Wrath of the Black Manta

North American box art.

Wrath of the Black Manta is a platform action game developed by A.I Co. and published by Taito on the NES in April 1990. The game borrows heavily from Shinobi and Rolling Thunder, not just in game play, but even in its story line. You control a ninja called the "Black Manta" who is infiltrating a crime syndicate called "DRAT" which is kidnapping children for an unknown nefarious purpose. The original Japanese release was markedly different.

I bought this game as a child because the box art looked cool to me at the time. Fairly quickly after playing I reached the end boss, but after failing to figure out how to beat him, I gave up on the game. I must have sold it at some point, because I no longer have it. After being annoyed that it was a game I had come so close to beating, I went back and played it on an emulator and beat it.

Status

I used to own this game, but no longer do. I beat the game on 2019-01-07.

Review

• Overall: 4/10
• Best Version: NES (Japan)

Good

• The various ninja arts are fun to experiment with and I like how they alter their strength based on your power meter.
• I like the idea of interrogating enemies.
• The over-the-shoulder perspective in the final stage is a nice change up.

Bad

• The game is highly derivative of Shinobi and Rolling Thunder.
• You gain 3 life points every time you defeat the enemies in a room, and you can re-enter them as many times as you like. This means, unless you take 3 damage every time you enter a room (unlikely even for poor players), every enemy room effectively becomes a healing station. This makes the game a lot easier because you're almost always at full health. Even the life bonuses are mostly pointless.
• The ninja arts are poorly implemented. Several of the ninja arts are objectively more useful than others. For example, the art of the spider is only useful in a few specific areas in the game. Also, lightning and fire are completely pointless because you don't get them until the final stage, but, since neither can be used on the final boss, you have to forego them.
• The story and dialogue is utterly ridiculous. Brainwashing children to sell drugs for an organization called DRAT (Drug Runners and Terrorists)? Also, the ham-fisted anti-drug dialogue is lame.
• The portrait graphics of the villains and kids are horrible, and too much of their dialogue gets reused.
• Most of the rooms are identical.
• There isn't much variety among the enemies.
• The third art to defeat the final boss doesn't really fit the theme.

Ugly

• Although there isn't anything specific in the game that is ugly, there are so many minor problems that it's hard to appreciate the game.

Regional Differences

The cut-scenes in the Japanese version are longer and more detailed. The American version has completely different music. The ninja has movement lines when jumping high in the Japanese sprite. Tiny, the boss of stage 1, is quite different. Japanese version has an additional stage (stage 2). The ninja arts are rewarded in a different order in the Japanese version. The stage 3 boss is totally different. In the American version, you only have to defeat one of the bosses again, but you have to defeat them all in the Japanese version. In the Japanese version, you don't need to use specific arts to defeat the end boss, he just turns into a space alien and you can defeat him with any art you choose.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original Japanese box is pretty good. It is a montage of the ninja cop showing off his blade, evading an explosion, and a backdrop of the New York skyline. Nice lettering on the title too.

• 

  The North American box shows a generic looking ninja with an alternate shadow on a red backdrop. The art and lettering are adequate, but a bit dull.

• 

  The European release uses a Japanese style cartoon to display a stylized ninja flanked by an Eastern dragon. It uses the same lettering as the American release. This is my favorite box.

Documentation

• 

  North American manual.

• 

  French manual.

• 

  North American ad.

Videos

• youtube.com/watch?v=9GZnihWfsKg - Longplay, USA.
• youtube.com/watch?v=CN2rv7flgLc - Longplay, Japan.

Credits

Only the Japanese release has credits. The sound is completely different in the American release, so Yoki Shinjyuku may not be the composer of the American version.

Role	Name
Programmer	Taro Machida
Game Designer	Noripi Sagami
Character Designer	Danichi Oono
Sound & Music	Yoki Shinjyuku
Additional Staff	Tukamaete Kuma

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Wrath of the Black Manta
Japanese	忍者COPサイゾウ	Ninja COP Saizou	Ninja COP Saizou

Links

• mobygames.com/game/nes/wrath-of-the-black-manta - MobyGames.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrath_of_the_Black_Manta - Wikipedia.
• ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BF%8D%E8%80%85COP_%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BE%E3%82%A6 - Wikipedia (Japan).
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587787-wrath-of-the-black-manta - GameFAQs.
• tcrf.net/Wrath_of_the_Black_Manta - The Cutting Room Floor.