Format: HuCard
Genre: Action platformer
Developer: Irem
Publisher: NEC

Ninja Spirit's first stage-- an age-old Japanese-style temple-- culminates in a boss encounter with a sprite that is the height of the entire screen. This makes way to windy planes, awesomely shaded cliff surfaces, and underground cisterns, with the player slashing functionally color-significant ninjas and other assorted baddies. Many of the stages invoke schmup "bullet hell" imagery, with sprites nearly filling the whole screen! Interestingly, the developers replaced the arcade version's pastel-ish color scheme with a darker, richer look-- to excellent effect!

Like a huge percentage of 80s arcade games, Ninja Spirit uses what is essentially the Sega Genesis' Yamaha YM family sound chip. And as is the case with many PC Engine arcade ports, it's fun to hear the conversion. In many cases the PC Engine sound chip is better suited, but here the traditional Japanese compositions and samples work a bit better on the Yamaha chip. Still, this PC Engine port's music is highly memorable, and the sound effects are functional and evocative.

Part action platformer, part "bullet hell" schmup, Ninja Spirit involves wiping out hordes of baddies, while scooping up weapon powerups, and items which create shadowy mirror duplicates of the player character. The complexity comes from reflexively applying the correct weapon-- out of several, choosable via the "Select" button-- for each situation and enemy type. But the player must act fast, since switching weapons does not pause the game!

From a graphical standpoint, this Ninja Spirit port is superior to the original arcade release, and it plays just as well too, further cementing the PC Engine's reputation as a good destination for arcade adaptations. Otherwise, it's a difficult game to describe; is it Ninja Gaiden? Is it a Japanese-styled R-Type? Both? Or maybe it's simply a spiritual follow-up to "The Legend of Kage". And maybe that's what makes the game so instantly endearing; PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 fans tend to adore this Ninja Spirit rendition, and it's not difficult to understand why.