Ninja

Set in imperial Japan an unnamed ninja’s home town was invaded and all of the town people and gold were taken by the invading force. The ninja sets out on a quest to kill all of the invaders and rescue the town’s people. The quest of revenge leads the ninja across many lands though slimy swamps and dark caves fighting the many different monsters that get in his way of finding the invaders.

In Ninja the player controls the ninja as he moves horizontally across the levels. The ninja can attack enemies by using his weapon or by throwing a shuriken (throwing star) or a bomb and takes damage for been hit (which can be regained via food on the level or a health potion). Each time the ninja does any damage to an enemy or a hittable object the ninja gains experience which in turn helps the ninja gain levels. When the ninja goes up a level the player can decide to put a single point in one of the three stats that are strength (more damage for each hit), armor (less damage for ninja) and speed (faster movement and more damage with shuriken). Special moves (6 in total) are unlocked through out playing the game that, with the correct keyboard combination, allows the ninja to perform a powerful move deals more damage and/or provides more defence.

The game is split into levels, with increasingly powerful enemies and monsters, that can be accessed through a world map after completing the first level. Through the world map the player can choose the branching paths for the ninja as well as visiting markets that, with the gold collected, can buy new weapons (more powerful with each unlocked market), shuriken, bombs, and health potions.