WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - 3 Ninjas Kick Back

I love the Sega CD. And I love the 16-bit era in general. I'm not sure if that sentiment is purely based on nostalgia, or if it truly was one of the greatest gaming eras ever, but I'm gonna go with the latter for now.

Playing Ys Book I & II as our latest Game Club game has rekindled my passion for 16-bit CD games. And since I've spent way too much money and time collecting a bunch of Sega CD games, I've decided it's time to actually, legitimately play them. And since CJ says I have to contribute to the show blog once in a while, I've decided to share my resulting thoughts with all of you.

Unfortunately, the first selection makes a greater case for nostalgia than it does for the 16-bit era being the great one.

Although they would go on to be the catalyst in Sega's eventual exit from the console market, Sony provided pretty decent third-party support for the Sega CD throughout its lifetime with a mixture of movie-licensed platformers and full-motion-video titles.

The movie-licensed stuff usually ended up being nothing more than copies of their Genesis counterparts featuring redbook audio drawn right from the film's score. To be fair, that didn't always happen (Cliffhanger and Bram Stoker's Dracula are good examples of that), but in the case of the abysmal 3 Ninjas Kick Back, I'm pretty sure it's exactly what's going on.

Why am I not completely sure? Well, two reasons - the game is so bad I can't be bothered to see if the Genesis/SNES versions were identical to this one; and I honestly can't get past the first group of levels. There's a particular scene where a boulder is chasing me down a long slope (for no particular reason) that has vexed me for long enough that I just don't care whether I see the rest of the game at this point.

EDIT: Actually, there was some content added to the game in the form of 3D hanglider missions, pictured here. That's pretty much the same approach taken with Cliffhanger – they added 3D snowboarding missions to that one.

Well, I should point out that, on top of the "real" music, 3 Ninjas does feature a bit of video footage. Before certain levels, the old man I can only assume is your Sensei will pop up and explain what he wants you to do in that area. He'll also appear during the continue screen in order to explain that you have to hit start to continue. This grainy, FMV crap is why I loved this system.

Otherwise, 3 Ninjas is a pretty standard action platformer with a horrible difficulty curve. It's more or less identical to the style of play found in Sony Imagesoft's other licensed platformers -- especially Hook (another one that made the jump to the Sega CD -- in fact it was sold in a two-pack with this very game).

Thank god I didn't actually spend any money on this game back when the system was shiny and new. Years later, playing as a collector, I can simply shake my head at how bad it is and move on. Had I spent upwards of $100 on this junk back then, I can only imagine the depression that would have followed.

After all, our self-worth is measured by the relative success or failure of the games systems we own, right?

It seems this series has gotten off to a rather depressing start. Oh well. Up next: The Adventures of Batman & Robin!