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Virtual Console Roundup Review
Wii Retro Review by Dan Whitehead
Page 2 of 2.
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World Games
- Platform: C64
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 5 (approx)
Two weeks ago, California Games graced the C64 channel, and it must have done rather well since here comes its even more bizarre sequel. Based around a series of events culled from the traditional pastimes of various nations, you get to take part in such offbeat exercises as weightlifting, barrel jumping, cliff diving, slalom skiing, log rolling, bull riding, caber toss and sumo wrestling.
As with California Games, the execution varies from one event to another. Weightlifting, cliff-diving and barrel-jumping are all immediately appealing and good fun, relying on good timing rather than mindless mashing. The others, however, suffer from sluggish responses or poor animations that leave unable to react in time. Log-rolling and bull-riding both require you to instantly respond to minor changes in a rudimentary animation cycle, but modern gamers will find it far too clumsy. Slalom-skiing is virtually unplayable - a jerky sloth-like experience that doesn't even hold a candle to the blue blobby wonder of Horace Goes Skiing.
While the presentation is top notch, with chirpy renditions of national anthems and optional info screens offering background history on each event, the hit-to-miss ratio is still skewed too far in the wrong direction.
4/10
The Last Ninja
- Platform: C64
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 5 (approx)
This was one of those 8-bit games that I've always meant to revisit. Back in 1987 it was covered in sexy kisses by every reviewer, and went on to become the best-selling Commodore 64 game ever made. But...I never really liked it all that much.
Yes, the isometric 3D was impressive and it had a ninja and you could use throwing stars and stuff. But it always had a rather fussy control system, and that's what really trips it up fatally on the Virtual Console. I can accept that my tepid reaction at the age of 14 was down to personal taste, but playing it today on both the Wiimote and Classic Controller, I found it pretty much unplayable.
Your ninja moves in whatever direction you press, but he'll stay facing in the same direction unless you rotate him through all the directions manually. A sort of rudimentary strafe mode, if you like, but one that translates horribly from the joysticks of old to today's tiny d-pad. Selecting weapons and inventory items means calling up the keyboard, flipping the remote around to point and click on the relevant key, then flipping it horizontally again to continue playing. The game doesn't pause while you're doing this, so not only is it an enormous fiddle to pull off, it can be fatal if you need to change weapons mid-fight.
Even basic functions such as picking things up and hand-to-hand combat are bollocksed up by the change in control method, with diagonals and directions very hard to find with any consistent accuracy. Regardless of my first teenage reaction, I'm happy to accept that The Last Ninja was one of the greats - at least when played in 1987 with a joystick. Played on a console, with all the control concessions required, it's something of a horror show.
3/10
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The Last Ninja
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Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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JohnnyWashnGo
25/04/08 @ 13:25
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Yes, I used to love Last Ninja games but by god were they hard to control.
Even a stupid thing like picking up an item required pixel perfect positioning. And don't even consider jumping over a river using logs because you could spend all weekend marking out the exact place to stand on each log with a marker pen on you TV set ;)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 25/04/08 @ 14:25
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TriggerHippie
25/04/08 @ 13:39
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I'd give Last Ninja 4/10 just for the music :)
Didn't like it at the time? I remember hating the controls, being frustrated to the point of throwing my joystick away, but still being totally absorbed and compelled to keep playing. I guess I wasn't as critical, being a sage-like 15 year old at the time lol. (Oooh 4 edits. One more and I level up!)
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 25/04/08 @ 14:55
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Lol I remember the horribly broken controls and still occasionally wake up sweating at 3am with the vision of pixel perfect log jumping imprinted on my reddened retinas.
But anyways, being the next American Ninja reincarnate, or at least that's what I thought at age seven, I absolutely loved the games to death and would definitely download Last Ninja 3. |
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Last Ninja was never any good at the time—people were bowled over by its graphics and admittedly excellent music. But it was always fiddly, with run-of-the-mill gameplay. The Wii version sounds utterly horrendous. Modern gamers should just download the HVSID collection to experience the best bit of the game.
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Waffleaber
25/04/08 @ 14:42
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Good. I hate Last Ninja.
I had it on the BBC Micro and couldn't play it for more than 5 minutes without getting killed. Once I played until I got eaten by a dragon and thought I'd done really well, but then I was 10 at the time. |
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TriggerHippie
25/04/08 @ 15:44
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"Funny how, while everybody reckons Last Ninja always had shitty controls, the reviewer manages to put it down as a fault of the new controllers."
I suppose it wasn't the controls that were the problem for me, just getting the guy to land on those tiny bloody stones in the rivers :S On a side note, half of the VC c64 releases and a great many other better games are available on those plug'n'play c64 joystick things. Much better value for those that don't have an old c64 knocking about. Mine still gets dragged out for drunken Laser Squad grudge matches :P
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 25/04/08 @ 16:59
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The Last Ninja games were never about action, to be fair. It was about exploring. They could've made the action slightly less annoying, though. The atmosphere in the games are top-notch, and the artistic style is lovely and colorful. But the controls have always annoyed me.
The controls were always flawed, but the game was always and will always be a classic. |
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The Bodybuilder
26/04/08 @ 09:27
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Wait wait wait, so let me just get this straight.....
You mean to tell me that thier were consoles BEFORE the playstation? |
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Fozzie_bear
26/04/08 @ 11:30
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"But...I never really liked it all that much."
Bias = fail. Having an opinion = success |
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Hello Eurogamer
Please buy an arcade joystick before reviewing any more Commodore 64 games on Virtual Console. http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-113-... http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-113-... Giving The Last Ninja 3/10 mainly because it's hard to control with a joypad seems a bit odd to me when there are joysticks out there. It plays wonderfully with both of the joysticks above. Truly wonderfully. So don't make people miss out on the C64 love just because of the controls. Just state in the review, below the score for example, that it should be played with a joystick, and give the game a proper score. |
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Playing with a joypad wasn't the problem itself, but being forced to bring up the virtual keyboard every time you want to change inventory weapon/item or use item.
I don't have any C64 VC titles myself so I can't try it, but would it be possible that they've allowed a USB keyboard to be used for that, since the Wii supports it in various other channels? Maybe someone could try. |
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Playing with a joypad wasn't the problem itself, but being forced to bring up the virtual keyboard every time you want to change inventory weapon/item or use item.
Are you sure that you can't change items and weapons with any of the joypad buttons? When playing with the NeoGeo-joystick you can change items and weapons with the buttons R and B. So with that one it works even better than on the original C64. Don't miss out on this one people. Just buy a stick.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 29/04/08 @ 19:48
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BlueJedi360
23/05/08 @ 15:48
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I love the Last Ninja i had it on both the commodore 64 and the acorn electron the sequels were good two and theres loads of fan remakes on the offical fan site for the last ninja games.
My favourite commodore 64 games were cj elephant antics, last ninja, Flimbos quest, chase hq. |
Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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