The Silverbird Selection Game Review - Ninja Master (Commodore 64)

[@ZEUSDAZ]

Your SGT request of Ninja Master is now up 👍

[@witchfinder1976]

Er, thanks? Hope you enjoyed it 😉

[@ZEUSDAZ]

@@witchfinder1976 yeah bit of confusion here, your buddy requested it which I didn't know as he mentioned your KZbin name, now I'm confused too 😂

[@craigwalker3194]

I Had This Game For The Spectrum Back In The Day. I Was Quite Impressed By The Presentation & The Speech, And I Got A Good Few Plays From It. I Did Come Back To It A Few Times.

[@rwxdesigns]

"YOU HAVE QUALIFIED!" - scarred for life now! :)

[@witchfinder1976]

I can only apologise! 😆

[@mirmis]

Nice. Steady. Slow motion. A high quality turn sir!

[@jasonwilletts559]

I had the C16 Plus 4 version, the first 3 screens were easy, but the last shooting scene, there was a bug, meaning the game couldn't be finished!

[@witchfinder1976]

Probably for the best really!

[@avant1277]

Great review! I got this for my Commodore Plus 4 when I was 9 or so. I only went by the cover and assumed it would be a beat em up. I was so disappointed. I also was playing on a small black and white tv back then and in b+w the first event is very difficult to identify the darts being sent at you. Your review does show the other side - that you can have a bit of fun with it when you know what to expect. Almost as incongruous as one of the events being set in Egypt, the castle on the inlay is based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle maybe it was a ninja olympics-style world tour?

[@witchfinder1976]

I think most people had the same experience - it's not a good game but it's even more disappointing when it's not what you were expecting it to be. Interesting fact about the castle 🙂

[@craigwalker3194]

Tron Software Developed the game on the Spectrum.

[@lifeschool]

Another great and fun review. I think your boundless generosity was apparent with the Presentation score. The loading image is boring, the title screen doesn't move or anything. Compared to Cauldron I'd give presentation 4 out of 10. I was half expecting you to break out of the game and list out the Basic code. Compared to Fist 2 which was out on budget at the time, even that had more atmosphere and replay value. But then at least it isnt Chimera. ;)

[@witchfinder1976]

You're probably right, the 8 may have been a tad high but I did like the screens shown between each event and the name entry screens were good too.

[@SanxionMusic]

Had this, and even though reviews at the time were not great, I always had a bit of fun with it.

[@witchfinder1976]

I think the reviews were a bit harsh - as you say, some fun can be had with it.

[@MephProduction]

It's a bit dull but i've never liked theses types of games anyway. All the events feel like mini/bonus games you'd get on fighting games (IK+)

[@zawtowers]

This game got panned by reviewers at the time, mainly due to the lack of animation (one frame standing, one frame chopping) and the playability was awful. Commodore User infamously gave it 0 out of 10 for everything except sound (which got 3). Whilst I wouldn't go that far, it wasn't that enjoyable back then - the C16 and Plus/4 version is the same apart from the speech which you could argue shows it could fit into 16K or have more events instead. A lack of multiplayer mode for competitions is also something that the game needed for more enjoyment, sadly missing. However, I can see why you enjoyed it to a degree.

[@witchfinder1976]

That Commodore User reviee was just silly. Is it a good game? No. But it isn't completely terrible either. The graphics are bad though to be fair!

[@merman1974]

The qualifying limits do get tougher, you have to get a higher level of strength to break the board. I have managed to get to the third loop, but really it's not worth persevering with - a truly dire game that deserves its bad reputation. How on Earth did it get 6.5 on your scale?

[@witchfinder1976]

Well as covered previously, my scoring system is flawed becasue it will still give a decent rating to bad games with good graphics, sound or presentation. The reality is that the vast majority of games have scored 6.something regardless of how good or bad they are! So it doesn't deserve that score but that said, I don't think it's absolutely awful.

[@scottbreon9448]

Still better than BMX Ninja. LOL

[@witchfinder1976]

I've not yet had the "pleasure" of that one! 😆

[@Tenraiden]

I hated it but my idiot friends wanted to play this so much just because it had the word Ninja in it

[@bjornh1527]

Not being able to kick Conan in the face is a huge letdown! As for Ninja themed games, I´d rather play Ninja Golf. At least there´s some creativity behind that title.

[@witchfinder1976]

Yes, the cover art doesn make it out to be a very different game than it really is - no arguments there.

[@inphanta]

I had this on a compilation but only played it once. It's an ugly and thoroughly unimaginative game and the "music" is an insult to the SID chip. Kudos to you for persevering with this mess long enough to create this video.

[@witchfinder1976]

It's definitely ugly!

[@Zippee2020]

Looks pretty terrible to me, I must have dodged a bullet with that one back in the day!

[@witchfinder1976]

It definitely looks terrible but I have played far worse in this series.

[@MilosCov]

Seriously bad game.

[@witchfinder1976]

I really didn't think it was that bad. Clunky and a bit boring, but it was better than I thought it was going to be!