When children start disappearing and the authorities cannot figure out the cause, it is up to the Black Manta to save the day. It becomes personal when his teacher's prized student, Taro, becomes one of the kidnap victims. Will the Black Manta master his Ninja Arts or is this game an artifact of its era?
For such a figure cloaked in mystery and steeped in legend and lore, the ninja was thrust to the heights of in-your-face popularity in the 1980s. With the supersaturated archetypes of soldiers, police officers and cowboys running thin on both content and originality, martial artists and ninja began filling the void for action in popular, Western culture en masse.
Historically, the ninja is renowned for stealth, sabotage and subterfuge in feudal Japan. He/she received special training to master his/her discipline.
It is the acquisition of these arts—ninjutsu (sometimes ninjitsu) or the ninpo arts—that becomes a driving force, motoring a big part of the mechanics of gameplay in Taito's 1989 action platformer, Wrath Of The Black Manta.
These ninpo arts impart superhuman abilities upon the ninja whom headlines this game: the Black Manta. And it is a good thing, too; because our solitary ninja will need all the help he can get to fight off a heinous organization whose global reach is threatening children everywhere.
As the game opens, crime is plaguing New York City. Children are mysteriously disappearing. As the feared Black Manta—one-part aspiring crime fighter; one-part drug enforcement agent; 10 parts American(?!) ninja—you navigate a number of cities across the globe, rescuing the aforementioned missing children in search of your faceless sensei's prized student, Taro, who has, also, been kidnapped.
Across the game's five levels—each staged in some of the international hotspots of the world: New York City, USA (presumably three different times[?!?]); Tokyo, Japan; and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil—Black Manta platforms his way in this mock arcade/throwaway script from a 1980s, low-budget, straight-to-video, action movie that plays overtly like Sega's classic hit, Shinobi, with a half-hearted effort at Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden cutscenes thrown in for good measure. [To learn more about the NES version of Ninja Gaiden and how its animated Acts inspired Wrath Of The Black Manta, read our Ninja Gaiden - Delights... Cameras... ACTION! review here.]
Each stage feels like a smudged carbon copy with Shinobi's designs in mind - heavily-derivative, but not quite distinct or sharp enough to hold up on its own (with, perhaps, exceptions being small segments of the Tokyo, Japan set and the Rio De Janeiro set that have the Black Manta riding the wind in a human-sized kite - a tale of legend that has yet to be confirmed in the annals of the ninja).
To make things worse, unfortunately, after "Part 1 - New York City", every stage in Wrath Of The Black Manta feels, looks and plays like an instant replay of the one before.
Essentially the scenes of each level have the Black Manta doing his best Joe Musashi (the hero of Shinobi) impersonation: leaping up-and-down between two planes of play, scurrying through large, blocky spreads of concrete streets, sewers and warehouses, ducking behind crates, swinging his short sword/knife up-close or dispensing "darts" from a safer distance at simple-minded henchmen who do little to stop the Manta's march forward.
Instead of untying or cutting the guarded hostages loose like in Shinobi, the Black Manta has to work a bit harder at finding the kidnapped in his game. Secret walls give way and crumple under Black Manta's dart attacks, revealing hidden offices and rooms. Many other children can be found trapped in cages, behind any number of doors that are readily-visible and accessible in open sight throughout each of the game's locales (similar to Namco's Rolling Thunder or Capcom's later play-alike, Code Name: Viper).
Upon freedom, some of the children will share invaluable information about hidden doorways or locations or will provide other hints that will keep the Manta in hot pursuit of Taro's whereabouts.
By entering every door (although many, inexplicably, seem to be labeled as EXITs in-game [?!?]), if the Manta doesn't find children, he may be able to pick up full life refills or gain expansions for his POW Indicator.
The POW Indicator plays an important role in the Black Manta's chances of survival. It allows for the unlimited charging and expulsion of the Ninpo Arts that the Manta possesses and earns. The longer the gauge stretches, the longer the duration or the strength of the Ninpo Art used. (Holding down the B button (B) charges up the Ninja Arts.) This is a generous and potent gift that the game developers bestowed upon the player.
Only one other type of item can be found in the game. Letters are scrawled-out scraps of paper, left behind as clues.
One important letter—in particular, found early in the game—points the Manta in the right direction for solving the mystery behind the culprits committing all of the unusual crimes and what their motives are. It reveals that: "The man in red knows something."
While exploring each city, the Black Manta will continually encounter and will stay on the heels of a "man in red". If Black Manta runs up on him, he will discover that he is an informant. (By faulty controls, the Black Manta can, sometimes, initiate contact and force a conversation through headlock, chokehold or half-Nelson. There may be an easier way to engage in contact, click here to learn about this strategy below (↓).)
If the Black Manta stays persistent, he will extract key intel on the insidious goings-on of the shadowy organization, DRAT (probably not the most subtle or smartest acronym to name your criminal enterprise - Drug Runners And Terrorists).
Following the Black Manta's last meet-up with the reluctant mouthpiece in red, the big boss of the current city awaits. DRAT brings its heavy hitters in to shutdown the meddlesome Manta with one of the absolute best aspects of the game - its main enemy design. Tiny shows what it means to be a big boss stomping on the scene.
One way to bring him down to size and to equalize DRAT's other enforcers is by way of the Ninpo Arts that we mentioned earlier.
Just as Joe used special attacks to inflict major damage across the screen in Shinobi, Black Manta uses his Ninpo Arts to a similar effect.
Upon defeat of a stage, his master imparts wisdom and shares new arts to power Black Manta forward. Some of these Ninpo Arts are of a more traditional type, like Art of Invisibility. Others are more modern and fictitious, taking liberties with the ninja lore: Art of Lightning (sending lightning bolts at enemies) or Art of Missiles (blasting off fiery missiles from his bare hands). (By pressing SELECT at any time, you can change up the collection of Ninja Arts you can use.)
Up until this point, Wrath Of The Black Manta compares favorably to its motivational source, Shinobi.
It tries to do more than just be a simplified, action title. It endeavors with its attempts at a backstory and with its slow revelation of the reason and guilty party behind the missing children.
By careful pacing, the Manta slowly pulls together the pieces of the tale per informant confrontations and dialogue reveals from the rescued children and interstage acts. The game tries to organically build up interest in the mysterious crimes.
It even participates in preaching a prevailing message of the time by condemning drugs and getting the message out about "just saying no" to its target audience of gamers.
But, while it successfully deviates from its inspiration in the previous manners (and with other changes in gameplay and mechanics), it ultimately languishes in the long shadow cast by Shinobi's superior, sustained, higher level of quality and effort.
Overall, it feels like the development team of Wrath Of The Black Manta poured most of its resources and productivity into the creation of some of the game's graphic work and then just decided to skimp on the rest of the production quality by resorting to use lazy, copy-and-paste tactics on the remainder of the game's image art, as well as the other components of the title: the level design, the mechanics and the music included.
For example, the game's graphics take on an uneven keel, seesawing from impressive, intricate portraitures and detailed bosses to an unimaginative, repetitive look and layout of the majority of the stages.
To take it a step further, while it is true that portraits of the kidnapped children are, arguably, some of the best imagery seen throughout, the appeal begins to wear off after one realizes that every single, rescued child on a stage looks identical. The only thing that distinguishes one from the next is the dialogue.
(Even a simple palette swap of the clothing or skin tones or different facial expressions would have been an appreciable upgrade. Instead, is the gamer to believe the preposterous notion that each imprisoned child found on a stage is a part of a set of identical siblings (be it quintuplets, sextuplets or whatever multiple birth number present on that particular level) wearing the SAME exact clothing and having the SAME exact hairstyles?!)
The next offender of lethargic leveling-off of quality control goes to the game's programming.
As previously stated, aside from the uninspired level design (and redundancy - yes, out of the game's five levels - two of them are stationed in New York City, with DRAT Headquarters probably being there as well!), the game's mechanics feel stale and predictable.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Unfortunately, the game shows its frayed edges, as the creators' lazier tendencies start to show after "Part 1".
Continually chase down "the man in red". Enter every door. Save cloned hostages. Stand or kneel against walls and throw your "darts" to reveal hidden areas that eventually feel humdrum.
While it is true that many games rely on repetitive in-game tasks and goals, Wrath Of The Black Manta's actions can feel more like tedious chores - especially after the first city.
The music is another letdown. While the main stage theme is solid and the secondary track found inside rooms is decent, those same songs are recycled throughout... no effort was made to create unique songs for each of the five locations (and that is barring two songs since New York City is played through twice).
(On a similar note - by 1989, gaming had evolved beyond using a single song throughout an entire game and it was common practice for games in the action and arcade genres to have several, unique tracks assigned per level.)
If you stack these more-or-less "cosmetic" issues on top of the much-more egregious violations of unsteady hit detection, unreliable controls (at times) and glitches, not even the Black Manta can sneak away unscathed.
As we come to a close, perhaps the Black Manta's wrath was misguided? Maybe what was really incurring his wrath was his frustrations with the tedium, repetition and mediocrity from the development team's bare-minimum efforts. Unfortunately, it is a shame because their inactions may have sabotaged the makings of a more memorable game.
In a most ironic twist, as the Black Manta dedicated himself to perfecting his Ninpo Arts, it is the developers' nonchalance and lack of commitment that ultimately results in a truly artless assault on most of the potential this game could have had.
b. jones © 2022
Secrets & Tips for Wrath Of The Black Manta |
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INFINITE LIFE REFILL | The Black Manta has to face a lot of hostile members of DRAT, as he tracks down Taro and rescues all of those missing children. It's not always easy to stay healthy and avoid injury. Anytime that the Black Manta reaches a room that is guarded by three enemies (like below ↓), he can quickly refill three blocks of life. This can be done repeatedly until his current strength tops out at eight blocks. See below (↓): ![]() Enter a room that has the three enemy layout. ![]() Quickly dodge and defeat the trio. ![]() Once the enemies are defeated, Manta will gain three blocks of life. (See the green highlighted blocks in the picture.) ![]() Simply exit and re-enter as many times as needed to build up your full life! |
THE ART OF INVISIBILITY | The Black Manta receives mastery of a set of new Ninpo Arts with each new city he investigates. The Art Of Invisibility is one of the more effective ones. This art can be used as a semi-reliable form of "invincibility" that allows the Manta to, sometimes, pass through and safely fight some enemies. ![]() Also, it can be an easier way to engage with "the man in red" found throughout the various stages of the game. Because of the unpredictable hit detection, Black Manta, oftentimes, may lose energy when he tries to move in to physically grab and speak to the red informant, but, if he uses the Art Of Invisibility first, the Black Manta's chances to safely question him may improve. (See above picture. ↑) |
THE ART OF SPIDER | The Art Of Spider is one of the more unusual of the Ninpo Arts. When used, it lets the Black Manta burrow through the soil and travel underneath and across a section of a stage protected from enemy detection. ![]() ![]() This art is especially useful in the "Part 2 - Tokyo, Japan" level. See the image above (↑). (NOTE: Follow the yellow arrows. The far right portion of the picture shows the Manta digging down; the middle section shows him tumbling through the earth to the left; the far left panel shows the Art Of Spider wearing off and the Black Manta bursting up through the ground for a surprise attack.) |
HOW TO DEFEAT THE ROBOTS IN "PART 4 - NEW YORK CITY" | Finally, a letter reveals another important power that the Art Of Invisibility has: ![]() The Art Of Invisibility is very useful when fighting the robots at the end of Stage 4. |
CHOOSE WHICH ENEMY BOSS YOU WANT TO FIGHT BEFORE THE FINAL BOSS | On "Part 5 - DRAT Headquarters" immediately before you encounter the final boss, you have to choose one of four doors. Each door conceals a major boss you defeated earlier in the game. Use the image below to pick the main enemy you are most comfortable with battling: ![]() |
HOW TO DEFEAT THE MAIN ENEMY | This review is SPOILER-FREE, but to see the revelation of the main enemy and to learn the best strategy to beat the game, click here. |
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