Ninja JaJaMaru Kun (NES, Wii Virtual Console) Review

Ninja JaJaMaru Kun is a multi-level platformer, bearing some resemblance to Donkey Kong. There’s essentially only one map, however, which is 4 levels (totaling a single screen) high, and about 2 screens wide. JaJaMaru Kun (henceforth, JJM) can travel from one level to the next by breaking specific bricks and jumping through the resulting gap. He only has two moves: shoot and jump, and he’s not particularly gifted at either of them. Each level is cleared by killing all of the enemies, which is always eight.

The interesting element is that simply bumping into an enemy doesn’t kill JJM. It doesn’t even stun him. The only way to die is to be hit by an enemy projectile, which JJM can deflect with his own shurikens. This makes the game feel much easier than other old school arcade games, but it’s also the game’s most compelling element. JJM can touch enemies without penalty, stun them by jumping on them, and shoot while jumping. This opens the door for some actual, albeit basic, combat strategy. There's a strange, primordial, connection to later games like Zelda II and Warioland. Unfortunately, the ingenuity is spoiled by the fact that all enemies have identical AI, and the only variation in enemy movement involves running left and right.

An ominous bonus stage can be accessed by grabbing the rose petals dropped by the princess. It gives you a chance to finally battle eyepatch dude and rescue the princess. Sadly, this only grants bonus points, and the princess is mysteriously kidnapped upon reaching the next level.

There really isn’t much else to Ninja JaJaMaru Kun. There’s a handful of different backgrounds, including graveyard, palm trees, and the peculiar “shelves” stage. The enemy sprites are somewhat amusing, ranging from suspiciously normal women to skull men. New enemy types are introduced one at a time, with each type being a sort of archaic mini-boss. It’s important to note that Ninja JaJaMaru Kun observes the law of ninja. When there is only one of a certain type of ninja in a stage, that ninja has significantly better AI than if there are multiple sprites of the same type.

Literally, the only other gameplay element to mention is the admitedly diverse selection of power-ups. JJM can turn invisible, become invincible, or get a speed boost (which is actually just a framerate increase that hurts my eyes to watch.) Obtaining all power-ups will unleash a giant psychedelic death frog that JJM can ride around on, devouring anyone in his path. I can’t help but enjoy riding a death frog. I think all games should have death frogs.

And that’s it. You repeat a 20 some stage cycle until you finally die. There’s only two audio tracks, the normal stage music and the bonus stage music. They don’t hurt my brain, but they’re certainly not good enough to listen to for any extended playing of Ninja JaJaMaru Kun. Really the whole game feels that way. I can’t really recommend it, even to arcade enthusiasts. More notable retro classics can offer similar experiences with better execution.

I’m ashamed to say, though, that I keep playing Ninja JaJaMaru Kun. I won’t admit that I like it, but there’s a mind numbing hypnosis to simplistic combat endlessly repeated to a 40 second loop of music. I also enjoy olive green background screens.