{"id":23272,"date":"2023-04-21T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T00:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=23272"},"modified":"2023-03-13T12:24:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T12:24:13","slug":"binging-on-ninja-jajamaru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/21\/binging-on-ninja-jajamaru\/","title":{"rendered":"Binging on Ninja Jajamaru!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Video game mascots come and go, and one such mascot that a lot of people have never heard of is Ninja Jajamaru.\u00a0 Clad in red, this ninja boy was kind of the mascot for the now defunct game company Jaleco.\u00a0 He appeared in mostly 8-bit games, but they span the range of genres from 2-D platformers to even RPGs!\u00a0 I\u2019ve read that some of these games were even planned to be released in the US under different names, like Ninja Kid, but I don\u2019t remember ever seeing them.\u00a0 Some of these titles could be played with the Nintendo Virtual Console service later on.\u00a0 And if you\u2019ve ever played Retro Game Challenge on the Nintendo DS, the Robot Ninja HaggleMan games are a parody of Ninja Jajamaru.\u00a0 And now there are a couple of collections of Ninja Jajamaru titles you can download on the PS4 and Switch (reviewed on PS4 here).\u00a0 You can also buy physical copies of some of these games via this link<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take a look at these collections!<\/p>\n

The first collection goes under the title \u201cNinja Jajamaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell Bonus.\u201d\u00a0 It houses pretty much most of the main titles in the series, excluding the RPGs (which we\u2019ll go over later).\u00a0 You select each game via a menu, and before you start, you can view the controls, but it only shows you what buttons correspond to the buttons on the old controllers.\u00a0 I wish they did a better job of explaining how to play some of these games, but we\u2019ll talk about those problems with each title.\u00a0 One cool thing about these menus is that you can also activate cheats, like infinite lives and health and such.\u00a0 And for some of these games, those cheats are a godsend as many of these games are super hard due to wonky gameplay and controls.\u00a0 My only big problem with the menus is that once I started a game, I couldn\u2019t figure out how to go back to the menu to select another one.\u00a0 I had to actually stop the game entirely and go back to it from the dashboard.\u00a0 Anyway, let\u2019s take a look at the games on this collection.<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru (NES, 1985)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first game in the series was more like an arcade game, as early Famicom games tended to be.\u00a0 You could move in a small, two screen wide 2D field as you shot ninja stars at Japanese monsters, and picked up their souls for points.\u00a0 You could move up and down levels in the stage by hitting certain parts from below.\u00a0 When you beat al the enemies, you would move onto the next level.\u00a0 It really had that early Famicom \u2018jank\u2019 to it, but it still had a bit of charm anyway.<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru\u2019s Big Adventure (NES, 1986)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably due to Super Mario Bros\u2019 popularity, the next game was more of a 2-D platformer.\u00a0 You could still shoot ninja stars at enemies, and sometimes you would shoot them upwards to defeat a boss.\u00a0 It still had that early Famicom \u2018jank,\u2019 too.\u00a0 The cheats you can activate on the menu screen really help here.<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru: The Great World Adventure (Game Boy, 1990)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This black and white Game Boy game is also a 2-D platformer.\u00a0 You travel around stages based on world locations like Japan, Romania, and even America to defeat enemies you\u2019d find there, like Dracula in Romania and such.\u00a0 This is one of those games that I wish told you more how to play in the menu, as I had trouble figuring out how to switch weapons.\u00a0 There is also a DX version included on this collection that has color graphics like the Game Boy Color.<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru: Operation Milky Way (NES, 1991)<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can really tell this one came out after Super Mario Bros. 3 because the graphics are very cartoony and have that same style.\u00a0 You can pick from Ninja Jajamaru or Princess Sakura, but I think they both play the same.\u00a0 The game is set in space as you travel to different planets, and it has a sillier tone, too.\u00a0 You have to press down to stomp enemies from above, and you have a spin dash move to jump higher.\u00a0\u00a0 But I wish the game menus still told you better how to play because I have no idea what the power-ups and letters you collect do. \u00a0I would say the cheats are helpful here but what kills you the most in this one is falling into pits.\u00a0 The wonky controls just kept me from coming back.\u00a0 I hear this was one of the games they almost brought to the US, as it\u2019s fully translated here.<\/p>\n

Super Ninja-kid (SNES, 1994)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m really glad this one\u2019s on the collection because I love Super Nintendo games.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if this came out over here, but it\u2019s fully translated in English.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a cross between Super Bonk and Legend of the Mystical Ninja.\u00a0 You can throw ninja stars and get new weapons every time you beat a boss.\u00a0 Two players can play at the same time, too.\u00a0 This is another game where I wish they told you better how to play, because I had no idea you could pick up enemies and toss them, and you have to do that to defeat one of the bosses.\u00a0 The cheats are especially welcome here, as this one is super hard!\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t have been able to beat this one without them!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And those are all the games on this collection.\u00a0 The press release says it also has a game that came out in 2020 called Ninja Jajamaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell, but I didn\u2019t see it in the menus.\u00a0 But there was a bit of confusion with the review codes I got.\u00a0 OK now let\u2019s look at the next game collection:<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru: The Lost RPGs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next collection only has two games, but they\u2019re a lot meatier and longer.\u00a0 You still select them from a menu, and luckily here you can open the menu at any time to switch games, unlike the other collection.\u00a0 The cheats here are really cool.\u00a0 You can do things like make enemies drop more experience points and gold, and refill your energy at any time.\u00a0 Anyway, here are the games.<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru: Ninja Skill Book (1989)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This game plays most like Dragon Quest, or Dragon Warrior as it was called back then.\u00a0 Ninja Jajamaru must travel an overworld and defeat single enemies in random turn based encounters.\u00a0 You can have other people in your party, like Sakura.\u00a0 As you level up, you\u2019ll learn ninja magic skills like healing and such.\u00a0 I read this was one of the games they were really planning on releasing in the US back then, and even changed some of the graphics to appeal to a Western audience.\u00a0 And it\u2019s fully translated, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit slow and obtuse, as 8-bit RPGs tended to be, but fans of classic games like this should enjoy it anyway.<\/p>\n

Ninja Jajamaru: The Legend of the Golden Castle (1990)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now this one I\u2019ve never heard of.\u00a0 You view the action from overhead like the last game, and visit towns and travel a Mario style overworld map.\u00a0 But the stages are more action based like Zelda!\u00a0 You use a yo-yo as an attack and must explore dungeon mazes for key items.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of neat, but also a bit hard since hit detection feels a little off, and it\u2019s no where near as good as the first Zelda game.\u00a0 But I was glad to learn about it.\u00a0 And those are all the games!\u00a0 I\u2019m really glad I got to review these, and if you like obscure classics, you\u2019ll want to play them, too!<\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both collections are rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Language.\u00a0 You shoot ninja stars and other weapons at cartoony enemies that fall off the screen with googly eyes when defeated.\u00a0 Aside from the word \u201chell,\u201d I didn\u2019t notice any bad language.\u00a0 Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find them too difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Video game mascots come and go, and one such mascot that a lot of people have never heard of is Ninja Jajamaru.\u00a0 Clad in red, this ninja boy was kind of the mascot for the now defunct game company Jaleco.\u00a0 He appeared in mostly 8-bit games, but they span the range of genres from 2-D […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23274,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23272\/revisions\/23274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}