Published by the American branch of Telenet Japan, Renovation Products, this Mega CD port of Ninja Hayate is weirdly US exclusive despite the traditional Japan theme. Like the classic Time Gal (another Taito game), and Data East's Road Avenger and Cobra Command, Revenge of the Ninja was ported by Wolf Team. It's another very competent job, even if the game itself is more forgettable than the others.
If you're not familiar with that style of interactive movies, it's basically a QTE game. You've got button prompts appearing on the screen (here's it's the four directions and an action button), and if you don't press it in time, say goodbye to one life. It sounds simple but you'll probably need some memorization to beat Revenge of the Ninja since the timing is quite strict. It took me a while to figure it out and I almost gave up, but after playing a bit more it suddenly clicked and I managed to beat it. Well it's quite short after all, there's 19 "levels" (scenes would be more appropriate) but some end very quickly. If you want a real challenge there's also a hard mode that disables the button prompts (yeah, screw that).
The original Laserdisc game was animated by Toei and it looks good even after being butchered by the Mega CD video compression. There's a bit of a Lupin the Third influence with its goofy ninja protagonist infiltrating an evil castle and barely staying alive, but compared to the inventiveness of Time Gal or the hectic first-person action of Road Avenger, it's quite dull. Wolf Team did improve it by adding music (composed by Shinji Tamura) since the original arcade version had none!
A decent FMV game, but not the most exciting offering in an already very niche genre.
If you're not familiar with that style of interactive movies, it's basically a QTE game. You've got button prompts appearing on the screen (here's it's the four directions and an action button), and if you don't press it in time, say goodbye to one life. It sounds simple but you'll probably need some memorization to beat Revenge of the Ninja since the timing is quite strict. It took me a while to figure it out and I almost gave up, but after playing a bit more it suddenly clicked and I managed to beat it. Well it's quite short after all, there's 19 "levels" (scenes would be more appropriate) but some end very quickly. If you want a real challenge there's also a hard mode that disables the button prompts (yeah, screw that).
The original Laserdisc game was animated by Toei and it looks good even after being butchered by the Mega CD video compression. There's a bit of a Lupin the Third influence with its goofy ninja protagonist infiltrating an evil castle and barely staying alive, but compared to the inventiveness of Time Gal or the hectic first-person action of Road Avenger, it's quite dull. Wolf Team did improve it by adding music (composed by Shinji Tamura) since the original arcade version had none!
A decent FMV game, but not the most exciting offering in an already very niche genre.