimension or two added.

Jajamaru runs from left to right, running across the floor or jumping from platform to platform over bottomless pits, bumping into blocks in Mario fashion to uncover extra points or powerups, while dodging or killing all the enemies that appear in his path. Powerups vary from something that looks like a skateboard that temporarily increases your movement speed and allows you to run over anyone in your path, to an invincibility potion, to your friendly frog pal, who lets you ride him for a bit as he gobbles up all the enemies in his path. As an added bonus, if you collect three different kinds of powerups (say the skateboard, invincibility potion, and then powered-up shuriken), the screen will flash (gamers prone to seizures may want to close their eyes about now) as cherry blossoms swirl around you, killing everything on screen.

Every other level is a "boss" fight, although it's more like a bonus round. The boss jumps or hovers in the sky above you, shooting down at you, as you throw shuriken up at him. Kill him for bonus points, or die and move on to the next level - you don't actually lose lives in these stages.

There's a time limit on each level, and it's actually shorter than in most games. If you stick around to get very single powerup, you WILL run out of time, so don't be greedy, and try to make haste.

Overall - 8/10

All things considered, this is a pretty good platformer that should appeal to any fan of the genre, and even more so to fans of Jajamaru-kun's other games. This game keeps the spirit of his earlier titles while expanding upon them, taking them in the next logical direction. And even though this game was never released outside of Japan, you don't need to know any japanese to play it! If you're into famicom games, definitely give this one a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/29/04