Ninja Massacre
Ninja Massacre, original by Tag Games. C64 conversion developed by John D. Ferrari and published by Codemasters in 1989.
| 
Screenshot |
Player's Review
"ULTIMATE MASS ORIENTAL COMBAT! Over 50 levels of tortuous death and destruction! Encounter man-eating slime, hell holes, cunning traps, 100's of hideous beasts and creatures. Use death stars, bouncers, stink bombs and magic-A RELENTLESS NINJA ATTACK!"
Gauntlet clone from Codemasters. Before you judge it to harshly remember this was a typical £2.99 budget game. The game can be played in 2 player co-op and is best played that way. There are fifty levels to explore and fight through. Whilst all levels are fairly small there can be plenty to do. I say can be as some levels can be completed in seconds if you run to the exit but there are many collectables to be claimed if you choose to explore instead.
The game isn't as easy as the final cut of the video makes it out to be. There are many enemies and usually poring out of generators of which there are a few types and need to be destroyed. Whilst enemies are easily dealt with the Hell Holes can be placed where you can easily run into them. You get one life. Lose all energy or fall down a hole, game over. Keys are valuable as well as the smart bombs and finding a stash on an easy level might just save you on later level. Many levels feature walls which block your path and you need to find the unlock block to remove them. There are also hidden destructible walls that might lead to a simpler path. As well as doors, keys can be used to unlock chests. This might lead to points, an item or release the evil wizard who is not hurt by your shuriken's and can only be killed by the smart bomb. Trapping them behind a wall is the best option if you can pull it off. Many of the doors can lead to a hell hole so you better be sure you need to go through before spending a key on it. You are not expected to complete in one sitting as the game offers level password after every five levels.
Overall, if you like gauntlet clones you will probably like this one. I'm not a bag fan and it probably shows with my lack of exploration and just wanting to get through the levels. Compared with the Spectrum game, the levels start off similar but are mostly all different or in a different order at least. Levels which look similar have the items in different locations. The Spectrum game seems to have open chests which award treasure but you have to spend keys on all them in the c64 game to open. Continuous shooting of the indestructible evil wizards can lead to huge score farming.
The overall presentation is let down by Codemasters having re-used the music from '4 soccer simulators' and 'Pro BMX Simulator' and no in game music at all. The game uses a mix of low res and high res graphics from the Spectrum making it look a lot less detailed. They should have just gone all in and have all the gfx hires. The collision detection can be unforgiving when deciding if you are too close to a hole or door that leads to one. Notice that Strength is spelt wrong on the hud and worst of all you cant have your name on the highscore table if you finish the game. You have to die to enter a score.
00:00:00 Title Music
00:01:22 Level 1-5
00:04:12 Level 6-10 (SNOW)
00:12:40 Level 10-14 (BEER)
00:22:38 Level 15-19 (STAG)
00:32:10 Level 20-24 (BARD)
00:43:23 Level 25-29 (HOLE)
00:50:09 Level 30-34 (HUGE)
01:00:28 Level 35-39 (EASY)
01:11:11 Level 40-44 (WIDE)
01:14:53 Level 45-50 (COLA)
---------------------------
01:31:17 Hell Hole Death
Gauntlet clone from Codemasters. Before you judge it to harshly remember this was a typical £2.99 budget game. The game can be played in 2 player co-op and is best played that way. There are fifty levels to explore and fight through. Whilst all levels are fairly small there can be plenty to do. I say can be as some levels can be completed in seconds if you run to the exit but there are many collectables to be claimed if you choose to explore instead.
The game isn't as easy as the final cut of the video makes it out to be. There are many enemies and usually poring out of generators of which there are a few types and need to be destroyed. Whilst enemies are easily dealt with the Hell Holes can be placed where you can easily run into them. You get one life. Lose all energy or fall down a hole, game over. Keys are valuable as well as the smart bombs and finding a stash on an easy level might just save you on later level. Many levels feature walls which block your path and you need to find the unlock block to remove them. There are also hidden destructible walls that might lead to a simpler path. As well as doors, keys can be used to unlock chests. This might lead to points, an item or release the evil wizard who is not hurt by your shuriken's and can only be killed by the smart bomb. Trapping them behind a wall is the best option if you can pull it off. Many of the doors can lead to a hell hole so you better be sure you need to go through before spending a key on it. You are not expected to complete in one sitting as the game offers level password after every five levels.
Overall, if you like gauntlet clones you will probably like this one. I'm not a bag fan and it probably shows with my lack of exploration and just wanting to get through the levels. Compared with the Spectrum game, the levels start off similar but are mostly all different or in a different order at least. Levels which look similar have the items in different locations. The Spectrum game seems to have open chests which award treasure but you have to spend keys on all them in the c64 game to open. Continuous shooting of the indestructible evil wizards can lead to huge score farming.
The overall presentation is let down by Codemasters having re-used the music from '4 soccer simulators' and 'Pro BMX Simulator' and no in game music at all. The game uses a mix of low res and high res graphics from the Spectrum making it look a lot less detailed. They should have just gone all in and have all the gfx hires. The collision detection can be unforgiving when deciding if you are too close to a hole or door that leads to one. Notice that Strength is spelt wrong on the hud and worst of all you cant have your name on the highscore table if you finish the game. You have to die to enter a score.
00:00:00 Title Music
00:01:22 Level 1-5
00:04:12 Level 6-10 (SNOW)
00:12:40 Level 10-14 (BEER)
00:22:38 Level 15-19 (STAG)
00:32:10 Level 20-24 (BARD)
00:43:23 Level 25-29 (HOLE)
00:50:09 Level 30-34 (HUGE)
01:00:28 Level 35-39 (EASY)
01:11:11 Level 40-44 (WIDE)
01:14:53 Level 45-50 (COLA)
---------------------------
01:31:17 Hell Hole Death
No Comments have been Posted.