Return Of The Ninja

Martial artists have always held a certain fascination for us non-violent Westerners. There's nothing we like better, for example, than a good Jackie Chan film, complete with comically insane stunts and hilarious bone-crunching outtakes at the end. "Oh look", we chortle, "he's snapped both of his legs off again – good old Jackie!" However, the Chanster never mucked about with huge double-edged swords, or slashed his opponents to death with a smile on his face. Such ruthlessness was always the way of the Ninja, and happily, thanks to Return Of The Ninja on the Game Boy Color, you can now brutally hack innocent bystanders limb from limb too! Hurrah!

Hiiiii-yaah!

Anyone who's played the 8 and 16-bit classic Shinobi should have a fairly good idea of what makes this game tick. Basically, you control either Tsukikage, a rock-hard ninja bloke, or Sayuri, a not-quite-as-handy ninja lady. Having picked your character, it's time to set off across the sideways-scrolling landscape, kicking the living crap out of everyone and everything in your path. Power-ups are awarded when you kill someone with particular style or panache, and the game rolls along at a decent pace, which means the hack 'n' slash action is virtually non-stop.

There are very few aspects of this game which will disappoint seasoned gamers – the graphics are quite crisp, if a little murky in places, the sound is adequate and there are loads of enemies and complex environments to wade through. In fact, Return Of The Ninja is actually quite taxing in places, but this makes a refreshing change from most Game Boy beat 'em-ups (Ultimate Fighting Championship anyone?). If you can persevere with the difficulty level of this game, you will be rewarded with a well-programmed hack-fest of the highest order. Despite being quite tough, Ninja is actually highly addictive, so if you're a real fan of scrolling beat 'em-ups of an Eastern persuasion, you should karate-chop your way through shop doers to get this game, pronto.

In Natsume's new side-scroller avoiding confrontation is as important as fighting, but when push comes to shove, your ninja has plenty of ways to defend himself. He can pick up items, but can also embrace the five elements as weapons: Fire, Wind, Earth, Water and--Heaven?! Slice and dice this fall.