The four Ninja Kids
The Ninja Kids is a side-scrolling arcade Beat 'em Up made in 1990 by Taito. It received no ports until its inclusion in the Taito Legends Compilation Re-release in 2005. The story is about an evil sect trying to summon "The Satan" on July 1999 (as foretold by Nostradamus), and only a group of four ninja can stop them.
Pretty standard fare for a videogame, except for the fact that almost every character is a puppet. No, not People Puppets, just regular (?) puppets. Everything about this game is very tongue-in-cheek, though, so it also can be seen as a Stealth Parody of typical cheesy brawler storylines and settings.
Do not confuse this with Ninja Kidz (an American TV cartoon), or Ninja Kids!!!, a live-action adaptation of Nintama Rantarou.
The game provides examples of:
- Acrofatic: The fat mafiosi attack by, among other things, cartwheeling over you.
- Bloodless Carnage: Enemies are constantly sliced and diced, heads and limbs are falling, but since everyone is a puppet there's not a single drop of blood.
- Blow You Away: Sasuke could use wind magic to kill and drive away enemies.
- Classical Elements Ensemble: Each of the ninja have Elemental Powers that reflect the classical elements: Hanzo is water, Sasuke is wind, Akane is fire and Genta is earth.
- Colour Coded Multiplayer:
- Hanzo - wears blue and is a Jack of All Stats
- Sasuke - wears yellow and is a Long-Range Fighter
- Akane - wears red and is a Fragile Speedster
- Genta - wears green and is a Mighty Glacier
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Level four is a great example of this trope. In this level, called "A bad ninja appears!", the heroes take a break in fighting the satanists and instead fight the ninjas from a rival dojo or something. Throughout all the level you fight dozens of ninjas that take a few hits to die, then you get to the boss, which is almost identical to them but is (obviously, being the boss) a lot harder to defeat.
- Dem Bones: Right before the final boss, the ninjas find themselves in a crypt full of bones underneath an abandoned church. Suddenly some skeletons spring to life and attack them.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Genta attacks enemies with earth magic, even summoning boulders to rain down on your foes.
- Engrish: Various examples, such as the constant saying of "The Satan" and such lines as "WRETCH! NINJA KIDS!" and "HERE IS A GRAVEYARD OF YOU!"
- Evil Is Petty: Not sure how kidnapping an employee of a fast food store and turning him into a werewolf (1st boss) can help the resurrection of The Satan and/or to bring forth world domination...
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: They are four of them, they are ninjas and they are kids.
- Flash of Pain:
- Incendiary Exponent: The second boss is a living fireball.
- Magic Pants: The employee-turned-werewolf at the end of level one has them; also a Magic Shirt, in that he rips apart his clothes when transforming, but still has them when defeated and turned back to human.
- Making a Splash: Hanzo's ninja magic attack is water-based.
- Meaningful Background Event: When you're fighting the werewolf boss in the fast food restaurant, the moon in the background fades out more and more as his life goes down.
- Molotov Cocktail: Some enemies that look like stereotyped Middle-Eastern terrorists who attack by throwing molotovs. When you defeat them, they explode.
- Playing with Fire: Akame's ninja magic is fire, burning your enemies with flames.
- Running Gag: Satan, the final boss, is drawn in a very serious style that contrasts with the general wackiness of the game.
- Shout-Out:
- The third boss is basically the Power Loader from Aliens.
- Characters from earlier Taito titles like Bubble Bobble and Kiki Kai Kai appear as background elements.
- Stock Ninja Weaponry: Played straight.
- Hanzo wields a katana.
- Sasuke uses a kusarigama.
- Akane has infinite shuriken he can throw.
- Genta wields a sansetsukon, a three-section staff.
