JAMMANinja Assault Hands-On

Namco's Ninja Assault, the company's newest arcade lightgun game, was on display at the Amusement Machine Show. The game has more in common with Sega's House of the Dead series than with previous Namco shooters. It is an extremely fast lightgun game that features two pistol-packing ninjas as the lead characters. The game is, of course, played from the perspective of the ninjas as they blast their way along a path traversing upward of eight levels. The enemies encountered range from traditional warriors who wield either swords or bows and arrows, to more menacing creatures that scratch and claw at the player. As in most gun games, the main objective is to blast everything that appears on the screen before it has a chance to harm you. At the end of each level, the player encounters a tougher boss character that they must shoot numerous times before he is vanquished. Some of the bosses are very similar in style to those in the House of the Dead series in that each seems to have a weak point that you must exploit in order to progress.

The game isn't visually stunning, nor is it particularly different from several of the other gun games we've seen. It is, however, quite lengthy and fun. It will be interesting to see if the game makes it to the US arcades.