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Series of video games

Last Ninja is a series of video games published by System 3. The first game in the series titled The Last Ninja, was released in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and was one of the most successful games for the system. In 1988, System 3 released Last Ninja 2, and in 1991 the third game in the series, Last Ninja 3. In 1990, Last Ninja Remix was released for 8 bit systems. This was Last Ninja 2 with new music, a new introductory sequence, slightly changed graphics (most notably the screen border) and fixed bugs. Confusingly, the 16 bit versions of the original The Last Ninja game were also released in 1990 as Ninja Remix.

The protagonist of The Last Ninja series is Armakuni, the sole survivor of a ninjutsu clan that was destroyed by an evil shogun named Kunitoki. This struggle leads Armakuni to the island of Lin Fen (in the first Last Ninja) to modern day New York City (in Last Ninja 2) and to the mystical Buddhist temple in Tibet (in Last Ninja 3). In each of the games, Kunitoki is the final adversary and every time eludes death after a somewhat decisive victory from Armakuni.

Each game is divided into a number of self contained locations, with the original game containing six such 'levels'. Each level is loaded separately, in sequence as the game progresses. The game overtakes the player back to the start of the current level. Each location was presented as a map of static isometric screens, with the player's character restricted to predefined paths (the scenery was inaccessible). By 8 bit standards, the graphics were very detailed, and on many platforms, the screen would take a second or so to draw itself when entered. The gameplay generally consisted of fighting, exploration, and puzzle solving. Movement and fighting were done on the joystick, and the keyboard was used to select items and weapons that the player had to acquire. The player could select one active weapon and one item at any given time. Many map screens contained opponents which the ninja could avoid (by exiting a screen before they caught him) or fight using his selected weapon (in later Last Ninja games defeated enemies would revive after a certain amount of time). Items would flash briefly when a screen was first entered and could be picked up when standing close to them, usually triggering a crouching animation that was also often employed when using the object. Most of the puzzles were of the item finding or precision jumping variety.

In 2010, GamePro included Armakuni in their article "Top Ten video game ninjas". Virgin Media included him on the list of top ten video game ninja heroes, but commenting the series itself "hasn't aged all that gracefully".