Ninja

Year 1986, a computer barely managing smooth movement on screen, and someone decided to make an action game about a ninja. That required either courage or very low standards for yourself. Probably both.

Ninja by Sculptured Software is a straightforward action game for MS-DOS where you control — unsurprisingly — a ninja. The goal is direct: get through levels, defeat enemies, survive. No complex plot, no grand ambitions. In 1986, that was enough.

The gameplay is matter-of-fact and spartan. You move, slash, jump. Controls on the PC keyboard worked, though console versions of this game — if you were lucky enough to play it on another platform — controlled more naturally. The DOS version has that specific stiffness that everyone knows who pulled action games from their computer instead of a game console in the mid-eighties. The difficulty is bearable, which was actually a rare thing back then. The game doesn't try to deliberately kill you every five seconds, which I appreciated back then more than I do now.

What I remember most about Ninja isn't any specific scene or mechanic. It's the feeling that less can be enough. The game didn't try to be more than it could be — and there's a certain purity in that modesty these days. On the other hand, the graphics and sound on PC are rough by period standards. The EGA palette and beeping from the PC speaker aren't a memory you're looking forward to. The game aged exactly as expected in that regard.

Play it today if you're curious what action games looked like in the early days of DOS, or if you like short, straightforward affairs where you spend fifteen minutes and leave satisfied that you experienced it. Nostalgics who grew up with similar games will add half a star more. For others, it serves as a quick probe into a time when a ninja and moving pixels were enough.