Relive this rare, but celebrated GBA game from the comfort of your own Switch.
Like many of you out there in Readerland, I loved my Game Boy Advance to death. If memory serves, the GBA was my first Day One system purchase alongside Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I played that little system to death, in fact, necessitating an upgrade to the GBA SP when it came around. I experienced a lot of excellent portable titles on that handheld, but one I’d never heard of until now was Ninja Five-O. This was a Konami-published, Hudson Soft-developed sidescroller that brought to mind such classics as Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and Shadow of the Ninja. Although critically lauded in 2003, Ninja Five-O was a commercial failure and has now become one of the most sought-after GBA carts on the aftermarket.
But now we have an antidote: a Ninja Five-O “collection” developed by Limited Run and published by Konami which brings together Ninja Five-O and its PAL localization, Ninja Cop, in a slick package of emulated goodness. This duology (which is really just one game–there are no clear differences between the two versions) throws some quality of life bells and whistles on top of a solid, if short, action platformer.
A criminal group called the Mad Masks has taken hostages at the city bank, harbor, and airport, and only urban ninja Joe Osugi can take them down. Joe has an impressive set of skills at his disposal, including a melee sword strike, shurikens, mystical powers, and the ability to level up. He can also use a grappling hook to swing around the environment. All of these moves take some getting used to, as Joe moves rather stiffly. However, once you get the hang of it (especially the grappling hook) you shouldn’t have much trouble taking down baddies.
Joe’s mythical powers come in two flavors based on how full his magic meter is. At full power, he can unleash a devastating attack to all enemies on screen, although it’s nearly useless in boss fights. At less than full power, he can become invincible until the meter runs out, which is much more useful. By collecting lightning power-ups, Joe can also level up, which changes his color and shuriken damage. However, getting hit knocks him down a level.
In general, you have two jobs: rescue hostages (don’t kill them by accident) and find colorful keys, which allow you to enter like-colored doors to progress in any given stage. Each level has three stages and a boss. Boss fights are fun because there’s always a little bit of a puzzle element to them. If you die (and you will), you can continue from the beginning of the mission. That said, the best QoL feature added to Ninja Five-O a rewind, which is standard for retro re-releases these days but is especially helpful in this particular game, what with its stiff controls and frequent environmental hazards. I was able to beat Ninja Five-O without too much trouble, although playing the original without a rewind feature would’ve been significantly more frustrating.
Other standard features include toggling the screen size (I daresay it’s almost impossible to play at true native resolution), various screen borders, an LCD filter, and a “high quality sound” option which doesn’t seem to be much better than the standard sound. There’s also an art gallery and music player. The music is quite good, but repetitive. I couldn’t help but not notice art from David Liu, who you might remember from the lovely animated intro of River City Girls Zero and the cover art for Metal Slug Tactics.
I enjoyed my brief time with Ninja Five-O. If you’re feeling nostalgic for the heyday of the GBA, this is a great way to experience an apparently rare entry in its library.
