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Ninja JaJaMaru-kun — stories left

Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).

Reception (5)

It sold 1,000,000 copies in total and became Jaleco's first hit in the home console business.

By April 1986, it had sold nearly 1 million units, becoming one of the best-selling Family Computer games.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

GameSpot criticized the game for its simplicity and lacking in its gameplay, which they attributed to the lack of variety between levels and for the intelligence of the enemies remaining the same as the game progressed.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

While they praised the game for its easy-to-know controls and good music for an early point in the system's life, they said that it was a generally unappealing-looking game and that its gameplay was tedious and boring, mockingly commenting: "Ninja Jajamaru-kun is tedious and ugly, and it actually induces physical discomfort.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

In light of this, they criticized its high difficulty level and repetitive soundtrack.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

People (5)

While they praised the game for its easy-to-know controls and good music for an early point in the system's life, they said that it was a generally unappealing-looking game and that its gameplay was tedious and boring, mockingly commenting: "Ninja Jajamaru-kun is tedious and ugly, and it actually induces physical discomfort.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

IGN said that, while cute, the game was "quaint at best", and that its simplistic gameplay and lack of a true progression through levels would easily bore players.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

They also felt confused towards the game's high price point, which they stated was needlessly-high and made it difficult to recommend.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

In a 2011 retrospective review, Hardcore Gaming 101 stated that while Ninja JaJaMaru-kun was a fun game, namely with the amount of ways to defeat the enemies, it suffered from choppy sprite animation and stiff controls, although claimed the latter was a significant improvement over the Family Computer port of Ninja-Kid.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

They said that it had several cute touches, such as the Catfish Pirate laughing at the player at the beginning of each level, and that the music, while repetitive, was catchy and memorable.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

Numbers (4)

It sold 1,000,000 copies in total and became Jaleco's first hit in the home console business.

A PlayStation title containing, besides this game, ports of 7 Famicom titles: City Connection (1985), Field Combat (1985), Rod Land (1992), Exerion (1985), Formation Z (1985) and Argus (1986).

It contains the new Game Boy Advance title JaJaMaru Jr. Denshouki and ports of 5 Famicom titles (Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, City Connection, JaJaMaru no Daibouken, Formation Z and Exerion).

By April 1986, it had sold nearly 1 million units, becoming one of the best-selling Family Computer games.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

Changed from the original (2)

It was originally scheduled for release in 2015, but reached release after various difficulties.

The game is a spin-off of Ninja-Kid (1984), an arcade video game originally developed by Japanese company UPL, known for games such as Atomic Robo Kid.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Development and release"

Difficulty (2)

In light of this, they criticized its high difficulty level and repetitive soundtrack.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

They also felt confused towards the game's high price point, which they stated was needlessly-high and made it difficult to recommend.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

Firsts and onlys (1)

It sold 1,000,000 copies in total and became Jaleco's first hit in the home console business.

Cancellations and recalls (1)

JaJaMaru Gekimaden: Maboroshi no Kinmajou (1990, Family Computer)

Differences overseas (1)

It was released on the North American Virtual Console on 22 October the same year.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Introduction"

Disputes (1)

In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Ninja JaJaMaru-kun on their 15 May 1986 issue as being the fifteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

(English)English Wikipedia"Ninja JaJaMaru-kun"from "Reception"

The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.

Source: created by adapting the "Media Arts Database" (https://mediaarts-db.artmuseums.go.jp/) of the National Center for Art Research, National Museum of Art
Sources: Japanese and English Wikipedia, Wikidata
Sources: TASVideos (https://tasvideos.org/), speedrun.com (https://www.speedrun.com/)