But enough ranting about presentation; let’s get to the gameplay. The general fighting engine actually is surprisingly good, lending itself to fast-paced battles, but not letting the button-masher take away victory (at least not at later levels). You’ve got standard attacks, which you can string together into 5- or 6-hit combos, as well as teleportation, blocks, shurikens, and special attacks. If they were to keep this engine for future installments of Ninja Destiny, you wouldn’t hear any complaining from me.

Unfortunately, the fighting itself is not without its flaws. First off, there’s nothing resembling training mode in the game; all you’ve got is an instructional manual to prepare you before you’re thrown in headfirst, and it doesn’t even tell you about special attacks or combos. Also, an interesting design decision on Tomy’s part was the inclusion of touch-screen functionality, to activate powerups that can help give you an edge in battles; unfortunately, since you’ll need to keep both hands on the buttons 90% of the time, it’s very hard to activate a powerup without giving your opponent a nice chance to beat you down.