Ninja Assault

PlayStation console exclusive

Ninja Assault is an arcade game developed and released by Namco in 2000. Two years later it was also published as a PlayStation 2 exclusive title with GunCon 2 compatibility.

Released: 12 September 2002
Platforms: Arcade PlayStation 2
Genres: Arcade Light gun shooter Ninja Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: Namco
Publishers: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Fantasy Survival Historical
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB T

About

Ninja Assault is a 2000 light-gun shooter video game developed by Now Production and published by Namco for arcades. It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2002.

›Story

Once upon a time, in feudal Japan, a seemingly endless war had broken out. And now, the demon shogun Kigai has kidnapped Princess Koto as a sacrifice for his resurrection. But two ninja (named Guren and Gunjo) have arrived as humanity's last hope. Together they travel the demon-infested country to find Kigai, stop him from sacrificing Princess Koto, and save her at all costs. And thus a new war had spawned, humanity versus the demon race.

Keywords

martial arts
ninja
demon invasion

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Ninja Assault was developed by Namco, who also created the Time Crisis series. However, this game has more in common with Lethal Enforcers, Virtua Cop, and The House of the Dead series, whereby the movement is completely "on-rails" (i.e., with no hiding pedal), and the player must shoot away from the screen to reload. Both versions of this game support up to two players in cooperative gameplay.

Story

The story, according to the opening movie, is as follows:

"Once upon a time in feudal Japan, a brutal war raged. No one foresaw its conclusion, at least not in the manner in which it unfolded. the evil Shogun Kigai has kidnapped Princess Koto in order to sacrifice her for his resurrection ritual. But there is hope....

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Ninja Assault on their December 15, 2000 issue as being the fourth most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month.

The PS2 version received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In its preview, IGN compared it with The House of the Dead 2. The same website later gave the Japanese version a mixed review over two months before it was released Stateside, along with Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, and PSM. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 28 out of 40.