Ninpen Manmaru #BestOfSaturn

Ninpen Manmaru originated as a manga series that spawned an anime and, eventually, a Saturn-exclusive 3D platformer developed by Tam Tam and published by Enix in 1998.

In the game, Master Nenga, leader of Ninpen’s clan, Sends Ninpen off on a solo quest to reach the Ninja Mansion for some hardcore training. Ninpen must cross six worlds consisting of four levels each of platforming action and challenge each area’s boss. The game is a colorful, fully 3D platforming romp with nice, catchy music accompanying it, but that’s as nice as we’re going to be.

Unsuspecting players take “control” of Ninpen and guide him to a “goal” platform at the end of each stage using timed jumps, avoiding enemies and obstacles, and picking up Happy Coins along the way. Though Ninpen wears a sword, he cannot fight — which is OK, since the game’s true enemy is the poorly implemented tank controls. Coupled with a wildly varying difficulty curve and pretty insane level design, players must resist the urge to punch Ninpen in the face as they inevitably die over and over.

Luckily, thanks to two separate translation efforts decades apart, players will now better understand Ninpen’s sad tale — the game’s cutscene subtitles were translated back in 2002 by Alex Kidd and Simon Fang, with Darkfalzx and others updating any Japanese graphics to English in 2022. Happy coins for all!