Wrath of the Black Manta

Wrath of the Black Manta
Also known as: Ninja Cop Saizou (JP) Developer: A.I Publishers: Kyugo Boueki (JP), Taito (US/EU) Platform: NES Released in JP: November 17, 1989 Released in US: April 1990 Released in EU: January 24, 1991 This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences.

Wrath of the Black Manta puts you in the role of a ninja that fights a gang of vile drug-dealing kidnappers! Was this Taito's attempt at an 8-bit after school special?

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	International

Cutscenes

The story and artwork in the intro, dialogue screens, level cutscenes, and ending are very different.

Boot Screen

In the Japanese version, the hero drops in before the title screen appears. In the international versions, the title screen appears right away.

Introduction (abridged)

In the Japanese version, the intro plays by waiting at the title screen. In the international versions, the intro only appears after starting the game (otherwise, you'll see the Level 2 demo).

Japan	International

Stage Intro

In the Japanese version, the hero drops in, the word "Round" appears, then someone shoots an arrow with a note citing how many children can be found in the stage. The international versions just show the number and name of the stage.

Japan	International

Levels

Ninja Cop Saizou has an additional stage that was omitted from Wrath of the Black Manta. It was put between Stage 1 and 2 of Wrath of the Black Manta. It appears to be set on the roofs of buildings and starts with you climbing up between 2 buildings while mobsters are firing at you from the windows.

The final stage has been cut from 6 floors to 4 for the international releases. The last portion of the final stage is noticeably different between both versions as well. Black Manta has the player face against one of the four bosses from the previous stages. Ninja Cop Saizou forces the player to fight all five bosses before reaching the final boss, resulting in a more difficult conclusion to the game.

Music

Wrath of the Black Manta and Ninja Cop Saizou have completely different soundtracks.

Bosses

To do: Screenshots.

Some bosses have been redrawn and others were completely changed, such as the last boss, who is the leader of the bad guys.

• The Level 1 Boss in the international versions has a larger and more realistic sprite and has had his wave punch attack removed, but to make up for it, he can only be shot from high jumps.
• The Level 4 (3 in international) is an Electric Ghost in Ninja Cop Saizou but in Black Manta he is a "Voodoo Warrior" who is shown as a magic-show magician lookalike with a skull staff.

The Japanese version has an exclusive boss which appears in Round 3, which is a giant eyeball as the head of a floating snake.

Last Boss

In the Japanese version, he has a spaceship which has mobsters coming out of it and after that he gets onto the ship and transforms into an alien who floats around the screen shooting projectiles at you. In the international versions, he is holding Taro hostage and moves left and right shooting projectiles at you and must be defeated with four arts in a certain order.

Japan	International

Cheats

The Japanese version has three working cheats.

• Invincibility: Press B, B, Select, A, Up, Select, Right, Start before the title screen appears. If done correctly, the word MUTEKI will appear.
• Stage Select: Enter any of the below at the title screen.
  • Stage 2: A, B, A, A, A, Up, Down, B, Start.
  • Stage 3: Select, A, B, B, A, Select, Down, Up, Start.
  • Stage 4: Right, Right, Down, Down, Up, Up, B, Select, Select, Start.
  • Stage 5: Down, Right, Left, B, A, B, Select, Select, Start.
  • Stage 6: Up, Left, Left, Right, B, Select, A, Select, Start.
• Boss Rush: Press A, B, A, Select, Select, Select, Right, Up, Start at the title screen.

(Source: ReyVGM)

The US versions still have the stage/boss rush select cheats sitting in the ROMs, but disabled, so they can't be re-enabled easily. In the European version, the cheats were finally removed. The "MUTEKI" cheat was totally removed from all western versions due to lack of the intro at all.

But, using the Game Genie code ZGSNAUOE + OYSNPLUN (for the US Revision 1 revision) or EEENTXNL + ENENYZXN (for the US Revision 0 revision) or ONEUOXXU + AKEUEZKU (for the European version), you can re-enable the debug stage/boss select mode, written especially for the western versions. Just press Start at the title screen. Press A / B to select the level number. Numbers 1 to 6 represent the regular levels while numbers 81 to 86 represent the boss levels. Press Select to enable invincibility. Press Start to start from the selected level.

Europe

The European version has a different copyright screen.

US	Europe

There was a blue mobster in Part 1 that would drop down on top of some barrels when you are on top of them. This may cause the player to get hurt unless they are careful. This one enemy was removed from the European version.

Revisional Differences

To do: There's more.

The US got a v1.1 release which changed, among other things, a few spelling mistakes.

v1.0	v1.1
Whoa! let go of me man!	Whoa! Let go of me man!
Are you alright? Yeah, I'm ok.	Are you all right? Yeah, I'm OK.