Some of you may not know the following fact: the company formerly known as Hudson Soft (aka the creators of Adventure Island, Bloody Roar, and Bomberman) is fully owned by Konami, meaning that the house that Belmont built owns the googly-eyed bee’s entire back catalogue. That, as a consequence, means that they also own Hudson’s less-known titles, should Konami ever decide to re-release them someday to a wider audience, to see if lightning might finally strike for the first time, after failing 20-ish years ago. This time around, Konami has decided to experiment with the re-release of an unknown Hudson title from the 2000s, Ninja Five-O.

Do you remember Ninja Five-O? I certainly do not. I don’t have any past memories of it, nor do I remember any vague mention of it in magazines. I went into this review basically reviewing a brand new experience. Originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2003, it is an action platformer starring Joe Osugi, a ninja cop (whatever that means) tasked with stopping a terrorist group which has kidnapped lots of hostages under the guise of the Mad Masks. To be fair, the plot isn’t very relevant, despite the many (static) cutscenes featured in the game. Being a GBA title, the presentation isn’t the best for plot exposition. You’re here for gameplay, for a neat loop, for a good time. And Ninja Five-O is just passable in this regard.

First of all, this is not a remaster in the same level as other Konami outings. Digital Eclipse and/or M2 have not been hired to port Ninja Five-O. Instead, work was directed to Limited Run Games and their Carbon Engine, which has proven to get the job done in terms of emulating and porting old titles, but not doing a lot more than that. It’s not the best translation of a Game Boy Advance game (whose original resolution was a meager 240×160 pixels) to a big fat OLED screen running on 4K. Even on the smallest screen mode available, the game feels massively stretched and overblown. Animations are also quite weird, especially the protagonist’s bizarre walking animation.

The gameplay loop is pretty simple. As the titular ninja, venture through small levels, collecting keys and saving hostages, which can be killed if you attack their assailants whilst their guard is up. Once you’ve rescued (or killed) all hostages in a level, you can proceed to the next area. At the end of each third level, you will fight a boss. Do this loop five times and the game will come to a brief end. In order for you to fend off against foes, you have your sword, as well as an infinite supply of ranged weapons. At first, they’re shuriken; if you collect one power-up, they become fireballs. Collect yet another power-up, and you’ll gain a laser shot. You will lose a powerup level whenever you get hit.

The main gimmick in the level design revolves around the usage of a grappling hook. You can throw your hook onto a platform in order to use it as a swing, not unlike Bionic Commando. In fact, Ninja Five-O plays a lot like “Bionic Commando if it had a jump button”. It’s functional, even if it (very) occasionally clunky. It’s all about learning how to properly use your grappling hook to swing from platform to platform. I liked the previously upgrade system as well, but there’s just not a lot of substance to the overall loop. It’s a smaller-budgeted title from the GBA era, so you shouldn’t expect a lot of lasting value.

Even if it’s not a bad experience, I don’t exactly get the appeal of this Ninja Five-O re-release. It’s not exactly a hidden gem from the GBA era, nor a cult classic. It’s a 2D platformer that gets the job done, provides you with a couple of hours of moderate entertainment without reinventing the wheel, and that’s pretty much it. No extras, no meaningful graphical enhancements, nothing. I didn’t loathe my playtime with it, it was fine for what it was. It’s not a bad game, just not a very memorable one. I feel like it would have been better enjoyed on a portable, not on a PS5 attached to a big screen.

Graphics: 5.0 Playing a super stretched Game Boy Advance game on a big screen is not a good idea, even on the smallest screen mode available.	Gameplay: 6.5 It’s functional, even if it (very) occasionally clunky. It’s all about learning how to properly use your grappling hook to swing from platform to platform. I liked the upgrade system.
Sound: 7.0 Even if it’s a constant loop, the main theme song isn’t terrible. A high-fidelity mode is here to make what was once a terrible GBA soundchip song sound less egregious to human ears.	Fun Factor: 6.0 It’s not a bad game, just not a very memorable one. I feel like it would have been better enjoyed on a portable, not on a PS5 attached to a big screen.
Final Verdict: 6.0

Ninja Five-O is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Switch and the original version on Game Boy Advance.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Ninja Five-O was provided by the publisher.