The Last Ninja (NES) Playthrough
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2022
- A playthrough of Jaleco's 1991 action-adventure game for the NES, The Last Ninja.
If you were to ask Commodore 64 fans what they thought of System 3's The Last Ninja games, chances are that the majority would respond with a lot of enthusiasm. The multi-layered gameplay, cutting edge graphics, and fantastic music earned the series a huge following. The first two games in the series won several GOTY awards, and between their various ports, the trilogy ended up selling over twelve million units.
Ask NES fans the same question, though - or at least, had you asked the question before James Rolfe brought the Nintendo game to the forefront - and you'd get a very different answer. A handful would say that they loved it on the computer, another handful would shoot you a look of thinly veiled disgust, and the rest would give you a vacant stare.
The series begins as Kunitoki, a shogun scheming to steal the sacred ninjutsu scrolls of Koga, lays a trap that wipes out an entire ninja clan... at least, so he thinks. In that moment, the lone warrior who had stayed behind to guard the clan's shrine, a man named Armakuni, became The Last Ninja.
The first game follows Armakuni as he makes his way to Kunitoki's palace where he avenges his fallen brothers.
Some time later, Armakuni is busy training a new generation of ninja when he's suddenly sucked into a portal created by Kunitoki and flung several centuries into the future. Armakuni now finds himself prowling the streets of modern day New York City in pursuit of his nemesis, thus kicking off Last Ninja 2: Back With a Vengeance.
The Last Ninja on the NES was a US-exclusive port of the C64 version of Last Ninja 2, originally released back in 1988. It's an isometric adventure game that mixes platforming with puzzle-solving and beat 'em up mechanics, and it all looks and feels quite novel and exotic as far as NES games go. There's nothing else quite like it on the platform.
But based on how it turned out, that shouldn't come as too big a surprise. The C64 and the NES were (very) roughly comparable in terms of power, and both platforms shone when running software that had been tailored to their respective strengths.
Last Ninja 2 was built to take full advantage of the C64's hardware, and it did many things that simply weren't feasible on the NES. The game's detailed environments shown from an isometric perspective, its odd-sized tiles, and heavy use of raster effects were not things that translated well, if at all, to the NES hardware, but instead of creating a similar game that played to the NES's own strengths, Beam attempted to recreate every aspect of the original C64 game for the console.
It was a noble attempt, but it failed miserably.
To be fair, all the stages are here (albeit with a few simplifications) and if you haven't seen the original C64 game, then the novelty of the presentation might even impress you a bit. The graphics are the strongest part of the whole package.
The facade doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny, though. The graphic detail has been cut way back, the music has been butchered, and the skewed perspective is pretty much a game-breaker: the details in the tiled graphics don't properly align from one side of the screen to the other, so you can't rely on the visuals when you're trying to jump over hazards. The jumps over the river at the end of the first stage are a perfect example of this problem - they can only be mastered through trial-and-error and memorization.
The collision detection is pretty awful, too. It feels like a matter of luck when you manage to hit an enemy, and you can't pick up items unless you're standing exactly in the right place, though the sweet spot changes from item to item.
You may also correctly figure out a solution to a puzzle only to dismiss it moments later because it didn't work the first six times you tried it. The last boss is especially nasty in that regard. Those candles are brutal... just like the password system. How can a game this simple require such an insanely long password?
It's not totally without its fun, though. You do get to burn a sewer gator to death with a molotov cocktail and poison a puma by feeding it a drumstick coated in opium.
I tried to like it for the longest time, but there's no way to sugarcoat a mess like The Last Ninja on NES. If the game looks like something that might appeal to you, do yourself a huge favor and play the Commodore 64 version instead.
(lt's worth mentioning that this is still a damned sight better than BttF 2&3.
Does anyone else think it's funny that Kunitoki's name makes him sound like a Japanese lemonade company?
You know, because 国=country and 時=time?
... fine, I know it's lame. Still made me laugh.)
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games! 
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![[TAS] NES The Last Ninja by ShesChardcore in 07:55.67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3bT-tz4121M/mqdefault.jpg)
i remember renting this as a kid all excited. On the cover it said something like "best game of the year".
When i got out of rental store and back in the car i remember showing to my older sister all excited and told her "it says its best game of the year" or something like that.
she replied "which year?"
that left me pretty stumped
Best story of the year
Warning: Attempting to beat Ernie's high score may be hazardous for your health. Jaleco is not responsible for any destruction from that point forward.
Well considering he was electrocuted to death in a bathtub, I don't think he'll be much of a threat anytime soon.
Jaleco? Unless you're Yuki Ito...
Why? Because Ernie going to beat that gamer up just because some gamer beat his high score.
@@gouravchakraborty9801 He said Jaleco, but Yuki Ito is one of the best gamers I've ever heard of. She has played a ton of video games, especially shmups. Guess the company that made Game Tengoku.
@@SolCresta3405
...I was kinda referring to the company that developed this game. Unless there's a "lol funny woosh" joke I'm missing.
From one of the best soundtracks (C64) to one of the worst (NES) that's actually pretty impressive.
tf do you mean this soundtrack is boppin'
Nes cant compete with C64 and cant do high graphics mode
Agreed !!! This tune is a banger
Typical cliche thing to say. Sometimes the new is better than the old version. Old school doesn't always win NES BGM is superior to C64 especially the 1st stage
The C64 soundtrack is amazing, the NES one is absolute beep-bloop garbage.
I like how the AVGN review of this game was longer then the actual game
3:10 3:39 3:51
woah you pulled off the jumps on the water parts of the level.
Those jumps were actually the main boss of the Central park stage.
I always struggled to pass the water part, only to be killed by the bees lol.
The graphics for this game were pretty damn impressive for the time. The fix camera and shots are very resident evilish. Makes me wish RE came out in the 80s and was on the NES or SNES
It kinda did. Sweet Home was a 1989 Capcom game for NES that played very similarly to Resident Evil.
First track of the game reminds me of blue Monday.
i like the sound on the first stage
I played it in a family game, amazing! At that time, with the puzzles and the isometric view, and the music, it caught me. I'm surprised that apparently he wasn't as famous as he should be. An absolutely great game!
This was a rental for me back in the day. The open world premise intrigued me and thought it was ok (didn't get far)...but this is one of those games that just doesn't age well. I REALLY wanted to consider this a classic but all the cryptic nonsense and the depressing tones of a middle ager (like me) as the first area BGM...I just can't. However, you got this one pwned in a good amount of time, good job!
Thanks! It was the same for me. I liked it when I was younger, but it just doesn't hold up. Then I eventually played the C64 version and was like, oooh, this is pretty much what I wanted from the NES game.
1. Bert
2. Ernie
3. Barney
4. Fred
5. Stan
6. Oliver
7. Hello
8. Marko
9. And -- Rex
Funny how I watch avgn then come here and watch a non frustrated play through 😂
This game must be rare seeing since the snes was out in 91
Nothing says ninja like walking through the park and into the women's bathroom!
It is pretty creative how he makes nunchakus out of toilet pull chains.
@@NintendoComplete Gotta admit, it IS pretty clever how the ninja jury-rigs an equipment set together - he just grabs a pipe from the park as a staff, you've mentioned the nunchaku, he just straight-up swipes a sword from some sort of souvenir shop, and I'm assuming the ninja stars were mail-order and hastily dumped near that trash can in the park for reasons I presume their original owner doesn't care to disclose.
@@YukaTakeuchiFan That would make sense considering you can't beat the last boss without them lol
I used to rent this expecting something like Ninja Gaiden. At first it was disappointing, eventually it became a challenge to figure out how to play it. There was no success in this story.
Lol!
The Last Ninja 2 on the C64 was awesome, but this NES version is straight up poo. But hey, at least you can still set alligators on fire and poison jungle cats with opium. That's worth something, isn't it?
Yep.
What happens when you play Stranger Things The Game? Doesn't that count?
Hola cómo lo descargo ese
@@damianjuarez3991 Just Google for NES roms. They're easy to find.
@@NintendoComplete Huh...that's amazing!
@@NintendoComplete ah como
I can see why it's better than Bttf2&3. It's much shorter, for starters.
“Pleepleep-dee, pleepleep-dee, pleepleep-dee, pleepleep-dee…” It’s stuck in my head now! Make it stop!
Ahhh yes ninjas’s worst enemy boats
After watching the AVGN Episode on this game, I’m actually convinced that it’s much harder than it looks. Maybe the player played a lot and got use to the 3D controls, but seeing it looks rather crazy
You did Better then what Bert and Ernie did.
Amusing to imagine Bert and Ernie playing this. Or Stan and Ollie. "Hey Bert, watch out for the bees!" "Mmmmmaaah." "Told you to bee careful. Kkkkkkkkkk."
Ngl, I felt a little bad about splitting up their bromance on the leaderboard.
Alex is wall hacking to a very important place in the thumbnail, if you know what I mean.
You know, it's funny, but as a teenager, for the life of me I couldn't figure out what that chain was. In my 13yo head, I imagine it to be a soiled feminine hygiene product and that the person who soiled it was probably long since dead from TSS.
@@NintendoComplete Yeah, it's pretty easy to forget that those kinds of toilets are a thing - I don't exactly major in Toilets Of The World but I believe they're more common in Britain, where The Last Ninja was created (unless Theme Hospital and Two Point Hospital are lying to me about the toilets).
@@YukaTakeuchiFan Yeah, I don't ever remember seeing one of those types of toilets in the states, but they're common in England.
The face on the bottom right is so Uncanny imo
I love how that face and a random picture of the Statue of Liberty are there just to fill up screen space.
1st stage - Italo disco soundtrack :)
Blue Monday (New Order). Can't compete with Ben Daglish "The Wastelands".
This is NOT The Last Ninja. There was at LEAST one additional ninja to exist during this period...
Ryu Hayabusa. (Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom was released for the NES in 1991.)
But it's the first on a Nintendo console. Nintendo made them do it or the game wasn't getting manufactured.
Gotta show this to The Angry Video Game Nerd...
Will AVGN going to review the game for this one.
I enjoy games with ninja in a present day setting. Unfortunately a lot of them go the supernatural route, I just want to nunchuck gang members, evil security types and such. I play Mark of the Ninja and Saboteur a lot.
good job with the game. my god its the world's dumbest ninja out there. He can easily get hurt walks around wearing a black ninja garb in broad daylight and can be easily hurt and taken out even by incets. its a miracle you finished the game
Omg I hate the bees. Thanks!
The music sounds like the Commodore 64 theme remixed by Codemasters.
Or like someone fantasizing about working at Codemasters when they grow up.
Nice!
Well, the loading screens are faster on this version. That's... that's about all I got that I can say positively about this. The visuals look similar to the C64 but man are they cramped up there, there's no dynamic blinking portrait of Armakuni (d'oh, I read his name at first being Kunitoki!) or anything else. At least he retains his polite combat style of not murdering anyone. The music isn't bad-sounding, but it's so neutered compared to the original it's not even funny. At least they tried, and yes, thank heaven this isn't _BttF 2&3_ .
This mess! Well done, NC!!
Ty!
I didn't know this game, the sprites are big and the graphics are well detailed.
What the hell is a sprite?
@@birdbathd1918 A pixie.
@@NintendoComplete A supernatural being.
@@birdbathd1918 a MOb
@@birdbathd1918A sprite is a term for the animated characters in games
AVGN tore this apart.
I was gonna say, if he saw how easy this guy made the boat jumps look, he'd go Super Saiyan
@@thestraydog Yup.
This game totally deserves it.
@@NintendoComplete Yes.
he didn't need to because film n stuff already did in 2009
For what it is, not bad
The AVGN said it won game of the year, that was actually from Commodore User Magazine in their March 1989 issue.
The sad part about the soundtrack is, the NES is quite capable of emulating the C64 sounds. The is no excuses for it to sound so awful like that.
It was just Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway that understood the SID chip. Had they composed for the NES, you'd catch more Japanese composers copying their style. Rob Hubbard only composed 2 games for the NES himself (I'm not counting Skate/Ski or die, Konami used their own people to program his compositions)
Until seeing the AVGN episode, I never knew that this was the second in a series of games. Or that it was originally on the Commodore 64. The terrible music is particularly baffling to me. The NES can do a good job of emulating the C64's sound. And the C64 soundtrack is awesome too. So how did stuff like *_this_* happen during the transition from PC to console? (6:52)
Beam Software is your answer.
Don't lie, how many save states for jumping across the river? :D
I just memorized where to jump from and when.
Is this TAS? Those boat jumps are humanly impossible to nail on first try
this game is so hard for me hehe
He went into the female's wahroom, that's advanced for the 80's
Why so many complaints about this game, It's rather good. The final battle music is excellent.
My god! The hours of painful practice this must've took. I never played this game, but I agree that it looks BTTF 2&3 awful. 🤢
What year was this game produced, and is it difficult to play bro?
You're better off playing the Commodore 64 version. The NES version had terrible movement and terrible music. The original (the c64 version) was out in 1988, the NES version was out in 1990. Nintendo forced the name change
@Nintendo I didn't post it that way. Last Ninja 2 was the first Last Ninja on a Nintendo console, so Nintendo wouldn't allow the name Last Ninja 2 even though it's a sequel on another system, it's the first Last Ninja on a Nintendo system, so it had to be The Last Ninja. They did the same to the Final Fantasy franchise as well.
@@scottythegreat1 Oh, I was wrong about your comment, I'm sorry. I agree with your opinion, The Last Ninja as far as I have played on NES emulator, C64 is still the trump card for that game, because I play on NES feel its sound is really bad like you said, but the C64 will be easier to adapt since it's one of the best gaming PCs from the 80s, so The Last Ninja playing on C64 is really cool (comment from my point of view) 😊😊😊
Graphics and sound effects greatly improved from Commodore 64 version, but that music? Yikes.
Nahihirapan ako sa laro na to nung bata ako
9:03kick ass
PLEASE ANSWER ME, is there anyway to kill the bees?? if not, why they have a life bar ?? this question tortured me since I a kid HAHAHAH
They stole paperboy and made it worse
Meron pang nido
bdsm simulator
Jeez the NES sound is awful. Lovely gfx but dire music. The C64 has the best 8 bit version