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Released In: 1990 The children of New York City are being kidnapped and it's up to you, a lone purple ninja known as The Black Manta to save the day. On your quest to find the missing children, you'll learn secret ninja magic and fly kites. You'll also fight evil ninjas, a totem pole, a voodoo warrior, and a powerful crime syndicate. Along the way, you'll single-handedly win the war on drugs. Syd Lexia: For years, I couldn't remember what this game was called, only that the first boss was an enormous tattooed man named Tiny. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I was eventually able to track it down. Despite its rather silly storyline, this is a pretty solid game. Unfortunately, the end boss is terrible. Valdronius: It's a little hard to take this game seriously. It starts off promisingly, with a title screen that shows a ninja and has BLACK MANTA written in cool Japanese-style letters. Then the story starts, something about children disappearing in New York. Then a phone rings, and our ninja hero wonders who is calling in the middle of the night. Of course, the hero is dressed in his full ninja garb, because ninjas sleep in their gear. Then his faceless master appears, prompting the very traditional ninja to ask, "Master, what's up?" We then find out that the master's youngest student has been kidnapped, but being the sharp boy that he is, he was able leave a note, detailing where exactly the kidnappers were keeping him, despite the fact that he hadn't been abducted yet. Within seconds of starting the first level you find a note on the ground that says "The man in red knows something". You then discover that it was Santa Claus all along and the game ends. Dr. Jeebus: I have no idea what this game is about and I don't care. The Wrath of the Black Manta is awesome, and having recently replayed it, I wish I had rated it higher than I did. This game has everything you could ever want from a ninja-related game. Specifically, you can actually do good old-fashioned ninjutsu such as kage bunshin (Art of the Shadow). If you have it set to one of your active ninja abilities, you can hold the attack button down to make a shadow clone appear above you and mimic everything you do... yes, even throw shurikens. It only lasts for five seconds, but it's incredibly powerful and useful. If I had to complain about this game, my complaint would be that it's too easy. There isn't any problem in this game that you can't solve by simply ducking and throwing shit. Well, except for the bosses. |
