Ninja Commando

Ninja Commando[lower-alpha 1] is a top-down, vertically scrolling run and gun video game developed by Alpha Denshi and published by SNK. It was first released for the Neo Geo in 1992 in cartridge format, and in 1994 for the Neo Geo CD.[1]

Ninja Commando
Japanese Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Alpha Denshi
Publisher(s)
Producer(s)Tsutomu Maruyama
Programmer(s)Hiroyuki Ryū
Yuji Noguchi
Artist(s)Hidemi Nagatomo
Hideyuki Kusano
Shinji Moriyama
Composer(s)Yuka Watanabe
Platform(s)
Release
Genre(s)Run and gun
Mode(s)
CabinetUpright
Arcade systemNeo Geo MVS

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot.

The overall gameplay is similar to this of the run-and-gun classic Ikari Warriors, with the players battling their way up the top-down perspective screen. The players can choose between three ninja characters, all with differing abilities. Each of them has fighting game-style input commands that unleash their scroll-based ninpo special moves. As usual in the genre, the game's stages end with boss battles.

Plot

An elite group of three young Ninja Commandos (Joe Tiger, an American descendant of the Kōga-ryū ninja whose weapons are shuriken, Ryu Eagle, the 23rd descendant of the famous ninja Fūma Kotarō (from World Heroes), who is using ninja magic fireballs in combat, and Rayar Dragon, the female ninja of the group, a British girl who has learned the ways of the Iga-ryū ninjutsu and whose weapon is a bow with flaming spirit arrows) from around the world must team-up to stop the villain Spider and his Mars Corporation from using a time machine to destroy the past and control the future. The three heroes chase after their enemy in seven time periods, including the Sengoku period in Japan (where Ryu avenges his ancestor by killing Oda Nobunaga), Ancient Egypt (fighting a floating recreation of Tutankhamen), the Stone Age, China in the era of Three Kingdoms (fighting against Lu Bu), and World War II.

Release

Ninja Commando was originally released for the Neo Geo arcade machines on May 29, 1992. The Neo Geo CD was released on October 31, 1994.[2]

The game has been re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on July 14, 2008 (though the Wii Virtual Console version, like most other Neo Geo games, only allows three continues per player, which makes the game very difficult to complete without saving progress). It was also re-released in December 2008 as one of five games in the PlayStation 2 game compilation ADK Damashii. The highest score is by Ian Albrecht with 177,150 points.[3]

Reception
Contemporary reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
GameRankings(Neo Geo) 55%[4]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame(Arcade) [5]
(Neo Geo) [6]
CVG(Neo Geo) 78 / 100[7]
Famitsu(Neo Geo) 25 / 40[8]
Game Informer(Neo Geo) 23.5 / 30[9]
GamePro(Neo Geo) 17.5 / 20[10]
Consolemania(Neo Geo) 74 / 100[11]
Consoles +(Neo Geo) 92%[12]
Joypad(Neo Geo) 83%[13]
Megablast(Neo Geo) 81%[14]
Mega Fun(Neo Geo) 75%[15]
Micom BASIC Magazine(Neo Geo) [16]
Neo Geo Freak(Arcade) 12 / 20[17]
Player One(Neo Geo) 90%[18]

In Japan, Game Machine listed Ninja Commando on their June 15, 1992 issue as being the eleventh most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as Raiden.[19] The title was generally well received.[20][21][22] The game's review in GamePro praised its "phenomenal!" graphics and called it overall "an excellent two-player cart" that "does an excellent job of filling the void of top-view fun-and-gun game in the Neo-Geo library."[10] Three staff members of Game Informer rated Ninja Commando, respectively, 6.75, 8.0, and 8.75 out of 10.[9] Famicom Tsūshin scored the Neo Geo version of the game a 25 out of 40.[8]

Retrospective reviews
Retrospective assessments
Review scores
PublicationScore
Eurogamer(Wii) 6 / 10[23]
IGN(Wii) 5.5 / 10[24]
Nintendo Life(Wii) 8 / 10[25]
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See also

Notes
  1. Japanese: ニンジャコマンドー Hepburn: Ninja Komandō

References
  1. "Oh! Neo Geo Vol. 18 - ニンジャコマンドー". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 53. SoftBank Creative. February 1994. p. 129.
  2. "www.jap-sai.com - Ninja Commando". Arcade-gear.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2013-12-21.
  3. undergroundretrocade.com
  4. "Ninja Commando for NeoGeo". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  5. Miller, Skyler (1998). "Ninja Commando (Arcade) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  6. Miller, Skyler (1998). "Ninja Commando (Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  7. O'Connor, Frank; Boone, Tim (July 1992). "Reviews - Neo Geo -- Ninja Commando". Computer and Video Games. No. 128. Future Publishing. pp. 22–23.
  8. "NEO GEO GAMES CROSS REVIEW: ニンジャコマンドー". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 332. ASCII. 28 April 1995. p. 22.
  9. "NeoGeo Reviews - Ninja Commando". Game Informer. No. 6. GameStop. September–October 1992. p. 62.
  10. Quan, Slasher (September 1992). "Neo•Geo ProReview: Ninja Commando". GamePro. No. 38. IDG. p. 120.
  11. Rosa, Piemarco (October 1992). "Ninja Commando (Neo Geo)". Consolemania (in Italian). No. 12. Xenia Edizioni. pp. 50–51.
  12. Menier, Marc; Axel (July–August 1992). "Neo Geo Review - Ninja Commando". Consoles + (in French). No. 11. M.E.R.7. pp. 74–76.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  13. Demoly, Jean-Marc; Morisse, Jean-François (August–September 1992). "Test - Neo Geo - Ninja Combat". Joypad (in French). No. 11. Yellow Media. pp. 116–117. Archived from the original on 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2019-10-19.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  14. Löwenstein, Richard (January 1992). "SNK - Neo Geo - Ninja Commando". Megablast (in German). No. 1. Joker-Verlag. p. 62.
  15. Noak, Philipp; Hellert, Stefan (August 1993). "Special - Neo Geo - Ninja Commando". Mega Fun (in German). No. 11. CT Computec Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. pp. 28–30. Archived from the original on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  16. Yanma; Itabashi (July 1992). "Super Soft 大特集 - 今、『NEO・GEO』がおもしろい！: ニンジャコマンドー". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 121. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 209.
  17. "NF編集部にまる - ネオジオゲームㇱインレビュー: ニンジャコマンドー". Neo Geo Freak (in Japanese). No. 25. Geibunsha. June 1997. pp. 124–128.
  18. Pottier, Christophe (July–August 1992). "Tests De Jeux - Neo Geo - Ninja Commando". Player One (in French). No. 22. Média Système Édition. pp. 116–117. Archived from the original on 2017-11-11. Retrieved 2019-10-19.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  19. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 428. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 June 1992. p. 25.
  20. Knauf, Andreas (July 1992). "News - Neo Geo - Ninja Commando". Video Games (in German). No. 8. Future-Verlag. p. 34.
  21. Knauf, Andreas (August 1992). "News - Neo Geo - Ninja Commando". Video Games (in German). No. 9. Future-Verlag. p. 30.
  22. "Neo Geo Savage Amusement - Ninja Commando". GameFan. Vol. 1 no. 1. DieHard Gamers Club. October 1992. p. 48.
  23. Whitehead, Dan (July 22, 2008). "Virtual Console Roundup - Ninja Commando and Art of Fighting 2". Eurogamer. Gamer Network Ltd. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  24. M. Thomas, Lucas (August 6, 2008). "Ninja Commando Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  25. Dillard, Corbie (July 10, 2008). "Ninja Commando Review (Neo Geo)". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Archived from the original on February 18, 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
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