Ninja Hayate HD-Remaster

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Arcades in the early 1980s enjoyed an explosion of popularity as the new art form swept the world and collected millions of quarters in the process. Kids love them. Adults loved them. Everyone loved arcade games. Only one problem: they looked primitive. Well, not all games, as one genre in particular stood out from the pack of chunky pixels and electronic beeps and boops: the interactive movie game, powered by LaserDisc technology.

Promising better “graphics” than anything possible on pixel or vector-based machines could handle, these games were essentially interactive movies as players tried to match the simple onscreen prompts overlaid on pre-recorded movies (mostly hand-drawn animation).

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The “interactive movie” arcade craze didn’t last long, however, and despite a very brief resurgence in the early 90s as CD-ROM attachments and consoles made the novelty of playing a full-motion videogame at home possible, but ultimately not preferable. Even many of the most famous FMV titles, including the infamous Night Trap, were holdovers from an aborted attempt to marry the concept with VHS tapes. But what’s most interesting is how their gameplay never died, and continues to this day in the form of QTE (quick-time events).

While Don Bluth’s gorgeously animated Dragon’s Lair became the face of what was possible with the technology, it wasn’t the only game in town (pun intended). Among the many, many challengers, Taito’s Ninja Hayate and Time Gal, released in 1984 and 1985, featured gameplay similar to Dragon’s Lair and original animation from Toei that looked closer to Saturday morning cartoons than Bluth’s theatrical quality work.

Both Time Gal HD-Remaster and Ninja Hayate HD-Remaster were part of the Japan-only Switch compilation Taito LD Game Collection on Nintendo’s Switch released a few years back, but have been separated for your double-dipping purchasing pleasure. Historically, the two games are usually paired as a set, and as such, I’m going to double-dip my reviews of both games as each is largely the same, minus the actual anime parts.

I suspect gamers of a certain, ahem, vintage will remember both games from their home conversions on the Sega CD, handled by Wolf Team, in all their grainy goodness. Given how so many games on Sega’s attachment were focused on displaying “interactive” live-action footage – which the system’s low-color output simply couldn’t do justice – the Japanese anime imports fared much better, with Data East’s Road Blaster (i.e. Road Avenger) and Cobra Command (i.e. Thunder Storm) considered some of the best releases for the platform. As it happens, Toei Animation was responsible for animating both of those games, too.

In Ninja Hayate (also known as Revenge of the Ninja to Western gamers) you control the titular ninja as he attempts to save his kidnapped girlfriend from an evil ninja being held in a crazy castle loaded with enemies, moats, traps, and more. And by crazy castle I mean it’s filled with tons of skeletons, robo-dragons, a metal factory, and of course, other ninjas. All of whom want you dead, dead, dead.

I say “control” loosely as you just press the correct input at the correct time, which can be a up/down/left/right direction or the attack button to use your ninja sword. Occasionally, Hayate has the option to choose from multiple paths, though the true outcome is already set; you simply press the right button until you get there. That’s it. That’s all there is.

As with most anime-based movie games, the real fun with Ninja Hayate comes from watching our hero survive the sheer wackiness that aims to stop him flat, from clawed baddies, raging rapids, skeletal warriors, and more. Failed attempts are hilarious, and while it must have been frustrating (and expensive) to see them all in the arcade, at home with unlimited continues it’s easier to enjoy them all and to appreciate the creativity that Toei put into the animation. Sadly, this version of the game doesn’t have any background music at all, unlike the Sega CD version that came later, which takes away from the overall presentation.

I’ve seen talk about Reiki’s gratuitous ‘panty shots’ in Time Gal, and while that’s certainly true (and not a surprise, given the era it was produced) keep in mind that Ninja Hayate has just as many revealing bits to even things out. At the very least, both games are equal opportunity underwear offenders.

As for extras, Ninja Hayate is as barebones as the game itself. You can select difficulty, lives, on-screen language, etc. You can even choose the 3-miss system, meaning 3 failed attempts let you skip the scene you’re playing. Sadly, there’s no option to play the Sega CD version’s background music, which really would have helped the base game’s presentation.

The words HD-Remaster in the title is a little misleading. While the video quality is miles better than previous home versions, it’s still low-fi in all its LaserDisc glory, upscaled and slightly better than VHS but showing its age. I have a soft spot for this era of anime, especially when presented exactly this way, as you can see nearly every frame, every line, every scratch, etc. It’s gloriously old-school and I love it. In the early 1980s there wasn’t an “anime” market like we have now, and this continued into the mid-90s as “Japanimation” evolved into the powerhouse it is today. If you wanted to see this style of animation you had to hunt it down, and gaming certainly made that easier.

Of the two, Time Gal HD-Remaster remains the better “game” only because the animation is crazier and more inventive, and the variety of her hilarious failed attempts is adorable and hilarious. Ninja Hayate HD-Remaster is still fun to watch, too, but therein lay the only real issue with both titles as you aren’t really playing so much as triggering the next sequence. As much as I love the animation in both games, you’re honestly better off watching both in their entirety on a YouTube compilation and saving a few bucks, as you’ll get everything they have to offer.