Ninja Five-O Review

Developed by Hudson Soft and published by Konami, Game Boy Advance (GBA) game Ninja Five-O recalls their glory days with simple arcade-style action gameplay. A silly premise, you play as a secret agent—who’s also a ninja or something—and have to thwart robberies, hijackings, and things like that. The plot is extremely minimal, but that’s not what we’re here for.

The gameplay strikes me as a blend between Bionic Commando and Ninja Gaiden. You have your sword which you can use to get up close and attack enemies. You also have shuriken you can throw for long-distance attacks. In addition to these attacks, you have a grappling hook with almost unlimited range that you can use to hoist yourself up on platforms, dangle yourself to attack enemies, and just generally swing it around and rope yourself from place to place. This gives you a lot of maneuverability, which is important because a large aspect of the game is stealth.

Each stage is a different set-up, with the same goals. There are a number of hostages in the stage. Saving them gives you bonus points at the end of the stage, but you don’t have to rescue them all. When you find a hostage, a criminal will be holding a gun to their head. If you attack while they are doing this, they will kill the hostage, requiring a stage restart if you want to save them. Every once in a while they’ll try shooting you, and if you kill them during that, the hostage is saved. You can also sneak around and hit them from behind, if possible.

Other than the hostages, your goal is to simply reach the end of the stage. Some enemies hold color-coded keys you’ll need to progress. You can also pick up power-ups that increase the strength of your sword and shuriken attacks. There’s some items that restore health and increase your score as well.

There’s a variety of different enemies and obstacles to fight and avoid, including enemy ninjas, who are particularly agile and difficult. At the end of every area (usually after three stages) there’s a challenging boss. You also have a meter that fills up over time that, once full, allows you to use a super attack—best saved for bosses.

Verdict

Ninja Five-O has both addictive, fast arcade action as well as situations that will require you to think and stay on your toes, but never long enough to break the flow of gameplay. It’s a perfect and effective mix, and the default difficulty should be suitable to just about any kind of gamer, and there’s easier and harder modes if it’s not.

I can’t remember if I beat the game or not, but it does strike me as a game I’d expect to be pretty short, so I guess there’s that to complain about. The gameplay here is great enough to expand on with a greater variety of enemies and obstacles, and bigger levels. Unfortunately, Ninja Five-O never saw a sequel, and it’s unlikely it ever will. It’s still recommended. It’s one of the best pure action games for the GBA that shows that even today, sometimes less complexity in games can give a greater experience.