Let's be honest, when we think of retro ninja games, we generally picture side scrolling platforms or beat em' up games. You picture using your sword and shurikens to dice through your enemies. Pocky & Rocky 2 does not follow this idea. It actually takes on a more child friendly route in an above character view. Instead of a sword as your main weapon, you throw cards as your primary attack. You also get a magic wand that you swing around kind of like a sword. You also constantly get a partner AI following you around (by the end of the game, you will get 7 partners to choose from) who you get to throw at enemies, which does huge explosive attacks on bosses. This may seem like a crazy and stupid idea, but don't be to quick to judge. This is actually a very fun game to play.

Graphics: 8
The graphics of this game are more cartoony than any ninja game I have ever seen, but it doesn't change the fact that the graphics are pretty well done. The environments are either beautiful, eerie, or just intense. All the characters and enemies are well shaded that works well with all the shadows in the game to make it look less flat. This color of this game is about as bright as Super Mario World. Every level is it's own environment where you will see a lot of extremes. You will find yourself going through a forests, snowy mountains, volcanoes, and even thousands of feel in the sky. Each level has it's own type of enemies, and you will find an enemy in more than one level (minus the fact that two of the bosses, who are brothers, are almost twins). The movements are very clean and smooth, and you will see a LOT of movement everywhere as you will see ninja cards, partner weapons, enemies, and various projectiles filling the screen. At times, you will see up to 25 different moving things on the screen at once that are not background. It is on the upper scale of graphics for the SNES just for the amount of things going on at once, and it does not slow down the game or make it glitch at all.

Sound: 9
This is an example of a game that has a great mix of sound effects and music. You will hear a lot of sound effects in this game. Every throw of your cards have the sound of razor blades cutting through the air. Accidentally throwing your partner into a wall and the hitting enemies with your want make a very comical *bump/bong* sound. You will hear lots of booms, crashes, zaps, and stomps. This is only some of the many sound effects you will hear. The music is just as well done as the sound effects too. It isn't anything particularly catchy that you will specifically remember, but they do fit the levels very well. But the music that takes the cake is the music that plays right before you fight the bosses. It lets you know that the person you about to fight is crazy evil The actual boss music is very appropriate too.

Addictiveness: 10
"This game isn't like the other ninja games I love". *SLAP*. Who cares!? This game is addicting. I have beaten this game at least 50 times on my SNES, and I still played it, even though I could beat it holding the controller with my feat. You throw thousands of cards. One of your partner uses leaves as shurikens. Another throws huge bombs. Another shoots missiles. When you throw your partners at enemies, it creates awesome long lasting explosions that are unique to each partner. You got explosions, you got weird monsters, and you got a pretty descent story. But the best part of this is if you get a chance to play it with a friend, who takes the role of your partner. That partner is immortal (given they can get hit enough times and be out for about 30 seconds). This is one awesome co-op game.

Story: 8
The story of this game is pretty rock solid. You are celebrating a festival with the moon princess. Enemies kidnap her by a man who has become insane by his own power and tries to force her into marriage. You and your friends are on a quest to save her. After every level, you get a nice little bit of story progression. It is good for a kid appropriate game. The only drawback is the fact that it was originally a Japanese script, and though the English translation is pretty good, the dialogue seems a bit more cheesy than it probably does in it's original language.

Depth: 7
As I stated earlier, the environment from each level changes a immensely. You will never get repeat levels of any sort. There is one level where you spend the entire time riding on a super fast mutt. Another takes place in the sky, and is very similar to the dog riding level. The big difference is that you are riding on a huge dragon. You get more than enough levels that are a good length, and you get to fight quite a lot of mini bosses as well. The big drawback is the fact that the game play is constant from the beginning of the game to the end. Even though the dog and dragon levels are a nice little change of pace, the game play is pretty much the same only faster paced. You don't get much variety of game play for a game that should take you 30-40 minutes to get through. 

Difficulty: 4
The big fault in the game is that it is pretty easy. For those who don't know my other reviews, I like a game that gives you a good challenge (not in a hard to control or glitchy type of difficult), and this is way too easy once you get the hang of it. Even the hard mode is fairly easy. The only level that is remotely a challenge is that dragon level, and only because you do not stay stationary for a second. I understand that this is supposed to be easy enough for kids to play, but in my opinion, that is what difficulty levels are for. Give us a hard mode that gives us older gamers a challenge, and make an easy mode for the kids. I rest my case. It still isn't a big enough factor to take away the addictiveness down any notches. 

Overall: 7.6
It isn't your typical ninja game, but this shows that you can try something new with a style and it can come out awesome. There is nothing wrong with getting cartoony (and even a little cute) with a ninja game. To wrap it up, the graphics are very well done, and there is a lot of variety. The sounds are pretty cool and the music is very appropriate. The story is solid, but has a bit of cheese factor to it due to trying to translate the script. You get level variety, but game play variety lacks. It is very easy, and you might as well not bother with going on easy mode if you tend to get the hang of games quickly. But this game is super addictive, and you might find yourself playing through quite a few times. It is worth at least trying.

One of the first games I actually played on here which is weird. I did not think that it was that bad and actually I thought that it was good because it was different. I am glad some one else thought that the game was as average as I did.

billythekidmonster : I assume that because you played it here, you might not have played it on the console. But I'll ask anyway. Ever play it in Co-Op?

rcarter2 : No sadly. Though it looks like that is what it was meant for. I do not have any console but the Wii so naturally I have not played Co-Op. Though I would love too if only we had net play up...

billythekidmonster : Well, the new plug-in is supposed to have that feature. When the programmers Davideo7 paid to get it set up complete it, I will be more than happy to net play this game with you. 

rcarter2 : I would love to do that. I do not think he realizes that adding that alone would bring in more than a crap ton of people. I would net play these games with all my friends and they would actually join. It would be great beyond great.