Ludography
Ninja Commando cover

1992 · ADK · Arcade · Fighting

Ninja Commando

Timed SNK exclusive

Ninja Commando is a vertically scrolling action game released by ADK in 1992. Players choose from among three ninjas - Joe, descended from the Koga ninja; Rayar, a woman who has learned the ways of the Iga ninja; and Ryu, descendant of the famous ninja Fuma Kotaro - as they pursue the merchant of death known as Spider, who plans to use a time machine to bring havoc to the world. The battle spans seven time periods, including the Stone Age, the Egyptian era and the Japanese Civil War era.

Released
29 May 1992
Platforms
ArcadeNeo GeoNeo Geo CDNintendo SwitchWiiWindowsXbox One
Genres
ArcadeFightingNinjaPlatformerScienceShoot 'em upShooter
Developers
ADK
Publishers
SNK
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Action
Country
Japan
Age ratings
ESRB E10+
Languages
English, Japanese

About

Ninja Commando is a vertically scrolling run and gun video game developed by Alpha Denshi and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home systems in 1992. It was released for the Neo Geo CD in 1994.

Keywords

  • martial arts
  • ninja
  • shoot 'em up
  • shmup
  • wii virtual console

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The overall gameplay is similar to this of the run-and-gun classic Ikari Warriors, with the players battling their way up the top-down perspective screen. The players can choose between three ninja characters, all with differing abilities. Each of them has fighting game-style input commands that unleash their scroll-based ninpo special moves. As usual in the genre, the game's stages end with boss battles.

Story

An elite group of three young Ninja Commandos (Joe Tiger, an American descendant of the Kōga-ryū ninja whose weapons are shuriken, Ryu Eagle, the 23rd descendant of the famous ninja Fūma Kotarō (from the World Heroes series), who is using ninja magic fireballs in combat, and Rayar Dragon, the female ninja of the group, a British girl who has learned the ways of the Iga-ryū ninjutsu and whose weapon is a bow with flaming spirit arrows) from around the world must team-up to stop the villain Spider and his Mars Corporation from using a time machine to destroy the past and control the future. The three heroes chase after their enemy in seven time periods, including the Sengoku period in Japan (where Ryu avenges his ancestor by killing Oda Nobunaga), Ancient Egypt (fighting a floating recreation of Tutankhamen), the Stone Age, China in the era of Three Kingdoms (fighting against Lu Bu), and World War II.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Ninja Commando on their June 15, 1992 issue as being the eleventh most-successful table arcade unit of the month, outperforming titles such as Raiden. RePlay also reported the game to be the tenth most-popular arcade game at the time. The title was generally well received. The game's review in GamePro praised its "phenomenal!"

graphics and called it overall "an excellent two-player cart" for Neo-Geo system. 75 out of 10. Famicom Tsūshin scored the Neo Geo version of the game a 25 out of 40.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Neo Geo29 January 1992Europe · North America 29 January 1992 · Japan 29 January 1992 · North America 30 January 1992 · Japan 30 January 1992
Neo Geo CD31 October 1994Japan · North America 31 October 1994
Wii24 June 2008Japan · Europe 11 July 2008 · North America 14 July 2008
Windows8 April 2024Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Included in
ADK DamashiiNeogeo Arcade 2
Ported as
ACA Neo Geo: Ninja Commando

Games like this

Collections6 collections

Publishers

Genres

  • Ninja gamesStandalone games › Games with ninja player characters

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.