Ninja Five-O (NS) - Review

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If you look up "hidden gem" in the gaming dictionary, surely you would see the box art for Ninja Five-O. Developed by Hudson Soft and published by Konami, the side-scrolling action-platformer didn't exactly set the world on fire when it launched in 2003 on Game Boy Advance. It flew very much under the radar, in fact, despite accolades from outlets like IGN, Nintendo Power, and Game Informer. Well, luckily for those who missed out in 2003 (and who aren't willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a rare second-hand GBA cartridge on eBay), Konami and Limited Run Games have dusted off the game, added a few bells and whistles, and released it on modern systems. 

While Ninja Five-O on Switch is essentially a port, it includes a few bonuses that should make modern players and collectors happy. That includes a digital museum with GBA box art, instruction manual, original art from Julie Giles, modern art from David Liu, and concept art from Studio Meala, which animated the brand new cinematic intro. One note for Switch owners: the intro doesn't play in docked mode, only in handheld mode. It's an unusual bug that will hopefully be addressed shortly. Apart from the museum, the port offers a music player with original & remastered tunes, and the European version of the game, Ninja Cop, which is more or less identical — and which sounds like a movie Mystery Science Theater 3000 would lampoon.

Within the game itself, there are also a handful of modern amenities: several screen size, filter, and border options, plus the added ability to quicksave and rewind. 

These are all ancillary things, however. The real heart of Ninja Five-O is the game itself, now 22 years old. All these years later, it remains a great example of the genre. What makes it so great, you might ask? A few things. For starters, the gameplay loop is a satisfying mixture of ninjutsu & acrobatics on the one hand and objective-based exploration on the other. In most of the game's 15 stages, you'll find yourself responsible not only for dispatching bad guys with surprisingly nuanced moves, but completing platforming challenges, finding keys, and rescuing hostages. 

Don't expect anything as deep or involving as a Metroidvania, but do anticipate doing a fair bit of backtracking, as you search for blue, yellow, green, and red keys, hidden in crates or on bad guys. It makes the campaign feel a fair bit more substantial than your average action-platformer. This isn't just a mad dash from left to right; it's a more methodical adventure where you need to plan ahead — the game actually provides a binocular function used to scope out far-away enemies — and use stealth & precision attacks to take down criminals using hostages as human shields.

Another thing that makes the game special is the moveset of hero Joe Osugi. The ninja-turned-cop can carve up bad guys with his sword on the ground or in midair, fire unlimited shuriken, and activate two kinds of magic — one that makes him temporarily invulnerable and the other to slice and dice everything on screen in a blue blur. He can also use power-ups to enhance his shuriken by two levels. The first upgrade turns his throwing stars into a spread formation fireball; the second turns them into a powerful laser-like sonic blast. 

All of these options are elevated further by perhaps the most important tool in Ninja Five-O: the kaginawa grappling hook. Joe can use this to latch onto platforms and swing himself around to ambush unsuspecting enemies, or descend silently from a grapple point to send fireballs at the opposition. It also makes possible several challenging platforming set-pieces, some of which require the heroic ninja to wall-jump up vertical shafts or chain together grapples across a long ceiling above deadly spikes. Because of the grappling hook, Ninja Five-O is part Shinobi, part Bionic Commando.

It's also, like those games, quite unforgiving. But, that's actually one of the best things about it. It's not afraid to be difficult. And, importantly, it's not unduly difficult. There are platforming trials, enemy ambushes, and boss battles that will absolutely kill you, but with enough patience, practice, and perseverance, you will come out on top. Even when you do die, you'll start over at the beginning of the current stage, which is not a major setback. Don't expect to rage quit here.

For all its good points, Ninja Five-O is not perfect. It's a relatively short game that could be beaten in about three hours. To be fair, there are reasons to remain with the game once you've seen the credits roll, including an unlockable difficulty setting and a fairly addictive time trial mode, but the fact remains there's not a lot of content here. It would also benefit from more enemy diversity. There are some new monsters introduced in the final two chapters, including bats, snakes, and robots, but mostly you'll see the same henchmen, crooks, and samurai.

As for visuals and sound, things are mostly good. Ninja Five-O doesn't have the graphical opulence of the best-looking GBA games, but it's not bad at all. And the animations are quite nice. As for music, the rocking, driving tunes match the mood and high-stakes action perfectly. It's just a shame there aren't more songs. 

Over 20 years later, Ninja Five-O remains a gem, although perhaps one that's not so hidden anymore. Thanks to Konami and Limited Run Games, players now have the golden opportunity to try one of the better games on GBA without taking out a second mortgage to do so. Before they do, though, they should understand that this is essentially an enhanced port, not a remaster or remake. If they reconcile themselves with that reality, and prepare for the game's short running time and old-school level of difficulty, they'll be in for a very good time.

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