Developed by CAProduction and published by Hudson Soft in 1994 for the Super Nintendo, Hagane: The Final Conflict is a side-scrolling action/platform game in which you control a cyborg ninja – called Hagane – who is on a revenge mission against a rival clan.

Hagane can switch between four different weapons (a sword; a chain whip; grenades, and throwing knives), and can perform a variety of acrobatic moves (like wall-jumping, dash attacks, somersaults, slides, flying jump kicks, and ceiling-climbing), and must fight his way through five stages (each split into various substages), toppling a series of bosses on the way.

Hagane also has limited use of magical attacks to clear the screen of enemies – very much in the style of the Shinobi games. In fact, Hagane plays (and looks) similar to Sega‘s Shinobi series, and could be considered a clone of those games. It also has some similarities to Capcom‘s Strider.

The graphics in Hagane are well-drawn and coloured, although you could argue that they’re somewhat ‘generic’. The music and gameplay are also unoriginal too, although Hagane is playable and challenging enough to provide some entertainment for a while. The stages are quite short too, although there is some variety in how they play – one stage in particular is a third-person driving section, with a Mode 7 background; some stages also feature continual scrolling, which pushes you along.

Overall, Hagane: The Final Conflict is an okay game, but it’s not particularly memorable or exciting.

More: Hagane: The Final Conflict on Wikipedia