GOTD 5/26/2016: Ninja Combat (Neo Geo)

[celerystalker]

Ninja Combat for the Neo Geo is a beat 'em up from ADK that tasks two daring ninjas with bottomless pockets full of shuriken and eager dispositions to infiltrate the Ninja Tower with the help of ninja friends who call themselves the Ninja Force. Yes, it says that shit on the box; I'm not just seeing how many times I can fit the word "ninja" into one post. With the help of secret ninja arts and weapons, superior agility, and an entire roll of quarters, they just might stand a chance! Um... ninja.

At the beginning, both players can only play as palette swapped ninjas Joe and Hyabusa, whose primary offense comes from hucking wads of shuriken at the opposing... ninjas. These fire out in a spread pattern with limited range and weak power, but can be powered up by collecting green scrolls that increase the amount, size, distance, and potency of the weapon. They can theoretically be powered up multiple times if one were able to stay alive long enough. They can also perform a flip for quick evasion, and can lunge forward out of it into a diving attack that soars all the way across the screen, doing modest damage. They can pick up weapons such as an axe, three-section staff, and tetsubo with which to pummel baddies, though their range is limited and they have a longer swing before hitting anything. Lastly, you can use secret ninja arts by holding the attack button down until your "POW" meter fills, then release to unleash a character-specific elemental attack at the cost of a quarter of your health.

One thing Ninja Combat does really well is provide variety in its locations. Every stage is broken up into different areas with unique, colorful backgrounds with lots of scaling effects and enemies approaching from all sides. For the first few levels, you'll encounter a mini-boss with which you can become friends by the only method ninjas have ever used to cultivate relationships: beating the shit out of them. These characters have their own unique weapons to use, and cannot grab the ones dropped from the ubiquitous exploding barrels. Kagurow, a ninja princess of sorts, is easily the strongest of the three additional characters, as she has power and range, whereas Musashi, a samurai, is decent, and Gembu, a... well, just a big dude, kinda sucks.

The graphics are wonderfully colorful, and there are lots of different enemy types. However, Ninja Combat is seven stages long, and in this case, it's a bit much. You can only suffer a couple of hits each life, and enemies are everywhere... by stage three, most enemies are sponges, soaking up shuriken like water while killing you in two hits. Your jump attack is exactly the same as your standard attack, and there are no grabs or throws, which severely limits the variety of combat. The game ends up being absurdly difficult and repetitive, and is one of the only games I've ever played that I don't think I'll ever be able to beat on one credit. I do enjoy the game co-op, though, and have it on AES, MVS, and PS2 on the ADK Tamashii compilation. It's crude, but at least it's action packed. This is the ultimate quarter muncher, but it is mindless fun to go a slaughtering in for an afternoon, and it's one of the least expensive non-fighters on the system.

Played this one? Anybody finish it in a single credit? Ninja?

[Az]

You can tell really easily that this was an extension of ADK's pre-MVS game Gang Wars. Both have that same weird character sprite style where everyone walks like they have a corncob shoved up their ass.

[celerystalker]

You can tell really easily that this was an extension of ADK's pre-MVS game Gang Wars. Both have that same weird character sprite style where everyone walks like they have a corncob shoved up their ass.

Very true. Gang Wars is probably the better realized of the two games. Ninja Combat is just the biggest bitch of a quarter muncher. If anyone doesn't own it, play it if you go to one of those arcades where you pay a flat fee to play everything on free play... you'll get your money's worth in quartera.

[Tanooki]

Bought it within days of attaining the MVS cabinet of mine earlier this month. Scored a nice deal on it too all things considered. 20 years ago + it was a guilty pleasure and it still is now, at least now though I could finish it as I won't run out of quarters. This game is fun but it's a bastard too, the epitome of cheap ass quarter muncher around stage 3 forward. If you're going in with free play set it's a fun run to stress relieve over and you could make a stupid mini game of how high 1 quarter will last or how many points on it. I'd never suggest trying to one coin the sucker, hell surviving a single level even on default level is a pain in the ass.

[XYXZYZ]

In 1989 or 1990, my local mall arcade had a brand new machine called "Neo Geo" that just boasted it's technical power like none of the other games did. 330 max mega, pro gear spec? I had no idea what that meant, but it was obviously something new and impressive. There was some golf game, a Vietnam game, I think maybe it had Magician Lord, but the game that really interested me was Ninja Combat. The first thing that hit me was how good the sound was, there were more voices, and the music was louder and more realistic than the other arcade games I was playing. The graphics were incredible. I remember just marveling at what a powerhouse of video game technology this "Neo Geo" thing was. I went home telling my friends and family about the amazing new Neo Geo thing at the arcade, the next time my family went to the mall and my sister, who was not a gamer, came to get me out of the arcade when it was time to leave, saw the Neo Geo and said "Wow, I can see why you like this thing so much."

I loved playing Ninja Combat, just to experience the powerful Neo Geo graphics and sound. "Who are YOU?... YOU'RE the man who... My name is MUSASHI!" I would credit feed my way to the first boss in the Ninja Tower, the two-faced guy with the missile. My game would always end there, I could never beat him! Of course I would look at the magazine articles for Neo Geo AES games and all I could do was dream about playing Ninja Combat at home. But now I do have an AES and an MVS, and I have Ninja Combat for both. It's kind of surreal, every time I play either of them my mind goes back to that time as a kid, thinking there's no way in hell I could ever actually own a Neo Geo system, let alone an arcade machine! I'll put Ninja Combat and Fatal Fury 2 in the MVS and just let the attract modes loop in the background, and be kind of amazed that that dream came true. I know Ninja Combat is considered a pretty mediocre game by most people, but it's pretty special to me. And I know the pattern to the missile boss now!

[celerystalker]

In 1989 or 1990, my local mall arcade had a brand new machine called "Neo Geo" that just boasted it's technical power like none of the other games did. 330 max mega, pro gear spec? I had no idea what that meant, but it was obviously something new and impressive. There was some golf game, a Vietnam game, I think maybe it had Magician Lord, but the game that really interested me was Ninja Combat. The first thing that hit me was how good the sound was, there were more voices, and the music was louder and more realistic than the other arcade games I was playing. The graphics were incredible. I remember just marveling at what a powerhouse of video game technology this "Neo Geo" thing was. I went home telling my friends and family about the amazing new Neo Geo thing at the arcade, the next time my family went to the mall and my sister, who was not a gamer, came to get me out of the arcade when it was time to leave, saw the Neo Geo and said "Wow, I can see why you like this thing so much."

I loved playing Ninja Combat, just to experience the powerful Neo Geo graphics and sound. "Who are YOU?... YOU'RE the man who... My name is MUSASHI!" I would credit feed my way to the first boss in the Ninja Tower, the two-faced guy with the missile. My game would always end there, I could never beat him! Of course I would look at the magazine articles for Neo Geo AES games and all I could do was dream about playing Ninja Combat at home. But now I do have an AES and an MVS, and I have Ninja Combat for both. It's kind of surreal, every time I play either of them my mind goes back to that time as a kid, thinking there's no way in hell I could ever actually own a Neo Geo system, let alone an arcade machine! I'll put Ninja Combat and Fatal Fury 2 in the MVS and just let the attract modes loop in the background, and be kind of amazed that that dream came true. I know Ninja Combat is considered a pretty mediocre game by most people, but it's pretty special to me. And I know the pattern to the missile boss now!

That is an awesome story!

I feel much the same way about the Neo Geo. As a teenager, the cabinets blew me away, and I played so much Fatal Fury, Sengoku, and Super Baseball 2020 whenever there was a chance. The AES, though, was a myth... somethig that a classmate's friend of a friend supposedly had, but nobody I knew really had one. A long time ago now, when I was 23, I bought one and never looked back. I've gathered 30 or so complete AES games since then, and each one is a treasure to me, even the common stuff. A Neo Geo game is an event.

About a year and a half ago, I stumbled upon a one slot cabinet that was running as a dedicated Metal Slug on craigslist locally for $150 with a clean 25" monitor that was a little blurry. I picked it up, tweaked the focus and brightness, and it's absolutely beautiful... and I could finally afford Windjammers and the Shock Troopers games.

I sometimes do the same thing you talked about there... I'll open a can of Dr. Pepper, turn on the arcade cabinets and AES, and just let them run, remembering the places I first saw each game, never daring to imagine that I'd own them one day... it's a warm feeling, and it's often as much fun to watch other people enjoy them as to play them myself.

Again, thanks for sharing your story!

[XYXZYZ]

Again, thanks for sharing your story!

Thanks for sharing yours. A friend of mine is a car nut, the kind of guy who loves to work on cars just to work on cars. He goes to the local junk yard two or three times a week, usually not buying anything. He says he goes so often just because it's therapeutic for him, to be surrounded by car parts and the smell of grease and whatnot. I'm the same way about arcade games. I turn my machines on just for the atmosphere, if I'm cleaning the house or maybe I'll lie down and nap or whatever.

I don't want to get too deep into AES, I only have 9 carts and they're all the old 1989-1993 era games, those were the ones I was really salivating over back in that era. And didn't we all know someone who's "brother" had a Neo Geo?

[celerystalker]

That's a good analogy with the car enthusiast. There's something to being in your own element that's calming.

I don't go too crazy with the AES stuff, and I bought most of what I have before it spiked. The most I paid for any game in my collection was Top Hunter at $165, followed by Sengoku 2 at $150 and Sengoku 3 at $120 back in 2003. Everything else was less than $100, most less than $50. I mainly buy MVS carts now, but once a year or so, I like to grab another AES cart, even if it's just an Art of Fighting I didn't have. You won't catch me paying the crazy amounts for the pricey stuff, but I don't mind doing a little once in awhile if I get a bonus from work or catch a cheap auction. The majority of my games I found locally when I started buying, but that's long since dried up. The modern AES scene is generally way too rich for my blood, and I don't have any real attachment to a lot of the late stuff anyway.

[Tanooki]

Put me in that club, I'd guess around 1990~ whenever that cabinet first popped up it showed its head to me at a pizza place we'd regular a mile from my home and then a few other places like this badass local hamburger joint got one too. I remembered for years the games, the names, went for the stuff whenever I saw it. I was around 12-13 when it came onto the scene and I'd always get a buck or two worth of quarters waiting on food and it was Neo Geo time. Around then I'd see the console and be sickened it was a $200 a game thing with the system being like triple that and it bugged me so I'd hit the arcade whenever and read up in it in EGM before I got fed up with their fanboyism anti-Nintendo slant and ditched it. It was cool reading up on the US and JP stuff they'd cover in the import area. I'd make it a point to always go after games like Magician Lord, Baseball Stars (Professional), Cyber Lip, 8 Man, Ninja Combat, League Bowling, Art of Fighting, King of the Monsters, Samurai Shodown, Bust-A-Move (tune permanently etched into my skull much like SMB1 theme), and of course NAM-1975. My love affair continued with it for years, some lulls rarely finding one. Then in college from 95-00 they had one the whole time in the break room we had that had like 3-4 arcade machines and a pinball (T2.) It got some of those games, but also they rolled in there for a LONG time Samurai Shodown 3 which I get my ass handed to me now, but back then I'd school the machine and the students usually using Hisame Shizumaru as I liked his skill set, though I'd do the same with Rimu Ruru, Naokururu, and Haohmaru.

Ninja Combat was one I'd go back to a lot despite being a quarter munching prick of a machine on any difficulty. I blasted this game on free play as soon as I ordered one (got it for $50 which is quite good shipped) and rolled it just so I could finally see the last 3 stages and how the ending works out. As long as I keep my cool and realize it's a muncher and it's chewing digital air since it's on freeplay it makes it even more fun not stressing over going broke in minutes.

It has been YEARS since I've seen the thing after college. There are no local arcades here in Louisville, never saw one the 3 years back in CA either before being back here again to stay. Truly stupid dumb assed luck I join a locked facebook gamer group in town here and at the same time a sale ad goes up for a cherry 2 slot cabinet with the 9 legit and the 161in cart. We had some tax cash left, so I was like screw it, personal loan, I'll sell something off, it's mine and got it a day later...sold the pinball machine I didn't use at the same time too, so it was good as gold I never in my wildest dreams figured I'd ever have a Neo Geo of any sort let alone the full blown MVS cabinet with a stack of games (crap load if you count the bootleg cart.) Some games cost a bit more than the old retail $200 mark, but a vast majority are usually around 1/2 that give or take 25 bucks for the cart alone, sometimes for the most common as a kit. I can't argue that.

[celerystalker]

That's great stuff! Most of my Neo Geo play happened in three places: a Wal-Mart vestibule, a pizza place called Happy Joe's, and a skating rink called Rock 'n Roll Arena. The Wal-Mart was where I first saw games like Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, Sengoku, and The Super Spy, and in this case, Ninja Combat. That skating rink, though... they always had great shit.

I have a similar story about a Neo Geo and a student center, but I'm holding it until I get to one of these topics for a specific Fatal Fury, assuming DP makes it that long.