Previous Next

After gaining plenty of fighting experience bashing hell out of a host of evil denizens, and subsequently "finding his inner self" in Way Of The Tiger, Mr Ninja has now got to embark on a mission of immense peril and danger. The local oriental arch-villain, Yaemon - Master of the Flame, has stolen the Scrolls of Kettsuin from the temple of Ninja's god, Kwon.

Just to rub salt into Mr Ninja's already inflamed wounds, the rotten Yaemon also topped his stepfather - what a dishonorable gentleman.

As you can imagine, Mr Ninja is extremely upset by this violent intrusion into his quiet secluded life, not to mention distraught at the loss of his stepfather and the scrolls of his God. Consequently, he's sore. Boy, is he sore... a sorer person you will never see. After stomping about the place in a stinker of a mood for days, he's finally come to a decision - he's going to show that evil son-of-a-gun Yaemon what's what, by breaking into his fortress, swiping the stolen scrolls back and finally killing the head of the household - Ninja-style. Striking while the iron is hot, Ninja heads off to Yaemon's desolate fortress...

You take the role of the Ninja, oriental goody-two-shoes and kung-fu specialist (or goody-two-fists as our Eastern chums say). The game is a scrolling arcade adventure which is viewed from above. Ninja is joystick controlled, and can be made to run in all four directions, landscape allowing. Pressing the fire button throws a ninja star (as long as Ninja has some) which kills any living thing on contact. If there are no ninja stars handy, the fire button activates a ninja kick, bashing an adversary if it's within range.

The quest of revenge begins outside the strangely titled Quench Heart Keep, Yaemon's stately seat. From here you must find a key to open the front door. Once inside, the three guardians of the Keep must be destroyed (careful here, as they have to be killed in a certain order). As well as the three guards, there are hoards of Yaemon's minions which thunder about the fortress, dying for an intruder to come into their realm so they've got an excuse to beat somebody up. Marauding menaces aren't the only thing which hassle the would-be avenging Ninja, there are living floors with spikes that rise and fall, hindering the progress of the heroic avenger, and diminishing his energy if he stands on one.

All this fighting reduces the Ninja's energy, this is indicated at the bottom of the screen as a series of disappearing dots. Luckily Kwon can be called upon to replenish the lost energy, although sometimes if he thinks you're stalling and is angry with you, he will refuse to help.

The fortress is huge, with numerous rooms just waiting to be explored. These rooms contain various objects such as magic swords, keys, ninja stars and iron fists (amongst other things) which help you in your task. They also contain treasure, which can be taken for personal gain (in other words - good old-fashioned greed). In some of the rooms there are trapdoors and grills which give access to other levels of the fortress, both above and below. Using these you must wend your way through the complex maze of the fortress, and recover the scrolls stolen by that fiend Yaemon: doing so avenges your father's death, appeases Kwon and completely diminishes Yaemon's power, reducing him to the rank of a coolie! Har har, and serve the rotten swine right too!

This isn't the most original game in the world, being a variant on the fashionable Druid/Gauntlet style game format, but it's still pretty playable (at least it's not another bog-standard fighting game). The game only supports one-player action, but there's plenty of fighting and adventuring to keep a happy Ninja involved for a couple of days.

The background graphics and pictures around the side of the screen are colourful and neat, and there are some great sprites beetling about the place too. The sound suits the game, it's by no means brilliant but it works well and generates the right atmosphere. If you're after an action-packed Druid-type game then look no further.

There are some superficial similarities between Avenger and Druid but, even though Avenger lacks a two-player option, I reckon it's a better game. It's packed with action, there are hundreds of locations to explore (and map) and plenty of problems to solve.

Not only does Avenger play well - it looks very pretty indeed (well, the sprites are a bit simple, but the backdrops are lovely). All in all, a neat little game which should appeal enormously to anyone who enjoyed Druid.

I'm impressed with Avenger. It doesn't offer anything new to C64 owners, but it's a compelling and attractive game that has been written well and highly polished.

People are bound to compare this with Gauntlet and its many clones, which is a shame because it has a deeper plot than other "kill the baddies, get the treasure and escape from the dungeon" type games. The graphics are really good, the sprites are well defined and the background are very pretty.

All in all, I think that Avenger is a bit overpriced, but it's neat all the same and worth a look.

Presentation 88%
Attractive in-game presentation and some useful features - such as a restart and a pause.

Graphics 86%
Overall very bright and "pretty" with colour used to great effect.

Sound 72%
Reasonable title screen tune, atmospheric sound effects.

Hookability 88%
Action packed and absorbing from the very first play.

Lastability 85%
A very large landscape to explore and lots of tricky problems to solve.

Value For Money 83%
Lots of action for your money.

Overall 86%
A highly competent addition to the growing range of Gauntlet-inspired maze games.