Last Ninja 2 [C64]
by Shaun Watters

There are certain games you play in your childhood that leave a 
lasting impression on you. Games that blew your mind back in the 
day and give you a warm glow of nostalgia when played today. Last 
Ninja 2 is one of those games for me, so you're gonna have to get 
past me reviewing it with rose-tinted glasses... But damn! The game 
rocks! 

Last Ninja 2 was the first game I ever saw on the C64. Up until then 
I had a ZX Spectrum, as did all my friends. Next thing I know a new
kid moves into the street and brings his C64 with him. Boy! Did it 
blow me away! For those who were not even a twinkle in their Dad's 
eyes back in the eighties, the ZX Spectrum was huge back in the day. 
It had crap sound and monochrome graphics but had hundreds of great 
games. The C64's graphics were in full colour and had three channel 
sound and proper synth music instead of the Speccy's crappy one 
channel bleeper. [Oi! Don't be so hard on the poor old Speccy. The 
128K editions had an AY sound chip which was three channel also.
 zYX!] 

The thing that still draws me back to this game is the music. Written 
by the C64 musical god: Matt Grey. But anyway, back to the game! 

Last Ninja 2 at heart is a 3D adventure game with fiendish puzzles and
a healthy sprinkling of combat thrown into the mix. The story, to be 
honest, is a load of bollocks! The big bad shogun from Last Ninja has 
been brought back from the dead and dragged you from 14th century Japan 
to nineteen-eighties New York. 

Now I did say it's in 3D but none of this swanky multi camera angle 
malarkey. Last Ninja2 is in good old fashioned isometric. Think Mario 
RPG, Head Over Heels, Knightlore and all those crappy Gameboy Advance
conversions of half decent PlayStation games like Tony Hawk's and Spyro. 

The graphics are detailed and colourful but, let's be honest, if you're 
after flashy visuals go and play Last Ninja 4 on the XBox. 

The game's set in six locations starting in Central Park and you've 
basically gotta walk around, kick some ass, solve some puzzles and 
listen to some fantastic tunes! It's one of THE iconic game series' 
from the eighties slash nineties and, hell, the download is only 64K 
so you really haven't got any reason not to play this classic game... 
Do you!