Wrath of the Black Manta (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Taito's 1990 action game for the NES, Wrath of the Black Manta.

An overhaul of the 1989 Famicom game Ninja Cop Saizou (忍者COPサイゾウ), Wrath of the Black Manta mixes elements of Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi to create a wholly memorable NES platformer.

If you'd like to see the original Ninja Cop Saizou game, you can find my translated playthrough of it at    • Ninja Cop Saizou (NES) Playthrough [E...  .

You play as the "Black Manta," a ninja who is tasked by his master to save a young boy named Taro. A gang, led by "El Toro," has been kidnapping children around the world with the intention of forcing them to peddle drugs. This is a product of the late eighties after all. Remember America's "War on Drugs"?

(I have always wondered, though: what the hell is a "manta"? M-W defines it as "a square piece of cloth or blanket used in southwestern U.S. and Latin America usually as a cloak or shawl," and that doesn't really fit. The ninja doesn't seem to be a manta ray, either. Maybe he was originally meant to be a mascot for Mylanta and they just contracted the name?)

Like in Shinobi you toss shuriken at your enemies, and you can knife them if they get too close for comfort. Most of the time you wander about the streets, collecting information from the red thugs who can be "restrained" (by grabbing them by the throat) when you get close enough, and searching buildings for the kidnapped children (encased in blocks of ice, for whatever reason) who will give you hints about secret rooms when you free them. Eventually you'll fight the boss of the area, and when you beat him, Black Manta's master will give him access to new ninja arts.

These ninja arts are the gimmick that sets the gameplay apart from most other ninja-themed NES titles, and include attacks, like flinging fireballs and lightning strikes, as well as support abilities, like the ability to turn temporarily invincible or to tunnel underground like a gopher. These arts are unlimited in their use and can be activated at any time by holding the d-pad in a specific direction while charging the POW gauge.

These abilities are fun to play with, and since the gauge fills quickly and you can charge it while you're on the move, you can constantly spam the invincibility power once you've cleared the first stage. The game isn't particularly difficult to begin with (save for some awkward instances of unreliable hit detection), but these powers tend to make the game a total cakewalk. It's still fun, though.

I loved the campy ninja theme and the unbelievably ugly cutscene portraits, the dialogue's hilarious anti-drug rhetoric, and the general flow of the action. Wrath of the Black Manta is a bit rough around the edges, but I enjoyed it for its 80s brand of charm and cheese.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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