As you may or may not know, Dragon Ninja is a 7-level multiload single-player horizontally-scrolling beat-'em-up. You play a bloke called Bad Dude who's been asked to wipe out the sinister and spooky 'Dragon Ninja' organisation. To do this you need to beat up squillions of black-clad Ninja Assassins and hardly-clad-at-all Women Warriors, as well as the odd top-brass baddie like a Fire-Breathing Fat Man. (Do these people really expect to be served in restaurants?) At the end of all the carnage there should be an American President to pick up and take back home. Steal weapons, collect energy and time icons, and use the R-Type-type variable-strenght power punch on those end-of-level nasties.

Thrills? Excitement? Innovation? Whatever happened to them? Dragon Ninja is quite breathtakingly average. The usual detailed graphics, wide range of fighting moves and incredibly repetitive gameplay are all here, so everyone but the most dedicated (and undemanding) beat-'em-up fan should immediately fling their pennies elsewhere. A re-release that needn't have bothered to 're'