Ninja Commando [ARC] (1992 Alpha Denshi/SNK)
6"Maybe if I keep throwing money in the machine, we'll complete it?"
"Well you could, but we're getting about 20 seconds of play per credit here."
I first encountered this game while screwing around on holiday. There was a small arcade room in the hotel, and I'd spend most of my time (and money) in there playing games that were virtually impossible to complete. My attention was almost immediately drawn to the Ninja Commando cabinet, but not by the game's title or even the demo mode, but rather on hearing the frustrated comment of the game's latest victim:
"One fucking life, is that it?"
I had to play it.
So I did. And holy shit, it was hard. Being someone who'd played very few games of this genre at the time, I was almost put off by the seemingly lousy firepower I was given. A couple of poxy projectiles that wouldn't even knock the lowliest of goons down without several hits. Once I found myself on the verge of death (and leaving the game well alone), I then realised this was one of those rare games that rewarded your skills at furious button-mashing; the faster you hit the 'attack' button, the bigger and more powerful your attacks became.
From that moment on, I was hooked.
Now, what with being a 12-year old at the time, the idea of deliberately playing as a weedy-looking female character was to me an utterly ridiculous and alien concept that I'd instantly disregarded as foolish and unmanly: "Why play as a small girl when the ninja wearing that cool mask is so obviously the leader? Of course he's the strongest!"
What an absolutely idiotic belief. Not only I was missing out, but I was also losing out and wasting too many credits.
Rayar is the best character by far, or at least she is in my experience; she just kicks ass. While Joe and Ryu merely kill their enemies in the boring manner of making them drop dead, Rayar wants to set them on fire first. So she automatically wins in the 'awesome looking attack' category. Sure, she has the narrowest attack band, but her attacks immolate absolutely everything in their path! Sod attack widths, strategy or any of that nonsense. The year is 1992 and cool-looking attacks are the best attacks.
Oh alright, it's because of the narrow attack width that she's the best against bosses. Especially with the multi-attack going on; that power-up is lethal.
KILL IT WITH FIRE!
Of course, like all arcade games of the era, the difficulty seems random at times and you'll suddenly get stomped on by something. Be it just a random influx of enemies, a boss, or a momentary lapse of concentration, you will suddenly find yourself being severely punished for seemingly insignificant errors.
As far as this video goes, there's a sense of poetic justice, irony, or some other verbal shit in that our friend Rayar here unfortunately burns to death.
Such a shame, because the next level was probably going to... well it would have been Game Over anyway. Sod it.