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After many years abroad, Ninja Hamster returns to the village of his birth. But his birthplace has been overrun by Sinister Rat, Loony Lobster, Ninja Monkey, the Lizard Of Death and their nefarious crew of mean mammals, crazy crustaceans, belligerent bees and alligatorial alliterations.

Skilled in the ways of the ninja, our hero goes into battle, teeth unsheathed, claws like flick knives, paws full of muscular intensity.

This Rambo rodent meets each of the gang in turn, pitting his fighting skills against theirs. Ninja Hamster can kick high and low, duck, punch, and block and avoid opponent's blows.

Every successful hit adds to Super Hamster's points and reduces the stamina of his opponents; some blows are more powerful than others. When either the hamster or his opponent runs out of energy, a bite is taken from a large apple at the top of the screen. If his opponent's Granny Smith is all gone, our hamster warrior is the victor and he can go on to meet the next of the ruthless villains. But at higher levels weapons such as maces cross the screen to cause greater problems for our hero...

When the last of the obnoxious bunch has been laid low, Ninja Hamster has saved the day and can end his days comfortably as someone's pet.

Control keys: I left, O right, Q jump up, W jump forward, K flying kick, I&P block, A duck, P punch, P low kick (while ducking), S high kick, L middle kick, YOY?
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Use of colour: adequate
Graphics: layout like every beat-'em-up, pretty characters which lose definition when fighting
Sound: title tune and spot FX
Skill levels: eight
Screens: eight

'Heeha, heeha, wha! Oops, sorry, must have been the Ninja Hamster coming out in me. We've had Ninja Master, The Last Ninja and even Just Ninja, but this must be the ultimate name. The graphics are really well drawn and the colour is effective, despite some clash; the screen layout is very similar to the Fist games. And there's a good tune on the title screen. The only problem is that you have to load more code from the tape when you've killed two baddies. This is a highly addictive game, and I'll be buying it.'

'Barbarian showed that there may be a few more goodies to scrape out of the fighting aims barrel - and Ninja Hamster is one of them, though its qualities are a little dubious. Joystick control is similar to the Fist games and International Karate so It's fairly easy, but if you prefer keys you'll have to spend a lot of time teaming them (and grow another hand!. The game itself is a plain and straightforward beat-'em-up. No tactics are required, other than getting in as many hits as possible, so it gets quite boring on later levels.'

'Ninja Hamster is yet another bash-and-beat-'em game. The graphics may be slightly more detailed and squatter than in other games of this genre, but that's a hindrance - you often can't see a thing that's going on. The armoury of moves is very small, and those that do exist are 'cutely' (yeerggh!!) animated. Ninja Hamster offers very little to do, and a weak atmosphere - I didn't have much fun bashing hell out of other little animals.'