How to play Ninja Golf online
- Walk forward / back: right / left arrow
- Crouch, and pick up items: down arrow
- Leap: Z (left button)
- Kick: X (right button)
- Throw a ninja star: X while standing still or crouching
- Aim a golf shot: arrow keys move the target, Z or X swings
- Choose the difficulty: left and right arrows or F2 on the title screen (Easy, Normal, Hard or Kamikaze)
- Start: Z, X or F3 (Reset). Pause: F4
Gameplay
Your master’s final test for becoming a Master Ninja is a nine-hole round of golf. Each hole begins in a small golf window, where you pick where the ball should land and swing. Then your ninja jogs after it, and the game turns into a side-scrolling fight. Ninjas attack on foot, gophers throw mud, frogs leap at you, and the hazards are real: snakes wait in the sand traps and sharks in the water.
Once your ball reaches the green, a fire-breathing dragon guards the hole. You beat it by throwing stars into its mouth while dodging its flames. You can carry only ten stars at a time; walking to the far left of the green restocks them. After the ninth hole, a disguised Master Ninja waits for a final battle.
You start with ten stars, a health bar and two extra lives. Items along the course include more stars, potions that restore health, a magic shield that makes you invulnerable for 15 seconds, extra lives, and a warp that sends you straight to the green. Points come from defeated enemies and items, and from your golf: reaching the green in fewer strokes is worth more, from 6,000 points for par to 8,000 for an eagle. Higher difficulty levels add more enemies and make them tougher.
Tips
- Aim for the shortest route. Reaching the green in fewer strokes is worth more points.
- Stay out of sand and water. A bad shot drops you among snakes or sharks.
- Save your stars. Use kicks on ordinary enemies and keep stars for the water and forest sections and for the dragon.
- Keep moving against the dragon. Throw a star, then step aside before the flames reach you.
- Running away is allowed. Jumping over an enemy is often safer than fighting him.
The story behind Ninja Golf
Ninja Golf was one of several ideas pitched by Atari’s internal software team in early 1989. BlueSky Software built it with programmers David R. Sullivan and David A. Dentt and artist Dana Christian, on a budget of $77,000. According to Sullivan, BlueSky was first meant to make a comedy platform game in the spirit of the film Caddyshack. A version for the Atari 8-bit computers was worked on at the same time but was cancelled.
The game came out in North America in late 1990, one of the last titles for the 7800, and Atari made about 100,000 cartridges. Reviews have been mixed: some critics feel neither the golf nor the fighting is very deep, while others enjoy its deadpan humour and strange premise. IGN’s Levi Buchanan ranked it the second-best game on the 7800. Its box art, on the other hand, often turns up on lists of the worst video game covers ever. In 2019 Atari released a free-to-play remake for iOS and Android, developed by Alpha Dog Games.
