Last Ninja 4 (Various platforms)

1996-2018 System 3

Platforms: PC, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 + others

Also known as: “The Last Ninja – Return to Lin Fen Island”

When you think of System 3, The Last Ninja series probably comes to mind – along with memories of frustrating lake crossings and those infamous mud pits in the first game. Despite the therapy I needed after that segment, the series was iconic. But when the third instalment was released in 1991, many thought it marked the end. Not quite!

Attempts were made to try and bring a 4th game to the Commodore 64, thanks to Jon Wells, but System 3 were not interested at this point in time and didn’t allow the project to continue.

Just a few years later though (around 1997 time), there was a change of heart, and the time was now right to resurrect the franchise and continue the series once more on modern platforms. At the start, an isometric style game similar to the original series, and graphically similar to the Little Big Adventure series with inspiration from the Oddworld series.

The idea was that the Last Ninja would be able to freely roam around the game map, rather than being tied to the path – and there would be around 100 screens compared to 25-30 like in the original game per level.

According to Mark Cale when speaking with Time Extension, this development had started off with Philips Interactive, where the game was originally to be on PlayStation 1 and PC. When they pulled out of the industry in 1998, System 3 carried on working on the game and then looked to move over to the PlayStation 2.

It seems that this particular design/iteration of the game was cancelled, and we will hopefully learn more about this soon to include within the page. The game would go through many iterations and multiple designers over the years, with the design adapting as the technology advanced.

A few years after the “Little Big Adventure” style version being cancelled, there would be a much more advanced development in 2000 where the isometric view was dropped, and a more Tomb Raider view approach taken. This may have been when System 3 took over the project once more and the target platform moved to the PlayStation 2 (and also Xbox original).

At this time, a deal was being made with Electronic Arts – but a lot of internal politics would see things stall further. Eventually, a deal was then made with Simon & Schuster, but they too pulled out of the industry in 2003 – leaving LN4 in limbo and ultimately cancelled. Be sure to check out Mark’s interview in full with Time Extension for more details.

After a long break, the game was resurrected once more between 2016-2018, with System 3 doing all of the work this time. They created an impressive demo, with many different innovations, some of which can be seen in the Kickstarter video below:

Unfortunately, the development became a struggle when the resource required to finish was going to be far too much. People were approached to try and get funding to take it further, but ultimately System 3 were unsuccessful, so once more the development was cancelled.

Amazingly, two work in progress demos from 2002 and 2018 are to be released in limited form (7,500 copies) through a special Diamond Tier exclusive via System 3’s recently successful Kickstarter. It is great to see companies being open to sharing abandoned concepts, and hope it long continues.

Mark has confirmed that we won’t be able to provide a download of the previews (as this would be unfair to backers), but we are able to show screenshots (and will eventually be able to add a video of the demos). Those who purchase the Diamond Tier edition of the Last Ninja collection will get access to be able to play the demos. If anything changes in the future, then we will update this page.

Over time, we hope to be able to share more details about the various developments (including possibly other platforms not covered) and have more articles/screenshots added over time to collate as much as we can about the game’s history. If you have anything we can add, please do get in touch.

With a huge thank you to Mark Cale for permission to include screenshots and details from the Kickstarter, Daniel Ibbertson (Slopes Game Room) for the introduction and arrangement and The Last Ninja Archive for many of the old screenshots and scans.

Kickstarter images are reproduced with permission from System 3 and are (c) System 3. For more details on the Kickstarter and how to late pledge, please visit:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lastninjacollection/the-last-ninja-collection-bonus-games-on-switch-and-pc