Ninku

"WoW. Best fighter for GameGear, no doubts."

Ok first of all, I don't read a single word of Japanese, so it took me a while to understand what everything meant. Luckily for me though, the passwords are all written with our alphabet, with letters and numbers!

Story 10/10
Ok so you're probably wondering how I can give it a 10 on 10 if I don't understand japanese right? Well, it's true that I didn't understand a single word of the story. But, there's a LOT of dialogue in this game, it just has to be good. ^_^ I mean of course when you encounter random enemies on the map some always say the samething over again, but when you go on with the story, every char you have says a lot of stuff and so does the enemies. Plus, at the end of the game...something happens and it says ''To be Continued''. So I guess that if I understood japanese, I'd really want to play the second one now. ^_^

Music/Sound 9/10
I was impressed there too. Nice dark-like music that goes well with the fights. The sound effects are pretty good too, for GG of course, special sounds for special moves and etc. Heh, it's pretty good.

Graphics 9/10
Very good. Nine different backgrounds for the fights, going from forests to towns to a beach to mountains with waterfalls in the back. The chars are well done too, and the special moves look nice also. The map is what you would expect, simple yet looking good.

Gameplay 9/10
Wow wow wow. The game plays smoothly!! The first time I put the cartridge in my GG and started playing, the first thing I noticed was the way Fusuke (the main char) moved. Just like any fighting game! Two times forward dash forward, two times backwards dash backwards. Hold back to block, up to jump. Button 1 is punch, button 2 is kick. There are no real combos though, as you can only hit high or low with punch or kick. Every char has 4 special moves. When you hold buttons 1 and 2 at the sametime, there's a energy bar under your...'hp' bar that charges. 4 colors. Everytime a new color is filled, you can do a new special moves. The only exception is the last one, for when everytime you do it, you have to recharge the last color, as it is the most powerful special move. The special moves are done with quarter circles, half circles, stuff like that. Now between fights you control Fusuke's head on a map and there's a red dot that tells you where to go next. (Lucky there was that otherwise I would have never known where to go lol) But you always get random fights on the map and you encounter random people that sell you stuff and I don't know what. You play with 3 chars. I forgot the other two's names, (If I know Fusuke's, it's because I read the manga) but you start with Fusuke until you get the other 2. There is 2 numbers and one letter to the left of each char on the map. The first one represents your health. 1 is the lowest, up to 9 and then a red dot means your health is full. If you fight and you lose energy, depending on how much you have left, it will set itself to a number when you're back on the map. Then there's a letter which is your level. A would be like level 1 and Z like level 26. Under the letter is another number which is like your exp points. Every enemy you beat, the number goes up, and after 9, the letter goes up. Final note for gameplay: after you beat the game, there is a special password, which lets you play a VS mode against the computer. You can choose ANYONE in the game, absolutely anyone, every enemy, and even the last boss! It's a 2 round fight and you can choose any background you want, your level and the level of the computer. It is truly great.

Overall 9/10
This game is really fun, and really well done. I highly recommend it to any Ninku fan or simply to any fighting game fan. You won't regret it, I promise. And if you can read japanese, it will be even better.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/03, Updated 05/27/03