Ninja Deep Sea Assault

[Toa Chuck]

In Ninja Deep Sea Assault, you play as one of the ninjas piloting a dragon sub in an attempt to destroy a terrific sea monster that has been destroying local ships. The game opens as they find the creature's lair, and they must make their way through and defeat the monster.

 

The game is a side scrolling shooter which takes place in an abyssal trench. The goal is to guide the ninja's dragon sub through the tunnel without being destroyed by the walls, stalactites, or various enemies. The game's visual style looks like it is taking place on parchment, with the backgrounds and objects being watercolor paintings.

 

The controls are simple, with WASD or arrow keys guiding the sub, and the space bar to fire your sub's gun. The sub can move in all four directions, and the gun fires opposite the direction in which the stage is currently scrolling.

 

The abyssal tunnel starts out pretty straight downward, but it soon starts to bend in all sorts of directions, and the stage will scroll in the corresponding direction. It can be thick or thin at points, and deadly stalagmites are everywhere.

 

The sub takes damage if it hits a wall, enemy, or projectile. The sub can only take five hits before being destroyed. If destroyed, the game goes back to the menu, where the player can try again either at the beginning, or checkpoints after each boss.

 

The player can choose to play as all five ninjas, each offering slightly different advantages.

• Kai: Sub cannon's rate of fire and projectile velocity are lightly boosted.
• Cole: Sub can take seven hits before losing.
• Jay: Sub is significantly faster.
• Zane: Sub cannon is more accurate, with the projectiles being fired more towards enemies by about three degrees.
• Lloyd: Unlocked after beating the game once, Lloyd has the combined abilities of the four other ninjas.

 

Defeated enemies may drop power ups, which amplify the sub's main cannon. Up to seven of a power up type can be collected to maximize power. Collecting a power up of a different type will reset the cannon to just one of the new power up.

• Spread shot: Each level adds one bullet to the cannons shot. The bullets are evenly spread over a thirty degree arc, and at level seven will have eight bullets per shot.
• Slow shot: The slow shot has a decreased rate of fire, but the bullet is bigger, and can pierce through unlimited enemies. Each level makes the bullet bigger, and fire faster. At level seven it's fire rate is equal to the basic cannon, and the bullet is as big as the sub. These bullets also do higher damage to bosses.
• Dragon breath: Replaces the cannon with a short range flamethrower attack. Strong, but bosses are highly resistant to it. Higher levels increase the range and increase effectiveness on bosses.
• Repair kit: Pick it up to restore one hit point to your sub.

 

The main part of the game mostly features eels as enemies. They are destroyed in one hit, and do one damage to the sub if they make contact.

• Electric eel: Slow yellow eel that simply moves forward.
• Venom eel: Faster green eel that erratically swerves as it moves forward.
• Moray eel: Slow grey eel that mores directly towards the sub. Less common than the other two.
• Angler fish: Slow fish that is bigger than the eels, the angler takes three shots to destroy.
• Sea dragon: A seahorse creature that will maintain a far distance from the sub and shoot small fireballs at the sub. Destroyed in five hits.

 

Periodically, the dragon sub will encounter a boss. When this happens, the stage will stop scrolling, and the boss must be defeated to proceed. They are all fought in large horizontal rooms. Each boss also unlocks a checkpoint at the main menu.

 

• Angler shark: The first boss. It is a huge cross between an angler fish and a goblin shark. It can sporadically fire lasers from its lure, and it will periodically attempt to charge at the sub, opening its mouth to indicate it is about to do so. It has a large amount of health, but shooting its mouth when it is open will do massive damage.
• Abyssal Hydra: A large three headed snake, the Hydra will shoot bolts of water energy at the sub from all three heads while weaving about in an attempt to dodge. With each head defeated, it will shoot faster, and move quicker.
• Taraka Dragon: A massive Tarakava like dragon, this beast is fought at the end of the tunnel, in a big chamber filled with wreaked boats and treasure. Reading its attacks is key to defeating it. If it primes its left arm, it will unleash a punch to the lower half of the screen. If it primes its right arm, it will attack the top half. It also has a charge move where it will lower its head, and surge through the middle of the screen, the only safe spots being the very top and bottom. In addition, it will shoot bolts of water energy from its mouth.

 

Upon defeating the Taraka Dragon, the player has won, the seas are once again safe, and Lloyd is unlocked. Additionally, two bonus game modes are unlocked.

• Endless: Simply the main portion of the game, but endless for high scores.
• Boss rush: Fight all three bosses at once and compete for the best time.