This mere idea of a Last Ninja Two is a strange and wonderful paradox, but it does give hope to the Dodo. IT could mean two things; either the Last Ninja One was a downright fibber or it was in fact the penultimate ninja. The game itself is a shuriken-em-up outing combined with an element of puzzle solving. To add to the interest, and to give that real coin-op feel, there is also a clock to play against.
Not surprisingly, you get to play a highly-
Certainly this is the way you look until the rather eccentric joystick controls have been mastered. Best advice here is not to bother with finding things or beating people up - nope, you should really spend some time working out a way to move from one place to another without walking into invisible walls. Although the isometric pseudo three-
This, Norman 'Ninja' Wisdom script sees you standing around with the rest of the chaps a few centuries back in time, when suddenly you are wizzed into the future and find yourself standing on a bandstand. Willing suspension of disbelief or what!?
At the outset, the idea is to explore locations and pick up the odd weapon (rather absent-
Once you're really into the game... there are hundreds of places to explore and... you get the idea, I'm sure. The idea is to get home in one piece so that you and the rest of the lads can design some really neat French clothes or defeat the evil Shogun, Kunitoki.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The graphics have that pleasant blocky form along with the smoothness of movement only found in gazelles - with lumbago. Little Armakuni does a great Michael Jackson moonwalking backwards if you forget to press J on the keyboard to alter the joystick orientation (so handy for those fight scenes when timing is of the utmost importance). As for the sound, there is very little to speak of aside from the soundtrack, which is nice enough but does leave you wishing that they'd never invented that bloody flute voice on the synth. This really is quite a disappointment because the possibilities for some sickening thuds and whistling leaps are endless.
LASTING INTEREST
The one saving grace is that it is not mreley a 'kick the shoot out of everyone' session and neither is it a ;my brain hurts' exploration game. If you really commit yourself to it, there is a chance that some enjoyment can be extracted from the playing time. In true terms of lasting interest, however, you have to give the game more than it gives you.
JUDGEMENT
The sad thing is that the ideas are all there; the 3D movement is a step up from the run-of-