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.
