Kid Niki: Radical Ninja/Gameplay

Controls

 * / : Use the arcade joystick, or the NES direction pad to control Kid Niki. Press left or right to make him run in either direction.  Press down to make him squat and duck beneath high attacks.  Press up to make Kid Niki climb a ladder or a tree trunk.
 * / : Press the first arcade button, or the NES B button to make Kid Niki spin his sword in front of him. Press the button repeatedly to keep the sword spinning.
 * / : Press the second arcade button, or the NES A button to make Kid Niki jump in the air. He can jump straight up, to the left, or to the right.  He can change his direction mid flight.  Kid Niki will jump the same height regardless of how long you hold the button.
 * / : Pres the start button to begin a new game. On the NES, press Start mid-game to pause the action.
 * : Press the select button to choose between starting a new one or two player game, or continuing from the last world of the previous game.

Player
In the Japanese version, you control the Wonderful Yanchamaru (shown left), while in the American version, you control Kid Niki, the radical ninja (shown right). Apart from their hairstyles, they are equally skilled ninjas. They are both expertly trained swordsmen who are on a mission to save a Princess from the Stone Wizard. In order to do so, they must travel through eight rounds filled with enemies, obstacles, and henchmen of the wizard who are determined to stop them before they can complete their mission and defeat the Stone Wizard. They can leap quite high, and twirl their swords around at astonishing speeds. Use the swords to remove enemies who threaten them; they can only tolerate one hit before they are defeated. In the American version of the arcade, as well as both the Famicom and NES versions, the player is sent back to a level checkpoint if they made it far enough before they died. However, in the Japanese version of the arcade game, Yanchamaru is sent back to the very beginning of the level, even if he perished fighting against the stage boss.