GOTD 6/9/2016: Revenge of the Ninja (Sega CD/Saturn/PS1)

[celerystalker]

Revenge of the Ninja, also known as Ninja Hayate in Japan, is a laser disc FMV adventure in the vein of Dragon's Lair or Space Ace from Taito. It puts Hayate in the unenviable position of having to infiltrate the evil demon tower in order to eradicate the evil pestilence in his homeland. Armed with his ninja weapons, lightning-fast reflexes, and the ability to overcome repeated comical death scenes, Ninja Hayate must face these perils and become a hero worthy of standing alongside Time Gal in a compilation some day.

Revenge of the Ninja takes place entirely in the Demon Tower, a foreboding castle of iniquity filled with corrupt ninja and oni. The scenes are partially randomized, and pit him against various hazards like a snake-haired demon, a giant Godzilla-like creature, ghosts, and ninjas to convey his ascent toward the evil behind it all. Each scene is, in modern terms, a self-contained quick-time event in which the player follows on-screen and audio prompts within strict time limits in order to aoid death (I assume most people would already get that). Where Ninja Hayate is a little different from most is in that it also gives diagonal arrow commands in conjuction with cardinal directions and an action button. I remember being really surprised the first time I encountered this, and it really took me off guard.

Being a Japanese-developed game, it employs an anime art style, and all of the cartoon animation looks very nice. On-screen hints are shown along with the action icons in the form of flashing scenery or weapons so that the player can earlier anticipate upcoming prompts, and these can be turned off in the options. The Sega CD version features music, whuch was not present in much of the arcade game, but naturally lower fidelity animation. This version, while inferior visually, is still quite playable, but feels a tad easier to me.

The game was re-released in Japan on the PS1 and Sega Saturn in a double pack with the excellent Time Gal, which plays much the same. The screenshots included in this post are from the Saturn version. In these collections, you can access the dip options to change the difficulty settings and language options, and as such is fully playable in english. This is probably the cleanest, best way to play these games if available for most people, save Time Gal's great but super pricey LaserActive release. Overall, Revenge of the Ninja is a high quality FMV game with a good difficulty and fun action sequences, and a good play for Time Gal fans.

Played it? Anyone actually play the arcade cabinet?

[Edmond Dantes]

The Castle of Demons awaits you, DARE TO CHALLENGE!

I love that intro.

Bought this for the Sega CD last year, unfortunately the disc had a defect and will lock up midway thru the game. I seem to get that a lot with Sega CD games and precisely one Saturn game (that one being D).

In fact, list of Sega CD/Saturn games I need to replace:

FOR SEGA CD
Dune
Mansion of Hidden Souls
Revenge of the Ninja
one more whose name is escaping me right now.

FOR SATURN
pretty much just D.

Too bad I'm strapped for cash at the moment.

[celerystalker]

I love Mansion of Hidden Souls, its sequel, and the related Lunacy. Those games are my jam. D is a favorite as well. I love those creepy, slow FMV adventures, and play any of them I can find.

[Steve W]

I bought the Sega CD version years ago, started playing it, and then remembered that I never liked that Dragon's Lair-style gameplay. I didn't manage to get too far through the game.

Speaking of Time Gal, I bought that one at a street sale near downtown Dallas called the First Saturday Sale, where you could pick up all manner of junk or treasure (obscure laserdisk movies, Jaguar consoles, oddball operating systems and hardware, Bandai Pippin controllers and keyboards). I got Time Gal from a vendor selling PS1 modchips and games, got it home, looked inside, to find it was empty. It didn't occur to me to check before buying it. I still don't have a copy to this day.

[Emperor Megas]

I own this but haven't played it. I LOVE Time Gal though. It's definitely my favorite FMV game. I also love Mansion of Hidden Souls. Particularly the SEGA CD original.