Some games should stay only in nostalgic memories.
I had no idea what the story was back in 1987 and I still have no clue what so ever about it in 2008. You play as a nameless ninja, who walks around in a park of some sort and everyone is trying to kill you. And for some reason you can't even swim.
Graphics are decent C64 style and most of the time you can tell what objects represent on screen. Colors on the other hand are horrible, bland and repetitive The Last Ninja would have benefit on more vivid use of colors.
There is next to none sound effects, but luckily the music is great and it was the sole purpose for me to download Ninja from virtual Console. Those tunes still bring back warm memories.
Controls were horrible 20 years ago and they still are. It takes a lot of patience to make your ninja do a few right moves and the fighting in general is not fun at all. When you try Ninja Gaiden 2 after this one you can see that games have been through a light year of improvement.
The Last Ninja is a good game for someone who's making a research on video game history, but everyone else should stay away and keep those nostalgic memories the way they were: memories.