I forgot how awesome this game was when I recently played the NES cart for the first time in a while 2 days ago. I remember I first heard about this game when OgreHombre (whereever he may be) featured it on his NES site, which is no longer running, during his "Game Of The Month" section. I remember during his little review of it that people were giving him crap for featuring it as "Game of the Month", and how he didn't get it, because he thought the game was awesome. I decided to download it, but I didn't play it 'til the next day, and I eventually bought the real cartridge. The game was as good as he said it was! This game is just so awesome, it's one of Taito's best NES games! It seems they were trying to compete with Shinobi, but I'm NOT going to turn this into a comparison thread. Man, I wish OgreHombre would come back into the limelight. He was so awesome. Anyway, back to the game:It's similar to Shinobi like I said, but there are different "Ninja Arts" you can acquire, and there are rooms (as well as hidden rooms) to explore. In these rooms you rescue kidnapped kids and collect power ups, and the bosses will put up a good challenge. I remember not even being able to get past the first boss the first few times I played! The last boss especially can be frustrating if you don't know what to do! And there's a certain way you need to attack him (the final boss). Man, this game was so awesome! I feel compelled to play it again today!

It was a great game for it's time back then. There are quite few secrets also in this game.

Anyone remember the contest?  You'd call in and hear the Blank Manta talking and could win a toy shopping spree.

He sounds like an American guy talking with an exaggerated, condesending voice.