Reviews

1987 Imagine Software (UK)
by Gary Knight and Simon Butler

I remember enjoying this game in the year of it's release because it had a similar feel to 'Ghost n' Goblins' or 'Rygar', and I loved both games. But it looks to have been made in a hurry. Keys are unresponsive, graphics are sometimes stupid (for example,when climbing), and the game itself feels short of appeal. I finished it in 3 plays, so its one of the easiest games I've played so far. Never saw the arcade version but I bet it was a lot better. In spite all that it's still very playable, only not as good as other similar games.

There is something quite special about this game . I mean , it is complex enough to keep you interested and it´s got depth .

There are some dark passages in it , the ninjas come from every way , and their leaps are huge , they really bounce like kangaroos .


It isn´t hard nor easy , just ok . And the atmosphere within the game is really superb , it got me captivated .


3,5 out of 5 .

[Imagine Software]
by Gary Knight, Simon Butler

This conversion of a Taito coin op by Imagine is copyrighted 1986, but its first review was in February 1987 - how should I consider it? Anyway, it wasn't well received, shot down by Sinclair User and Crash, with a decent review from YS only, now it's got about 5.5/10 in WoS. Personally, I've always thought it's good fun, a playable platform with shuriken shooting galore and some healthy beating here and there.

In the first level, your "bae", as they say these days, is kidnapped in the wood, and you're chased by couples of high leaping ninjas, and the nice thing is that your sprite's movements are quite ductiles, and you can even turn while jumping, face the opposite direction and shoot, just like in some old Japanese cartoon. Another nice thing is how high you can jump and climb, reaching the top of the trees. At the end of the level there's a not very sympathetic fire spitting bloke.

In the second level you move along the walls of the castle or palace of your girlfriend's kidnapper, even proceeding underwater while breathing through a bamboo cane or something.

Third level, upward jumping all the way. While in the fourth you have a lot of stairs to climb. The game seems a bit short and not exactly very hard, but the dynamism of your character and the slight differences among the levels make it entertaining enough. Cool sounding music too.

3,5/5

There's something charmingly daft about this leaping ninja game.

Conversion of a Taito coin-op where you as the young Kage must save his beloved Kiri from an evil wizard, battling against wave after wave of ninjas. Bland graphics, sparse sound and incredibly easy gameplay make Legend Of Kage one of the lamest coin-op Spectrum conversions. Mind you, the original wasn't exactly Taito's most exciting title to be honest, so as a conversion in itself it's not that bad.

A rubbish Taito arcade game gets a rubbish Spectrum port.

The arcade original was not great at all and so this wasn't going to be great either. However, I will say it's margainly better than the arcade version as I found this more playable in comparison.