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2022-08-26
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u
T H E L A S T N I N J A
for the C-64
by Cleveland M. Blakemore
You stood by the burning ruins of
your dojo, cradling your master's head
in your arms as he breathed his last
breath. Before the light faded from
his eyes, he spoke one final time.
"Grasshopper. You must revenge the
school, or all is lost," he said,
coughing up blood. "Go and get your
uniform out of the dry cleaner's."
"Master, who did this to you?" you
asked.
"You ask who has done this,
tadpole? The temple of Hakuro. The
evil Ninja sect has been raising baby
dragons to use as weapons against
their enemies. You must penetrate the
temple, battle the evil Ninja, and
slay the dragons, or this will happen
to all of Japan!" he said, waving his
hand at the scorched rubble of the
dojo.
"When you have defeated the
guardians of the temple, you will
reach the upper level of
consciousness, and meet your greatest
enemy!" he said as he collapsed.
Right up to the end, none of his
words were in sync with his lips, in
the tradition of the true martial
artist.
The Last Ninja is a multilevel
game with smooth scrolling scenery
from right to left. You are a black
Ninja armed with a sword and an
endless supply of shurikens (throwing
stars).
You must confront a multitude of
deadly opponents, from sword-wielding
evil Ninjas to fire-breathing dragons.
You will also have to learn how to
deflect or avoid flying objects and
use your acrobatic skills to leap
bottomless pits which are placed at
regular intervals throughout the
temple. Each opponent is stronger than
the last, and you may have to hit him
numerous times to destroy him.
You have only one life per game,
with a limited amount of "chi," or
life-force. When this chi is used up,
you are dead.
Being struck by projectiles takes
away chi, and so does falling in pits
or touching your lethal opponents. The
only way to protect yourself is with
your sword and your mobility.
You can raise your sword to block
missiles, and you can do gymnastic
flips over the bottomless pits. You
can flip backwards as well as
forwards, which can come in handy if
you are trying to leap out of the path
of projectiles.
You can also throw shurikens, but
you will soon find it takes a great
deal of practice to develop accuracy.
A shuriken does a great deal of
damage, however, if it makes contact.
The controls, with a joystick in
Port 2, are as follows:
UP: Go into kneeling position. Your
hand will start flicking up and
down. Press the button to release
the shuriken when your hands come
together on the screen to throw
straight ahead of you. Pressing
the button at other angles throws
the shuriken in different
trajectories. When your upper hand
is pointing in the direction you
want the shuriken to fly, press
the button.
DOWN: Go into ducking position. You
will kneel down on all fours. If
you release the joystick, you will
stay at floor level, but holding
it down will cause you to crouch a
little lower.
RIGHT w/button down: Slash sword
right. You can deflect any
projectile that touches you if the
sword is forward when you make
contact with it. If it is back,
the projectile will hit you. If
you strike an opponent with the
sword forward, he will be knocked
back and will suffer damage.
LEFT w/button down: Slash sword left.
Can sometimes be used to hit a
projectile after it has passed
you.
RIGHT and UP: Flip forward. You must
time this move perfectly to leap
over a pit in a spinning flip. If
you time it right, you will land
on the other side safely. If not,
you will fall in and lose
life-force.
LEFT and UP: Flip backwards. If you
are feeling cocky and think you
have the timing down sufficiently
to pull it off, you can use this
move to flip over low flying
objects as they pass under you.
RIGHT: Move right. If you are
kneeling, you will continue to
creep forward on your toes. The
screen scrolls left as you move
along.
LEFT: Move back. The screen will not
scroll when you move left.
When the game begins, you will
appear at the entrance to the temple
in a position of prayer. Move the
joystick to get up. Whenever you
stumble into a pit, you will also need
a moment of prayer to summon your
internal powers before you continue
with your quest.
When you reach each new level in
the temple, the screen border color
will change. This is to alert you that
the level challenger is approaching.
The challenger will not begin to hurl
missiles at you until he has moved 1/4
into the screen. You can use this time
lag to strike him with shurikens. When
he begins to throw missiles, however,
be prepared to duck!
Each challenger has a different
type of projectile, and they travel at
different speeds. The challenger may
hurl a shuriken, fireball, or even a
baby dragon. If you do not duck, you
will lose life-force when you are
struck.
When your chi is completely gone,
the game is over and you will return
to the title screen, with your rank
displayed in the red bar at the
bottom.
The ranks are as follows :
1st level: Adept
2nd level: Shugyo
3rd level: Yudansha
4th level: Tiger
5th level: Dragon
6th level: Ninja
7th level: Shinobi
8th level: Sensi
9th leven: Shidoshi
10th level: Jonin
The game is fairly difficult until
you can master the skills of the
Ninja, so don't be surprised if you
spend a lot of time practicing as an
Adept. You can stay in one place and
practice throwing at projectiles
before moving onto the next level, so
try to develop some accuracy with the
throwing stars!
For those of you who make it, you
will find a very unusual opponent at
the end of the Temple of Hakuro. Here
is a hint...
To be Ninja is to know oneself,
to face the dark side of the
inner soul and conquer....
-Daisuke Nishina
Founder of
Tokakure Ryu Ninjutsu
CMB