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Having finally wiped out the evil that destroyed your relatives and friends you - as the Last Ninja - take a boat to the USA and end up in the Big Apple itself. But here you discover the ultimate evil: Kunitoki. So, always ready to fight for the good, you don your black Ninja robes to take on the rotting horrors of New York.

You begin standing on a rooftop near Central Park. Going inside you find a thug - who you can easily dispose of - and by being fairly aggressive at the wall you can open a trapdoor and - dropping down into the next room - you find a key. Going outside you find a rather belligerent policeman - who clearly doesn't think anyone should walk around in broad daylight wearing black robes.

Scattered about are various items to collect and a number of Kunitoki's henchmen - it's best to match them weapon for weapon if you can. The final escape from Central Park involves leaping across a lethal pond, first avoiding a swarm of bees.

You come out on to the street, where more of Kunitoki's hired villains will try to do you in and in an effort to avoid them you take to the sewers where it's very easy to get lost. Unfortunately there's a lot more hoodlums down here and a crocodile that needs an explosive send off.

From there you make it into the lower levels and Kunitoki's drugs factory with more thugs and plenty of climbing and jumping to do. The exit is guarded by another animal which seems to be in desperate need of food. Standing on lines around here can be lethal.

The next level takes place in some offices where you need to fight your way through even more thugs and villains, across the outside of the building and finally to the roof where a helicopter whisks you to the final level within Kunitoki's castle. Unlike earlier levels, on the final one any baddies you dispose of are reincarnated each time you re-enter a screen.

The game has been brilliantly executed by that master programmer Peter Scott. The playing keys are carried forward from The Last Ninja as is the overall diagonal movement. Animation is excellent and there's lots of detailed scenery. The puzzles are quite fiendish - and hitting the wall is often beneficial.

It's nice to see that Superior can still come up with high quality, original games.

The Last Ninja was a hit when it was first released and this sequel is set to enjoy the same success as the original. The gameplay is similar as is the graphics style. However, the new puzzles and adversaries add new interest to a familiar style. Recommended.

Steve Turnbull