Switch Reviews - Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell Deluxe Edition

Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell Deluxe Edition

This game completely flew under the radar for me. I actually only learned it existed when I happened to see it on the publisher's website while looking up another title. Then a few weeks later I just happened to see it at the library. So I checked it out and sat it down and was distracted by life for about a week. Then I sat down with my Son and gave this game a shot. We were both hooked immediately. He's only 4 so a game this simple to pick is right up his alley and a game this hard to master is right up mine. He loves hopping and bopping around shooting enemies, especially the skeletons. Another thing we both love is earning coins from defeating enemies. The coins are used to unlock other characters. The characters all play a little differently and have various weapons with different movement patterns. I personally love the old school graphical style and the simple early 80's arcade game play, think Bubble Bobble or Mario Bros. Along the bottom of the screen is a progress bar giving you an idea how many enemies you have to beat to reach the end of the stage. Breaking blocks will allow you to jump to higher areas and occasionally give you some much needed power ups and items. Occasionally there will be a larger version of an enemy which is always fun to do battle with. There are at the end of the stages large bosses to conquer.

The car from City Connection! A yellow Jaja.
Blue Ninja farts around. Purple Jaja beats an ogre!
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This is definitely a great game to play in either long or short bursts. Tonight at work in between calls I've been playing this excellent game and look forward to unlocking new characters and giving them all a shot. There is also a ranking mode for those wanting to compete for highscores. Unfortunately as much as I love games I am terrible at them especially amongst the wider world of competition but surprisingly I really enjoyed the ranking stage. No matter what mode you're playing, even if you die or fail a stage, you rack up coins and unlock items along the way so you always feel like you're making some progress. There are achievements which are pretty standard these days but I did enjoy unlocking them and seeing the cool pixel art. Oh, something cool is a power up that transforms you into the car from City Connection which is just as hard to control as it was on the Famicom. I'm sure there are other references like that to other Jaleco games and I'm excited to see them along the way.

Leaderboard! Unlocking characters.
Ninjas ride a frog. Blue JAja Rides around
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This package also includes 5 other older Ninja Jajamaru games. I actually have some of the famicom titles on my shelf. These are a little antiquated which may or may not be your style. The best in that bunch is the Super Famicom game and the colorized gameboy title. The real star of the show is The Great Yokai battle This is definitely a neat little package which can still be picked up for $30 new or around $20 if you poke around a bit which is definitely worth your time. I will absolutely be buying a copy for myself after returning this to the library.

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