Top Ten video game ninjas
- — 06 August, 2010 15:37
#8: 'Ninja' (I-Ninja)
The titular shinobi-shrimp from Namco’s I-Ninja proved you don’t have to be tall to kick it ‘Ninjitsu’ style. Is he supposed to be a midget or a kid with an unusually gruff voice? Either way, he gives most full-sized ninjas a run for their money – and then some. According to the game’s original press release, he’s also “ultra cool” and has “extreme attitude.” (Incidentally, this was back when every platform character desperately wanted to ‘be’ Sonic.)
The pintsized tearaway had an impressive arsenal of moves at his disposal, including the ability to grind down rails, run along walls, swing across chasms and glide with the help of his spinning sword-copter. In ‘short’, he’s the Rey Mysterio of the ninja world.
Despite being in possession of a razor-sharp katana blade, I-Ninja couldn’t cut it in the platform world. His debut outing turned out to be his last; which is a short-lived legacy in anyone’s book. Personally, we feel he deserved to go on to bigger things. [Stop this now – Ed.]
We’ll leave you with this amusing I-Ninja promotional video that accompanied the game’s release. (Well, it made us laugh anyway.)
Greatest Ninja Achievement: Proving that cute can be deadly.
Comments
Mac
1
He's not boring, it's the writers who have failed to give him or anyone in Virtua Fighter more of a storyline and don't be a hypocrite. The other Ninja's on your list are actually boring but you don't say anything about that do you...
"no wonder his opponents are always kicking it off – they’re trying to do him a favour!"
Get your facts straight, Kage-Maru is the most accomplished competitor in Virtua Fighter, having won both the 3rd and 4th tournaments and he’s beaten such characters like Akira Yuki (twice), Dural (who’s his mother, Tsukikage, and as Dural she has all the fighting skills and abilities of every fighter), Lau Chan and he was going to fight Shun Di at the end of VF5.
Tim
2
Geki should have been number 1. He is the coolest ninja.