Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell – Deluxe Edition - Nintendo Switch

One of the most enjoyable re-boots you’ll get to play on this generation of consoles. Fantastic, frantic platform game play, old-skool music, new-skool music, all with an impressive skill curve perfected by Jaleco in the 80’s and 90’s. If you’re a fan of 2D platformers with odd characters, unique and often a bit alarming power-ups, give this game a go. The updated soundtrack will have you humming for days. The only question is: who will be your go to character after you unlock them all?

I was able to get this game for $14.99. That is more than worth it. I was surprised about how much fun this game was.

I am so impressed with this title I had to jump in and review on the day I received it! I put on the cartridge to try it out for a few minutes and ended up getting completely sucked in and engaged with the game, It’s a phenomenal updated title (I had never played the originals) but it has such amazing ways to unlock content and that’s just the core game! The switch pops up a bonus content arrea and that has 6 other games! The original nes one (plus 2 more nes titles) the Super Nintendo title and 2 game boy titles! Even without the extra games it was well worth the purchase, This should be the gold standard in remade classics. If you’re on the mend as an avid player and collector of video games whose been underwhelmed by releases lately, This game is IT! Full of content, Wonderful sound and retro graphics, Tons (and I mean TONS of unlocks) this is the easiest 10/10 purchase warranted on the money spent on a title here at Amazon. Must buy 🌟

I was pleasantly surprised by Ninja Jajamaru: The Great Battle + Hell: Deluxe Edition as I didn't know it would do 3 things:1) The reversible cover and manual are impressive though the manual says to hold X to pause, but I actually had to hold + to go to the main menu, and press + to pause.2) I got 60 gold points, when normally Nintendo Switch games only do 1 gold point per dollar on physical ($30 but got double points).3) There are galleries and The Great Yokai Battle + Hell has remixed music (though you gotta unlock the gallery), and original music if you are a purist.There is quality of life with the save states, rewind, fast forward and even filters.There are some flaws unfortunately, but the collection is greater than the sum of its parts, even if the Lost RPG's, The Ninja Skill Book (turn-based but has flashing) and The Legend of the Golden Castle (action RPG), are missing (they also have bad music).The colorized Game Boy game, The Great World Adventure DX, has flashing (like in my 4th screenshot), the heads of enemies may not register hit boxes, and the music is terrible (these also happen in the regular version). Fortunately, rewind and save states help with cheap deaths. Later levels have better designs, and there's even a Jaws type of level in addition to talking to bosses.I think that Ninja Jajamaru: Operation Milky Way (fifth/last NES game), Super Ninja Kid (on SNES) and the Great Yokai Battle + Hell (remake of the first game) are probably the best games in the collection due to improved music and controls (the first Ninja Jajamaru game is stiff).Ninja Jajamaru: Operation Milky Way has you play as Jajamaru or Princsss Sakura, and is 2 player with improved graphics (even cutscenes)/controls, a charged dash mechanic, and music. Both characters play identically, with a jump/hammer replacing the older shuriken throws.Super Ninja Kid is a pretty tough game, but it uses much better music and you can throw shurikens again. This game is like an enhanced version of Ninja Jajamaru: Big Adventure (2nd NES game, which has slightly better music/controls than the first NES Jajamaru and Game Boy game. You also expand to more than a single screen arena style from the first game and Yokai.For Yokai, you generally throw shurikens and bash bricks with your head like Super Mario, though you can also jump down from them. It's also unique that enemies must strike you, to damage you as opposed to mere contact that is common in games.The enhanced music and controls really helped Yokai, and I wish they had this option for all the games (Super Ninja Kid had enhanced but I couldn't toggle off so I would not know the difference). It is great to see how the games learned from their earlier mistakes and got better upon playing later games, as an ideal with game developers.Given they weren't going to add the Lost RPG's nor do fixes for flashes, controls and music in the older games, I am glad they priced the physical to be at a $5 discount of buying it digitally (Yokai and Retro Collection is $35), as these often cost more, and I liked the physical copy having a manual (even with the X pause error though you could customize controls) and reversible cover.