You know sometimes how after a hard day’s ninjing you really want a sandwich? And when you sit down to enjoy it, and you’re anticipating that first amazing bite… a giant octopus comes along and steals your sandwich? That’s Ninpek, the third game in UFO 50.
Released in 1983 and once again developed by the dynamic trio of Benedikt Chun, Gerry Smolski and Thorson Petter, according to the history of the fictional LX console, Ninpek was a game put out to coincide with the wave of “Ninjamania” that was sweeping the world at the time. This was very much a real thing; popular entertainment — not just video games — was absolutely riddled with ninjas throughout the 1980s, and the obsession lasted quite some time.
Ninpek would have fit right in to that trend. Drawing strong influences from auto-scrolling platform shooters such as Capcom’s SonSon (released in 1984 in the real world) and SNK’s Psycho Soldier from 1987, it’s a challenging, arcade-style affair that will enthral and infuriate in roughly equal measure. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.
In Ninpek you, and, optionally, a friend, take on the role of a nameless ninja in search of your lost sandwich. Between you and your octopodean nemesis lies one long continuous world, divided into several distinct stages and punctuated by a couple of bonus areas. Your aim is simple: survive the complete journey to the end of the world, then reclaim your sandwich from your foe.
The game scrolls horizontally and automatically, meaning you’re constantly moving forwards. Your character sprite remains in a fixed position on the screen if you don’t push a direction, so he’ll wander off platforms as they scroll out from beneath him if left to his own devices. As with all of the other games in UFO 50, just two buttons are used: one for throwing ninja stars, and the other for jumping. Your ninja has the ability to double jump, making him very agile — and you’ll need to make good use of this to survive the gauntlet that awaits.
Interestingly, just defeating enemies in Ninpek awards no points; instead, in order to score, you must pick up little eggs dropped by enemies after they disappear. Different coloured eggs are worth different amounts of points; enemies that are tougher or more awkward to defeat generally net higher scores than the fodder that continually comes your way as you proceed on your journey.
There’s one simple power-up in the game: a glowing ninja star, which can be collected up to twice per life. Each time you collect it, it allows you to have one additional ninja star on screen at the same time, up to a maximum of three. This effectively allows you to “rapid fire”, and it is particularly useful when dealing with enemies that require more than one shot to eliminate.
As your journey continues, you’ll occasionally be presented with opportunities to earn an extra life. This is signalled by a distinctive audible cue and a balloon rising up the screen. All you need to do is pop the balloon with a ninja star to get an extra life — simple enough in theory, but these inevitably appear at awkward times when you’ll have to deal with enemies at the same time.
Actually, there’s two ways to make the balloons appear: they appear at certain progress milestones on your journey, and they also appear when you score 3,000, 7000, 12,000 and 17,000 points. (They might also appear at even higher scores than that, but, well, I haven’t got a score high enough to test this theory!) Consequently, scoring consistently is an important part of playing Ninpek effectively, as it pays to have some lives in reserve for if you make a mistake. And you will make mistakes.
Upon losing a life, you don’t respawn immediately; instead, you rejoin the action as a ghost which floats down from the top of the screen. The ghost is completely invincible, can fly and has a powerful twin fireball attack, but, being incorporeal, it cannot pick up any items and thus cannot score any points. Your ghost status expires after a short delay or immediately upon pressing the jump button, so you can position yourself accordingly — and perhaps clear a convenient space — prior to respawning. It’s essential to do this, as you get absolutely no invincibility after returning to human form.
Ninpek is very simple on paper, but the more you play, the more you’ll notice handy little tricks to earn more points. The first of these you’ll undoubtedly encounter is the way you can make sandwich bonuses appear by standing on specific parts of specific platforms. These are the same each game, so you can learn these — and with each sandwich being worth a mighty 500 points, they’re worth pursuing.
The second is that certain enemies — specifically the kasa-obake “umbrella youkai” — will turn into crowns if you let them just hop around the screen for a certain amount of time. These crowns are also worth 500 points each, compared to just 100 points for the eggs these enemies drop, so, again, they’re worth pursuing if you can manage your screen space effectively.
The third of these is that in the bonus stages which occur twice throughout your journey, depicted as a solid mass of cherries, will gradually reward you with more points the more items you successfully collect. Cherries will become onigiri rice balls, and subsequently cups of coffee, with each “upgrade” being worth a significant increase in the amount of points each item is worth.
There’s also a strange thing which seems to occasionally occur in these bonus stages; on one playthrough, I fell through the floor and instead of getting the usual “GAME OVER” message, it said “HE IS NO NINJA!”. At least, I’m pretty sure this actually happened; it hasn’t occurred again since and as such I have no pictorial or video evidence of is happening, and thus it is beginning to feel like the sort of “definitely, absolutely 100% true” playground lore we all used to exchange about classic games back in the day. Just another great example of how UFO 50 nails the retro gaming experience in both the obvious ways and more subtly.
Not directly related to scoring points, but essential to survivability is the fact that each enemy type behaves in a specific, learnable way — and even enemies that might appear to be unavoidable when you first encounter them always have a means of countering them or staying out of their way. For example, one enemy type resembles a flying set of teeth; these home in on you and initially might appear to be difficult to avoid, but if you hop over or pass beneath them, they’ll stop homing the moment you get behind them. It’s important to find a good balance between simply surviving using tricks like this and scoring; after all, you’re not going to score any points if you’re dead.
Ninpek is an enjoyable game. Like the other titles in UFO 50, it’s firm but fair with the player; you’ll never lose a life to unresponsive controls or the game being fundamentally broken. Your performance will inevitably vary from run to run — and, speaking from experience, getting annoyed at the game will almost certainly cause a sharp decline in your abilities — but it’s quick and easy to start over after a failure.
On top of that, the game’s pacing is such that even if you absolutely suck at it on your first couple of attempts, continued practice will cause you to gradually improve by memorising enemy positions, attack patterns and strategies for success — and how to get your hands on those all-important bonus sandwiches.
Another winner, then — and not one you’re going to get those Gold or Cherry trophies on without putting in the time to practice!
Want more Pete? Check my personal blog I’m Not Doctor Who, and my YouTube channel ThisIsPete. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider buying me a coffee.
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