Ninja Five-O

"Help Joe Osugi do what a ninja does best... the sabredance!"

Take on the role of detective Joe Osugi as he becomes Ninja Five-0 in order to save our cities and return honor to the ninja arts!

Ninja Five-O pretty much came out of nowhere and was only in development at Konami of Japan for a short time. Early screens of the game made it look similar to Castlevania in style, and no one seemed to take much interest in the title. Now that the game has been release, it just screams originality! Ninja Five-O has to be one of the few titles for the Game Boy Advance that isn't just a sequel of some series, isn't a port, or isn't from a license, and is actually fun to play.

The gameplay found in Ninja Five-O can trace it's roots to a whole slew of games. Games ranging from Bionic Commando, to Metroid, and even Ninja Gaiden. Players can control Joe Osugi and have the ability to do many different things with him. Hitting the A button causes him to jump, the B button shoots a variety of shuriken, and the R button allows Joe the use of his sword. By hitting the jump button while in mid-air, Joe shoots out a grappling hook. The grappling hook can be used to wall jump, swing, and climp in order to get to new places in each stage. By killing enemies, Joe can earn shuriken power-ups for 3 levels. The first level power up is just a normal shuriken throw, then second shoots 3 fireball shuriken, and the third level shoots a powerful blast shuriken. Killing enemies boosts Joe's ninjitsu magic bar. Once the bar is full, players can hit B and A to unleash a powerful attack that kills most enemies on the screen. If you press both buttons before the bar is full, it just powers Joe up for a short amount of time.

I really like the diversity of moves that Joe is able to do. The grappling aspects remind me of Bionic Commando meets Metroid, but taken to a whole new level. Joe can pretty much grapple to anything on the stage, swing himself around, and look insanely cool.

The game contains a total of 4 difficulties, each difficulty contains 3-6 missions, and each mission contains 3-4 stages and a boss. There are a total of 20 stages. The point of each stage is to help rescue a designated amount of hostages, collect keys, and find your way out of the level. In a way, the level schematics remind me of the classic game Crystal Caverns. Each level contains about 3-4 different colored keys. Each colored key opens its respective door. If players rescue all the hostages, then they will get a better score.

Initially, the game only lets you play on easy mode, which is just 3 missions. Once you beat that mode, then normal mode is unlocked. Hard mode is unlocked by beating normal mode and so on. Each time you unlock a new mode, new missions get added, and previous missions get more challenging.

The boss stages have Joe fight ancient ninja masks that have taken over the souls of people. I really enjoyed most of the boss fights because they were all pretty much different, and I liked the odd character designs. Each boss fight also has a bunch of hidden power-ups and health items that you can get to if you use the grappling hook the right way.

Graphically, Ninja Five-O isn't anything super. It looks a lot like Castlevania: Circle of the Moon mixed with Ninja Gaiden. The game does, however, have a nice art style to it. Each mission has its own small cut scene that tells the player what to do and who to look out for. Each scene during the cut scene is well illustrated with interesting character designs. Besides just regular graphics, the game also features some nice animation. Initially the game someone looks like a homebrewed GBA game, but as player's progress, it starts to look better and better.

The sound in Ninja Five-O goes along the same lines as the graphics. It is just okay, nothing much more. Hitting and killing enemies causes some sound effects that are reminiscent to classic Genesis games and help give the game an old-school feeling.

All in all, classic gamers will enjoy the fresh gameplay that Ninja Five-O provides. The game feels like an old-school ninja game, but has the complexity found in newer games. Ninja Five-O was published on a limited release, so if you are interested in trying out the game, I'd suggest getting it sometime soon.

THE SCORES!

Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Replay: 9/10
Overall: 8.5 Rounded off = 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/23/03