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Ninja Kid

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Title Screen

Ninja Kid

Also known as: Gegege no Kitarō: Yōkai Daimakyō (JP)
Developer: TOSE
Publisher: Bandai
Platform: NES
Released in JP: April 17, 1986
Released in US: October 1986


DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.


CHR + PRG Test

Holding any button on Controller 2 and pressing Reset will launch a simple test on the game's CHR and PRG banks. If the tests succeed, the game will continue as normal. However, the screen will turn red if the PRG test fails or blue if the CHR test fails.

(Source: CaH4e3)


Regional Differences

The game was altered from its anime license, Gegege no Kitarō, when it was brought to the US. Certain graphics have been changed, mostly pertaining to the player and his allies, but not the enemies.

Title Screen

The title screen's logo was altered slightly to look more generic for Ninja Kid.

Japan US
Gegege-Famicom-Title.png Ninja Kid-title.png

The original title screen music is based on the Gegege no Kitarō (1985) opening, which was changed for the US version. The map and death themes were also changed due to having parts of the anime opening in them.

Japan US

Player

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-KitaroPlayerSprites.png
NinjaKidNES-NinjaKidPlayerSprites.png

Kitarō was replaced with the more generic character known only as Ninja Kid. "Junior Defender of human rights."

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-KitaroOnIttanMomenSprites.png
NinjaKidNES-NinjaKidonKiteSprites.png

Kitarō flies by riding Ittan-Momen, a yōkai ally of his that resembles a long strip of white cloth. Ninja Kid rides a Kite, but the manual still clearly shows Kitarō and Ittan-Momen, labeled "NINJA KID ON KITE".


Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-HairAttack.png
NinjaKidNES-DaggerAttack.png

Kitarō's main method of attack is firing his hairs out like needles. Ninja Kid uses daggers, but they still come from the top of his head, so it looks a little odd.

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-HairWeaponIcon.png
NinjaKidNES-DaggerWeaponIcon.png

The hair icon at the top of the screen was changed to a dagger as well. The dagger icon has a few pixels that use the background color (green here), which changes often.


Items

Japan US US, Boss Fights
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-ChanchankoVest.png
NinjaKidNES-Feather.png
NinjaKidNES-ChanchankoVestError.png

Kitarō uses his Chanchanko Vest, while Ninja Kid uses a Feather. However, the programmers forgot to replace the Chanchanko Vest sprites loaded during the boss fights, which means Ninja Kid will use the vest with his own color palette, although the Feather icon is still on the HUD.


Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-FingerGun.png
NinjaKidNES-IronStar.png

Kitarō can launch detached copies of his hand. The second, larger sprite shown here is used for the HUD, and it is the only weapon to have a unique HUD icon.

Ninja Kid throws shuriken known as Iron Stars. The second sprite here is the HUD icon, which looks very similar but is still made up of 2 tiles.

NinjaKidNES-IronStarError.png

Also, during the Guerilla Warfare and Blazing Inferno stages, the Iron Star is missing a single orange pixel. Oops.


Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-RemoteControlGeta.png NinjaKidNES-Boomerang.png

Kitarō uses remote controlled Geta sandals, while Ninja Kid uses a boomerang. A remote controlled one.


Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-fireball.png
NinjaKidNES-Fireflame.png

Kitarō and Ninja Kid both use fireballs as their 4th weapon (Ninja Kid's is known as the Fireflame), although the sprite is different. For some reason the Fireflame's colors are swapped during boss fights, but not on the HUD.


Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-crystalball.png

GegegenoKitaroFamicom-crystalball-icon.png
NinjaKidNES-SpecialScroll.png

NinjaKidNES-SpecialScroll-icon.png

The crystal ball that Kitarō collects to enter the boss of each map was changed to the "Special Scroll."


Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-item-colorpalettes.png
NinjaKidNES-item-colorpalettes.png

These five items changed color palettes as a side effect of sharing the same palette as the player character.



Boss Battle Allies

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-Nurikabe.png
NinjaKidNES-Pegasus.png

Kitarō's first ally is Nurikabe, a large wall-like yōkai that acts as a shield. Ninja Kid has a Pegasus, which somehow protects Ninja Kid just as efficiently as... a literal giant wall.

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-KonakiJijii.png
NinjaKidNES-BigEagle.png

Kitarō's second ally is Konaki-Jijii, an old man yōkai that clings onto his opponents and turns himself into stone to weigh them down. Ninja Kid has a bird named Big Eagle, who simply "stops the movements" of the boss.

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-SunakakeBabaa.png
NinjaKidNES-OldWitch.png

Kitarō's third ally is Sunakake-Babaa, an old woman yōkai that throws sand. Ninja Kid summons the Old Witch, who also throws sand.

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-SunakakeBabaaMapSprite.png
NinjaKidNES-OldWitchMapSprite.png

This is Sunakake-Babaa/Old Witch's sprite on the map screen.

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-HoukouProjectile.png
NinjaKidNES-HoukouProjectile.png

The final boss, Hōkō, has a projectile that mistakenly uses the lower tile of Sunakake-Babaa's map sprite, miscolored. So that inadvertently got changed too.

Other Characters

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-NezumiOtoko.png
NinjaKidNES-PirateNinja.png

The only enemy that had its sprite changed. Nezumi-Otoko was changed to a ninja pirate, and the projectile was changed to a throwing star.

Japan US
GegegenoKitaroFamicom-YumekoTendouAndNekoMusume.png
NinjaKidNES-princess-and-ninja-girl.png

Yumeko Tendō and Neko-Musume had their graphics changed into two new unnamed characters.