Last Ninja 3

"Ninja 3 is here and ready to explode onto your screen with the most glorious diplay of graphics and animated fight sequences ever seen in this type of game.
With a massive introduction sequence, incredibly detailed '3D' backgound graphics and a more than generous helping of all-out action, Ninja 3 displays a degree of excellence never before expierienced by even the most seasoned Ninja fan. Ninja 3 - A game of epic proportions.
Feel the realism, allow yourself to witness the magical world of Ninjitsu spiritualism, experience the mystical atmosphere of the Tibetan Temples. Remember, always remain in control of your stealth and cunning as you do battle once again with the most treacherous purveyor of evil, Kunitoki."

Another lazy release for the CD32 following Super Putty although they did at least support the CD32 extra buttons like with Myth for collecting items and cycling weapons. Not sure this is the game the CD32 owner would have been looking for though especially at full price for a game from 1991. The game plays a bit quick making combat a little tricky. Loading time isn't reduced much as there seems to be some lengthily decompression of the assets between levels and the makes no use of the extra memory of the CD32.

The original Commodore64 game was difficult enough but the Amiga game is even more so as the enemies move fast and hit hard and the controls (hold fire move direction) to fight can feel unresponsive. Ideally you should fight each enemy twice to kill them and gain honour (you lose it if you let them live) but you will likely lose energy in the process. There is a block function (walk backwards and fire) but its a pain to pull off but is needed in the final fight. But if just getting around wasn't challenging enough, the game is riddled with game breaking bugs. something as simple as jumping and cycling items can lobotomise an onscreen enemy and you wont be able to leave the screen. And then there is the kicker on the final stage where if you collect the crowbar before the quill, then you wont get the scroll needed to fight the guardian.

So just to explain a little of what's happening in the game. Introduced with Last Nina 3 is the Bushido (Honour) system which requires you to kill the enemies honourably with a specific weapon or hand to hand depending if they are armed or not. It is only important in the final level though as it needs to be at least half full to battle the final guardian. The Prayer wheel in the top right shows you any objects in the area for you to pick up.

The longplay plays the through all six levels mainly avoiding the enemies, it's just simpler that way. You can swap between music and sfx at any time but I left it with music for this run. I wanted to do a second play with sfx but the sfx would be lost every time a new area loaded. You can swap it back on but its slow loading made it to much of a hassle. Once completed the game ends on the end screen and does not go back to the title screen or allow score entry. At the end of the video I show game over screen and score entry.

Overall this is a sloppy conversion and made no attempt to fix issues with the original release. Long loading times (which I have trimmed for the video), game breaking bugs make this one to avoid. Better to play the C64 version. If there is any thing positive to mention its only that the game uses the extra joypad buttons (as there is no keyboard). The game has a password system to start on later levels but I don't think it ever gave out a password which its supposed to do at the end of a stage according to the manual

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:53 Level 1
00:08:03 Level 2
00:12:14 Level 3
00:15:55 Level 4
00:22:15 Level 5
00:26:25 Level 6
00:29:58 Ending
00:34:52 Game Over