The Nintendo Entertainment System is home to several bad-ass ninjas: Ryu Hayabusa, Kage,
and even Ninja Kid's Kyo—okay, not so much Ninja Kid, but the others are pretty
sweet!
But the question remains--which NES ninja is the most radical of them all?
Following the success of 1984's Kung-Fu Master, Irem wasted little time in releasing
yet another martial arts-themed game, this time taking place in Feudal Japan.
Kid Niki: Radical Ninja was released for arcades in late 1986, with the US version localized
by Data East.
Not long after, in 1987, a home version was released for the NES, also published by Data
East.
Training in his dojo, Kid Niki is interrupted by a homing pigeon struck down by an arrow
with a note attached from none other than Princess Margo, pleading for rescue from the
loathsome clutches of the evil Stone Wizard.
With a butchered battle cry of bad "Engrish", Kid Niki busts through the wall of the dojo
and sets off on his quest.
Kid Niki is your basic, '80s platformer, where you navigate through stages moving from
left to right, all of the while avoiding numerous enemies, traps and pitfalls.
Equipped with a spinning sword, Niki fends off against hordes of evil ninjas from close
range.
Now don't be fooled by the cuteness of these adorable baddies—one hit and you're dead!
Each of the eight stages begins with a title card displaying which end-boss you'll face-off
against.
Just like in Kung-Fu Master, each of Kid Niki's stages offers an end-level opponent, which
at the time, was still a relatively fresh concept.
Each end boss is unique unto each other, and not just simple palette swaps.
Take for instance the first boss, Death Breath.
He spews a noxious cloud from his cesspool of a mouth, and as a kid I always found this
hilarious.
The game's sense of humor is one of Kid Niki's more endearing traits, and accompanied
with its cartoony, anime-like aesthetic, it's the type of adventure that attracts more kids
to it than a stranger with a sack-full of candy, singing a siren song from the front
seat of a rainbow colored van.
Another Irem staple (at the time, anyway) was the use of vocal sound effects, similar
to the ones used for the bosses in Kung-Fu Master.
The grunts from Death Breath as he absorbs a blow, or when he emits a mouthful of foul,
rancid breath in your face is pretty damn cool for an '87 title, and not something
you saw often in older NES games.
While these sound effects are pretty nifty, the music is unfortunately lackluster.
Kid Niki only offers a handful of tracks, with the main theme playing throughout the
majority of the game save for boss fights, cave areas and bonus rounds.
While the main theme is pretty damn catchy, it would've been nice to hear a few other
songs within the game.
For the most part, Kid Niki is pretty simple to get the hang of.
While the bulk of the game has you jumping over obstacles and fighting goons, there are
the occasional sections of stages that allow Niki to climb, such as the trees in stage
2.
This actually leads to a hidden bonus stage, which surprisingly, Kid Niki has several hidden
throughout the game.
Now in '87, hidden bonus stages like this were pretty cool, and like the boss voices,
were still somewhat of an anomaly in comparison with Kid Niki's platforming peers.
The bonus stages yield useful items, otherwise not commonly found within the regular levels,
such as a protective shield which takes out any enemy that wanders within its field, a
white gi, which allows Niki to absorb an extra hit of damage, and of course, invaluable 1-ups.
I've always found these bonus levels cleverly hidden and a ton of fun to locate.
And there's even shortcuts, too!
Kid Niki starts off manageable enough before really taking off the reigns after stage four.
Like I mentioned before, it's one-hit-deaths, but thankfully the game is extremely generous
with checkpoints.
You can also take advantage of unlimited continues, although continuing will restart you from
the beginning of the level.
I can live with that.
The biggest obstacles, which come later in the game, are learning the patterns of certain
enemies, and figuring out the tricks and weaknesses to each boss.
Kid Niki is a pretty fun game, and one which is easy to get into.
With a gradual learning curve, Kid Niki is simple to figure out from the get-go.
The controls are responsive, and while they may not be as tight as say, Mega Man, they're
still no excuse for failure.
The game's difficulty gradually increases as you go—which should be the case anyway,
and the fun, cute, anime-like graphics set in Feudal Japan makes for a helluva fun time!
And great news!
Kid Niki is still a pretty inexpensive game!
It's not available on the Virtual Console, but for the price that the cart is going for
these days makes this one a no-brainer!
If you want a quick and simple game to sit down to and play for just minutes at a time,
then definitely add Kid Niki to your collection.
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