NINJA SCOOTER SIMULATOR (CPC)
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Publisher: Sysoft.
Developer: Silverbird. Released: 1988. Genre: Arcade; Assault Course. Posted 30th April 2013. By Chris Weatherley © 2013 |
The Ninja is capable of some cool and bewildering actions, adorned with the fabled Japanese skills of covert operations, martial arts and assassination; they are a figure of adaptability and fortitude. This has been heavily tapped into in the gaming sphere, and as such the Ninja’s pixelised counterpart is capable of some even more extraordinary things. From saving hostages with plentiful shurikens and spells, to commanding an attack-dog or bouncing off street furniture, the Ninja gets much exposure in gaming circles, a trend that continues to this day. They are also quite happy to be taken way out of their natural habitat, and that’s where this CPC title steals the show. A ninja bobbing around on a scooter? No, not the chavy lawnmower engine heaps of sh!t of today, but the stunt scooters of the early nineties and late eighties. A hybrid of BMX and scooter, a ninja scootech as they were known. Did this collision of youth culture and ancient stealth arts work as a video game? Well no, not completely, but it did spring a few pleasant surprises along the way.
Things get off to a good start as you enter the realm of ninja scooting as you are graced with a nice loading screen and colourful, defined graphics. Much more palpable is the BGM which plays constantly throughout the game from the very start. It’s classic 8-bit; extremely melodious and catchy, one of the best off the CPC I would say. In fact, it is the game’s finest feature by a long way. Unfortunately, this fabulous soundtrack puts a heavy cost on the actual game, making it completely devoid of any SFX. It’s totally silent, save for the music continuing on in endless loops. It is really good music, but no other sound does get my goat up when it was perfectly possible to have both. Without getting riled by audio deficiencies, the game screen is also rather small albeit with some nice supporting detail. The scrolling is smooth and easy with no colour glitches, sprites are bold but thin in numbers. The overall presentation is good; it is a nice game to look at, easy on the eye and deceptively exciting.
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I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that's not what ninjas look like
As with a lot of budget games in the late eighties, the word ‘simulator’ was tacked-on to almost every activity, sporting or otherwise. It was soon obvious that the games themselves were no simulation, just third-person arcade jaunts. This is true of Ninja Scooter Simulator; a side-scrolling, against the clock racer, similar to the Namco arcade hit Metro-Cross. Despite what the title and the cover art would imply, there is no arse-kicking of goons involved, no busting out a razor-sharp katana or lurking stealthily in the shadows. It’s just racing against the clock, avoiding obstacles, the odd masked skateboarder, and pulling off a few ‘Rad’ moves as it were. I say a few, because that’s really all you get. Stunt scooter action should be about stunts, and a lot of them. In this you have two options for a trick; a handlebar turn or 360 spin. Not including a normal ramp jump, that’s it! Given the CPC’s capabilities, at least four trick moves could have been programmed without any problems. This has a massively detrimental effect on any lasting enjoyment you might have got out of it, more so considering that the aim of the game is to build a big score, using tricks to up this.
That’s the fundamental problem with all this scooter ninja malarkey, there’s just not a great deal to actually do. The racing action is fine for the most part, with ramps for jumping, heavy surfaces to avoid, cars to jump etc., but that’s where it ends. The time limits are massively generous and almost never pose a challenge, and soon you just yearn for a big muscled brute to pop out and attack your baseball-capped bonce, just so you have something else to get on with. Even as a ninja, you can’t defend yourself anyway. After about eight or ten stages, you realise it’s just the same old stuff in different formations being thrown at you again and again in monotonous waves. What started out as pretty fun stuff becomes boring quickly. Even the backgrounds are less samey; one in the streets, one in the underground and other in a park. All good, and the appearance of the London Tube roundel raises a grin, as does the parked Lamborghini.
That’s the fundamental problem with all this scooter ninja malarkey, there’s just not a great deal to actually do. The racing action is fine for the most part, with ramps for jumping, heavy surfaces to avoid, cars to jump etc., but that’s where it ends. The time limits are massively generous and almost never pose a challenge, and soon you just yearn for a big muscled brute to pop out and attack your baseball-capped bonce, just so you have something else to get on with. Even as a ninja, you can’t defend yourself anyway. After about eight or ten stages, you realise it’s just the same old stuff in different formations being thrown at you again and again in monotonous waves. What started out as pretty fun stuff becomes boring quickly. Even the backgrounds are less samey; one in the streets, one in the underground and other in a park. All good, and the appearance of the London Tube roundel raises a grin, as does the parked Lamborghini.
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We at The Pixel Empire also Hate Hype. Ruinous on our perceptions
With all this repetitiveness, continually unchanging stages and a lack of any real challenge, out of the blue it throws you a curveball. Ninja Scooter Simulator is really addictive, so much so it’s almost impossible to explain why. Maybe the nice graphics and excellent music play a hand in this, because the gameplay exhibits such a lack of depth and longevity it should be (and is) tiresome after the first ten minutes of play. But for some unknown reason, it’s not. It draws you back like a moth to a light, knowing that you will be sick of it after a few levels, but still you’ll return for a few more runs, hoping against the odds that things will liven up. It never does, it’s just the same tedious scrolling you have been through before. That’s what makes this game unusual aside from its title; it’s pretty bad but somehow also… good? Real life ninjas commonly appear to bear this trait too. Hmmmm.
If you’ll excuse the pun, Ninja Scooter Simulator is a bit of a trick missed; so much more could have been done to make this an enjoyable, original and deeper game. It’s so limited in what you can hope to achieve, when it would be simple to add maybe a target score system, an energy bar, some meaner bad guys or some more stunt manoeuvres. Anything to liven things up. With its glossy, bright but small graphics and lovely hum-in-the-car soundtrack, it can just about hold the middle ground and derive some acclamation, but as a playing experience it’s rather empty and results in switching off not long after starting. But still, it does have this inexplicable aspect of pulling you back in, time and time again, and is worth a play just to hear that charismatic music.
If you’ll excuse the pun, Ninja Scooter Simulator is a bit of a trick missed; so much more could have been done to make this an enjoyable, original and deeper game. It’s so limited in what you can hope to achieve, when it would be simple to add maybe a target score system, an energy bar, some meaner bad guys or some more stunt manoeuvres. Anything to liven things up. With its glossy, bright but small graphics and lovely hum-in-the-car soundtrack, it can just about hold the middle ground and derive some acclamation, but as a playing experience it’s rather empty and results in switching off not long after starting. But still, it does have this inexplicable aspect of pulling you back in, time and time again, and is worth a play just to hear that charismatic music.
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VERDICT
Visual: 7/10
Audio: 6/10 Gameplay: 4/10 Longevity: 5/10 OVERALL: 5/10 |