Getting your arms on a replica of Ninja 5-O for Sport Boy Advance would usually price you a whole lot of {dollars} in 2024. And that’s only for a unfastened cartridge; full copies of Ninja 5-O have offered for $700 (or extra) on eBay in current months. However there’ll quickly be a less expensive strategy to play Konami and Hudson Tender’s beloved GBA motion side-scroller, because of a re-release from Restricted Run Video games.
Konami and Restricted Run Video games introduced Wednesday that Ninja 5-O is coming to Nintendo Change, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 later this 12 months. Ninja 5-O is operating on Restricted Run’s Carbon Engine, the identical tech that can run Konami’s Felix the Cat and Rocket Knight Adventures collections — which go up for pre-order March 3-10, by the best way.
Restricted Run hasn’t specified after we can anticipate Ninja 5-O’s digital and bodily variations, nor what extras gamers can anticipate with the re-release outdoors of a rewind function. However for budget-conscious followers of action-arcade video games like Bionic Commando, Rolling Thunder, and Shinobi, a legit copy could also be all they want.
Ninja 5-O (generally known as Ninja Cop in different territories) was initially launched for Sport Boy Advance in 2003. Gamers tackle the function of ninja cop Joe Osugi, who’s tasked with taking down a terrorist group that’s been superpowered by artifacts generally known as the Mad Masks. In keeping with the sport’s authentic description, “Ninja 5-O options genuine ninja swords, shuriken throwing stars, ninjutsu magic and a novel Kaginawa grappling hook system to create spectacular acrobatic strikes and an modern combating type.” That’s proper: genuine ninja swords.
Ninja 5-O was nicely obtained by followers and critics at launch. GameSpot’s Ryan Davis mentioned the sport featured “faux-nostalgic enjoyable [with] some good, difficult ninja motion,” whereas IGN’s Craig Harris praised Ninja 5-O as a “surprisingly nice sport that just about got here out of nowhere.” The sport’s “quiet” launch “with comparatively no earlier hype,” Harris notes in his assessment, in all probability has one thing to do with the sport’s present rarity. It seems the Konami of the early aughts didn’t have a lot religion within the sport, which can clarify why Ninja 5-O by no means obtained a launch in Japan.
Regardless, somebody at Konami seems to have extra religion in Ninja 5-O now, and because of Restricted Run Video games’ involvement, it’s going to lastly discover a larger viewers.
Restricted Run Video games’ bodily version of Ninja 5-O might be revealed and develop into out there to pre-order this March.
