1st May 1986
The Way Of The Tiger
Gremlin Graphics' everyday story of Ninja life promises a procession of devious and devastating opponents to practise your combat skills on.
Divided into three sections, The Way Of The Tiger, pits your warrior, Avenger, against an array of deadly attackers. Other Ninja warriors arethe least of your problems.
Part one gives you the chance to sharpen up your hand-to-hand combat expertise. Set in an impressively detailed landscape, complete with animated fountain and swaying plants, you are confronted with a hovering ghost who materialises out of thin air to try and smother you, a jumping dwarf and a Rhino-man who seems to have had a nose job to make him look even uglier. There's also a rival Ninja who leaps from behind a rock to give you a token human opponent.
When you have defeated all comers you are transported to guard a bridge over a mysterious lake. You are armed with your Ninja pole and must prevent your trainer's henchmen from consigning you to a watery grave.
They are a very strange bunch indeed, ranging from a rattling skeleton still wearing the tattered remnants of his earthy clothes and a bald goblin who appears to be armed with a lethal frying pan. Again, with this scene the graphics and background detail are excellent. This time we are treated to jumping fish and ducks that take off from the lake.
Finally, having brained the assorted usurpers which again include another Ninja (or is he the same one revitalised from the first section), you have won the chance to face the ultimate test.
Outside the grand temple of Martial Arts you must defeat Naihishi the Grand Master in a duel with samurai swords. But before that, the other Ninja crops up again to try a last ditch effort to rob you of a crack at the Master.
As you are locked in a fight to the death with Naijishi, peasants in the background stroll across carrying oriental sedan chairs or pushing weighty wheelbarrows. They pause for a moment, wipe the sweat from their brow and carry on oblivious to the mortal combat.
The Way Of The Tiger is full of such neat touches and it takes a step beyond the standard fight games. The figures are also realised with an acute eye for detail and being both large and smoothly animated look set to give the combat game fanatic a real challenge.
The early look at The Way Of The Tiger bodes well for the finished version which will be available for £9.95.
