The Last Ninja Collection Review – Blast From the Past

Ninjas were the coolest thing in the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s. So cool in fact that the Conservative party banned all mention of them in a bid to prevent the craze from turning a whole generation of British kids into masked assassins. This is the reason why the Teenage Mutant Turtles are Heroes in the UK rather than Ninjas. Growing up in these times meant that the addition of ninjas to any media made it immediately more attractive, and The Last Ninja games are perhaps the most important and famous examples of this in the home computer market (Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi covering the bases for consoles). My recollections of the games is that they were absurdly difficult, and it was often a challenge to make it past the opening screens, so does this retro collection confirm those memories or not?

While collection takes its name from The Last Ninja trilogy there are other games included, namely International Karate, International Karate +, and Bangkok Knights. The latter three are interesting additions, with IK+ being one of the best C64 multiplayer games ever made, but Bangkok Knights was never more than a curiosity and has not aged particularly well. An easily available console version of IK+ is a fantastic proposition though.

The main draw here is The Last Ninja trilogy (plus the later remake of the first game on Amiga) and each title is included across multiple versions, enabling nostalgia seekers to choose the system they remember and newcomers to compare across each. It’s always fascinating to look back and see the developments between the micro computers and the Amiga even if it doesn’t feel like the revolution it did back in the day. Every game (aside from the original IK) have Amiga versions included with most also featuring C64 and some Spectrum. While it’s a shame that my beloved Amstrad CPC464 isn’t represented here, there is still functionally a lot to play through here.

All of The Last Ninja games are isometric action adventure titles with a mixture of combat and puzzle solving. The puzzles are mostly a matter of exploring to find the right items but considering this is back in the day when signposting in games was not a thing then this isn’t an easy matter. Combat takes place unarmed or with an assortment of iconic ninja weapons that you have to find either in the environment or loot from defeated enemies. The single button controls required for the original joysticks mean that holding the action button and pressing different directions create different attacks or actions. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is that picking items up requires you to hold the button and press down but you also have to line up the ninja’s hands exactly for this to work – a process that is as frustrating as it sounds.

What is even more frustrating – and completely adheres to my memories – is the pixel perfect somersault jumping that is essential to making any real progress across the games. Combine this with the very limited lives and you have a recipe for frustrating repetition. This is of course a true reflection of the game design of the era but a modern collection should have quality of life improvements to rectify this. In a clunky way, this one does as there is a save option that was not present in the original but this requires you to quit out to the main menu to load again which is an unnecessary delay.

Graphically the games look much as you might remember them, with the Spectrum versions featuring the infamous colour clashing, C64 more solid, and Amiga colourful and bold. Music has that telltale chiptune feel whilst sound effects are limited at best. The biggest issue here is that the isometric camera and graphics make judging the aforementioned jumps even more difficult. Each game can be finished in under an hour if you know what you’re doing but in reality it’ll take you far longer to learn the controls and routes.