The third in our look at old SNK pre-Neo-Geo arcade classics that are now available to download on PS3 and PSP as PS Minis is Sasuke Vs. Commander. Ever heard of Satan’s Hollow? It was a single screen shooter similar to Galaga, except the space ships and alien bugs were replaced with a fantasy background and demon enemies. Sasuke Vs. Commander is a lot like that, except it has a Japanese ninja motif.

You play as a warrior at the bottom of the screen who can run left and right and shoot straight up. In the background is a pagoda and Mt. Fuji. Ninjas appear at the top and glide down toward you diagonally, sometimes bouncing off the two trees at the sides of the screen. You must avoid their ninja stars and shoot them out of the sky. But watch out, because they can still kill you as they fall to the ground.

First you’ll shoot red ninjas, then green ones who fly in groups. After you shoot all the waves, you’ll go up against a boss ninja who will either throw knives or breathe fire on you. Defeat him and win bonus points, lose and you’ll miss getting the bonus. Then the cycle starts over again. I love it when you lose all your lives, your warrior runs and trips over a rock and dies!

One neat thing about Sasuke Vs. Commander is that it was never released in US arcades. These SNK arcade PS Minis are kind of like Xbox LIVE’s Game Room titles from Konami, as they put out a lot of obscure titles on that system, too. So if you want a challenging Galaga-style shooter with ninjas, Sasuke Vs. Commander might be the one for you.

Kid Factor:

Sasuke Vs. Commander is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence. Even though you shoot ninjas, everyone just falls over and disappears when defeated, and the simple graphics negate a lot of the violence anyway. Old arcade games are great for kids because they’re easy to figure out and don’t require any reading skill. Some young players may get bored or frustrated at the game’s difficulty, but you can change how many lives you get in the options screen.

Tags: Game Reviews