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2003 · Hudson Soft · Ninja · Platformer

Ninja Five-O

Take on the role of Ninja Five-O as he uses all his skill, stealth and magic to rescue hostages and defeat his enemies. Master the art of ninja swords, shuriken throwing stars and ancient ninjitsu magic!

Released: 11 April 2003
Platforms: Game Boy Advance PlayStation 4 Windows
Genres: Ninja Platformer
Developers: Hudson Soft
Publishers: Konami
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: English
Time to beat: 3hmain story6hcompletionist

About

Ninja Five-O, known in the PAL region as Ninja Cop, is a 2003 action-platform video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Konami. It was released for the Game Boy Advance in North America and Europe in April 2003. Players take the role of Joe Osugi, a ninja who must stop a terrorist group influenced by mystical masks. It was first announced at "Konami Gamers' Day" in early 2003.

The game received generally positive reviews from video game critics, but it failed to garner sales and is often regarded as one of the most sought-after handheld games.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Ninja Five-O is an action game centered around Joe Osugi, a ninja tasked with stopping a terrorist group influenced by the Mad Masks, masks that give the wearer obscene power. As Osugi, the player must defeat the terrorists and rescue hostages through five missions with three levels and a boss battle.

Development

The game was developed by Hudson Soft. Ninja Five-O was first announced in January 2003 during "Konami Gamers' Day", where they announced along with fifteen other games they would publish in 2003.

Despite being developed and published by Japanese video game companies, it was never released in Japan for reasons unknown. The US box art was illustrated by Julie Giles, who designed other Konami packaging such as the Castlevania and Metal Gear franchises.

Reception

Upon release of the game, Ninja Five-O received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. It was chosen as runner-up for "GBA Game of the Month" by IGN for the month of April 2003, behind Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

In a retrospective review from Nintendo Life, Perry Wild praised its level design for having a balance between the platforming and combat aspects in the game.