GBAtemp Recommends: Ninja Five-O

[Another World]

GBAtemp Recommends! Ninja Five-O
G.R. Issue #17 (GBA)


Welcome, as we chop our way through the seventeenth issue of GBAtemp Recommends! - a weekly magazine feature in which we share our favorite Game Boy Advance titles. The games we recommend may be top titles from the GBA library, a homebrew, or they may be sleeper hits that flew by the radar, but one thing's certain, they're all fantastic games that deserve your play time!

GBAtemp Recommends!

Ninja Five-O

Classic time tested elements wrapped with an arcade ribbon, sold and then forgotten, make for perfect recommendations. Ninja Five-O is the story of a cop (5-0, get it?) who sets out to defeat an evil criminal ring influenced by magical ninja-relic masks, while saving hostages and disposing of bad guys. The game stays true to the ninja-genre while being successfully inspired by Rolling Thunder, Revenge of Shinobi and Bionic Commando.

From swinging shuriken throws to magical ninja attacks, graphics are highly detailed and beautifully animated. Well planned levels can be entertainingly traversed, leading towards a required color-coded key, and inevitably to a boss battle. Enemies attack only when you enter their field of view, an element for which stealth attacks would have fit nicely. The Button layout keeps movement accessible without the need for over-the-top combinations. A hardcore repetitive soundtrack manages to stay fresh while inspiring the need to slay brutally as you go. Game play remains simple through quick pick-up-and-play arcade style level design even when harder difficulty settings increase the challenge. Players must endure as the later stages, and the actual ending, are not available from the 'easy' mode.

Developed by Hudson Soft and published by Konami, Ninja Five-O was skipped by most players due to its name and generic looking U.S. box art. Regardless of a few insignificant shortcomings, gamers can rest assured this addictive old-school inspired side-scrolling action romp packs a fun challenge for every level of play. Its good to the last chop!

• Six missions, including more than 20 levels
• Three difficulty setting, one unlockable
• Time Trial mode
• Voted #23/25 top GBA games of all time (IGN)
• When your special attack meter fills, hold A+B to unleash ninja-magic!

Spoiler: Intro/Game Play Video

0927 - Ninja Cop (E) (Advance-Power)

1047 - Ninja Five-O (U) (Trashman)

Genre: Action/Beat'um-up
Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Konami
Dump Date: 15/06/2003
ROM Size: 32 Mbits

If you enjoyed this weeks edition of GBAtemp Recommends! please leave a comment in the thread. This helps us monitor feedback and ensures we keep posting these magazine articles in the future.

Special thanks to SoulAnger - A true ninja!

View in G-Online

Game Profile at IGN

Official GBAtemp Recommends! Mini-Page & History

Discuss

 

[Smef]

Good choice of game! This is definitely a less-known title that was actually pretty good.

 

[hepheisto]

looks interesting, but I dont get the 5-0 thing >.>

 

[WildWon]

looks interesting, but I dont get the 5-0 thing >.>

Five-O is a nickname for police in the US (and some other places as well). One major reasons for its use is from Hawaii Five-O (an american cop drama from the 70's... ironically set in Hawaii lol). Think that should cover it

 

[Maz7006]

Yay, a new update

Wow i can't believe i missed this. O yeah and ermmmmmm thanks GBAtemp

, im glad you kept this

 

[Hadrian]

A classic GBA title, sort of like Ninja Gaiden meets Bionic Commando. I wish Konami did more of these Arcade titles, they seem to have forgotten their roots somewhat.

Who wants a DS or WiiWare sequel?

 

[Another World]

looks interesting, but I dont get the 5-0 thing >.>

the article contains an underlined hyperlink, which you missed. go back and click on the 5-0 link.

-another world

 

[Absynthe]

Why is this called "GBATemp Recommends:" while the others are called "GBATemp Recommends!"?
By the way I did not know this game. Thanks for the amazing work, keep up these Recommends, I love reading 'em.

 

[Zamo]

A classic GBA title, sort of like Ninja Gaiden meets Bionic Commando. I wish Konami did more of these Arcade titles, they seem to have forgotten their roots somewhat.

Who wants a DS or WiiWare sequel?

Hell yes, this game is awesome. I had so much fun with it, I'm quite surprised this is only featuring now on Recommends, this was the first game I thought of when this series started.

 

[bladerx]

This is one of my favorite titles on GBA. I'm so sad Konami has no plans, at least that I know off, to do another one.

 

[JPH]

Moved to Gaming News
whammmooo

(Hey it was costello's idea to do this..plus the article will be seen more)

btw this game looks kickass, definitely will try out

 

[arctic_flame]

There's a speedrun of this game here: http://tasvideos.org/1257M.html

Entertaining if you've played it already.

 

[Hadrian]

Moved to Gaming News
whammmooo

(Hey it was costello's idea to do this..plus the article will be seen more)

btw this game looks kickass, definitely will try out

We should have that dainty little box up there too, you know above site navigation.

 

[xanth]

Hell yes, this game is awesome. I had so much fun with it, I'm quite surprised this is only featuring now on Recommends, this was the first game I thought of when this series started.

Haha, me too actually.

I remember after discovering this one randomly and getting addicted to it, I put it, along with a bunch of other more well-known GBA titles on my school's network a few years back.

A couple days after I did that, my hallmate comes over and knocks on my door, asking if I had played this Ninja 5-0 game I had put up. :-D

 

[xoinx]

There's a speedrun of this game here: http://tasvideos.org/1257M.html

Entertaining if you've played it already.

aww, brings back old memories...! used to participate quite actively in that forum, damn addictive once you start learning about TASes... and seeing how the community breaks classic games to smithereens lol

oh, i made a movie for the site too, for genesis game called comix zone. probably one of the most underrated games on the genesis.

for those wanting to see something a run on more popular games, check out the Super Mario 64 movies (0 star, 1 star, 16 star etc)-- the route planning is amazing for those runs-- , the genesis and gba Sonic runs-- the pace of the gameplay is crazy fast and amazingly glitched-- and nes rockman series--classic gaming at it's best, tas at it's glitchiest.

 

[cupajoe]

Ah. The classic Ninja Five-O, signed off for its terrible box art, but awesome to play.

 

[Pizzaroo]

AH IT WAS THIS GAME! I was thinking about what the title of this game was the other day. "The one where you have to kick guy with gun ass as a ninja"

 

[Goshogun1]

Awesome game that I am sure received very little attention. One of my all-time favorite GBA games of all time. It reminded me of Shinobi and Bionic Commando combined into one.

 

[SkankyYankee]

Its a good game, reminds me of shinobi for Gamegear.

It should be called Ninja Po-po.

 

[knl]

I remember when this game was involved in a quiz answer on gbatemp. >_>
when I saw it I played it for a while and it was pretty cool, I usually don't like this sort of game for whatever reason but it kept me entertained for a few hours