NINJA COP

Hudson Soft's Ninja Cop swung into action on the Game Boy Advance, delivering fast-paced, justice-fuelled thrills and playing like a cross between Strider and Bionic Commando. It now demands a hefty price on the second-hand market, but is it actually worth the effort to track down?

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THE GAME

While you could imagine stumbling across Ninja Cop in an Eighties video store, due to its cheesy-sounding name, it's actually an impressively acrobatic platformer from Hudson Soft. Released for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance in 2003 and known as Ninja Five-O in the States it has received cult status in more recent years due to its known quality as an entertaining action game and the high price of entry if you want to take the plunge and buy a physical copy.

Hudson Soft's game has a simple premise, placing you in the athletic form of Joe Osugi, a skilled ninja who is waging a vendetta against the Mad Masks, a terrorist group who have kidnapped a bunch of hostages and are holding them captive across five challenging missions. In many ways Ninja Cop actually plays out like a lost offshoot of the Shinobi series. Like Sega's game, missions contain several levels with the final one being a boss fight, there are hostages to rescue and you're playing as a deadly ninja.

Ninja Cop differentiates itself with the inclusion of Joe's grappling hook, which allows him to stylishly swing through each stage. It also serves as a way for Joe to reach otherwise inaccessible areas and there's a lot of smart level design where the grappling hook is your only means to reach certain hostages. These prisoners are used as shields by their aggressors and if you accidentally kill one you'll lose a significant portion of your life.