On April 17, 1986, Ninja Kid was released for the Famicom in Japan. Developed by TOSE and published by Bandai, the game is based loosely on the Japanese manga series GeGeGe no Kitarō, though all visual references were removed for the Western release.
In Ninja Kid, players take on the role of a young ninja on a mission to defeat supernatural monsters across various stages. Each level has a main objective, usually involving destroying a certain number of enemies or surviving boss fights, and players can enter different doors to access mini-missions.
The game was one of the earliest Famicom action platformers to mix arcade-style gameplay with a small hub world and randomized missions, which added to its replay value. It’s quirky, fast-paced, and a solid example of how Japanese developers started experimenting with genre-blending in the 8-bit era.
Fun fact: In the Japanese version, the character is Kitarō from the manga, but when released in the US later that year, he became a generic ninja hero due to licensing issues.
Trivia question: What manga series was the Japanese version of Ninja Kid originally based on?
In Ninja Kid, players take on the role of a young ninja on a mission to defeat supernatural monsters across various stages. Each level has a main objective, usually involving destroying a certain number of enemies or surviving boss fights, and players can enter different doors to access mini-missions.
The game was one of the earliest Famicom action platformers to mix arcade-style gameplay with a small hub world and randomized missions, which added to its replay value. It’s quirky, fast-paced, and a solid example of how Japanese developers started experimenting with genre-blending in the 8-bit era.
Fun fact: In the Japanese version, the character is Kitarō from the manga, but when released in the US later that year, he became a generic ninja hero due to licensing issues.
Trivia question: What manga series was the Japanese version of Ninja Kid originally based on?
