It is impossible to deny the impact Super Mario Bros had on the gaming landscape when it was released on the original NES, especially on scrolling platform games. For gamers, it set a standard to expect from new platforming games released afterward. For gaming companies, it gave them something to aspire to, to be the company that released the game that would become the next big platformer.
Wee Ninja Lynx World 1-1
While console gaming has moved on from the original game, retro gamers certainly haven’t. Of course, a direct port of the game to even an ancient system like, say, the Commodore 64 will earn you a DMCA strike from Nintendo faster than you can say goomba. But that hasn’t stopped devs from making games that are almost-but-not-quite SMB. From mid-2025 to mid-2026, developer Paul Lay posted and updated versions of his side-scrolling platform game Wee Ninja for the Atari 5200 to the AtariAge forums. By its very nature, it was a technical achievement, since the 5200 wasn’t particularly known for games like these. In March of 2026, Songbird Productions announced a surprise Lynx port for release on a physical cartridge in April.
While the game is not described as a Mario clone, Lay says it owes everything to Mario. You play as a ninja, jumping and running through 32 levels, split up into 8 different worlds of 4 levels each. Jump on top of enemies to dispatch them. Bounce bricks from the bottom to potentially destroy them, or release items like power-ups and coins. Some of the green pipes can be descended to reach secret areas with more coins and power-ups, as well as to take shortcuts through the level. At the end of each world, there is a boss that you must defeat. It’s all very familiar. The level types are also quite familiar, with levels set underground, underwater, and atop high platforms.
Wee Ninja Lynx World 2-2 Water
Wee Ninja’s power-up system has more in common with later Super Mario games. Your ninja can find one of 3 different suits that will give you different abilities. All suits will allow you to take a hit without losing a life and will also allow you to break bricks by hitting them from below. The red ninja suit grants you 12 seconds of invincibility. The blue ninja suit gives you five tiny sticks that can be used to take out enemies. And the black ninja suit gives you five stones that can be thrown at your adversaries.
The game has two skill levels: easy and normal. The easy skill level allows you to take an extra hit before losing a life, on top of whatever suit you may have at the time. The normal mode is the standard one-hit, and you’ve lost a life. The game also has a password system that lets you jump to any world you want once you complete it.
The Lynx version of the game uses the same base game as the 5200 but enhances the graphics and sound, leveraging the venerable handheld’s superior hardware. One of the most obvious enhancements is the scrolling backgrounds. While the original scrolled everything on a single plane, the Lynx adds parallax scrolling, which is particularly notable in levels set above ground. The game also takes advantage of the Lynx’s expanded color palette, which really makes the graphics pop. Background elements and characters have more advanced animations and are of greater detail. In addition to the graphics, the audio has been enhanced, with new background music throughout the game. The Lynx cartridge format even allows the game to save high scores. All in all, the package is very polished and extremely high quality. Had this title been released during the system’s retail life, it would have done well.
Wee Ninja Lynx World 2-1 Snow
I love this game. It is an addictive experience, one of those “just one more go” affairs that sucks you in for hours if you let it (or at least as long as your supply of AAs lasts). Everything runs smoothly. The graphics are perfect for the Lynx screen: not too small so as to be difficult to make out, but not so large as to take up excessive screen space. It’s comparable to Super Mario Land on the Game Boy. Similar designs to the original, but made to fit the portable screen. The jumping can be a bit finicky, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be tackling levels without a care in the world in no time. The game is challenging, but not unfairly so. The addition of the easy skill level really helps to level the playing field. If you ever wanted to know what Super Mario Bros might have been like on the Atari Lynx, Wee Ninja is about as close as you’re likely to get. And it’s completely worth the price of admission.
A big thanks to Carl Forhan from Songbird Productions for the media used here, so no one has to suffer through dodgy pictures of my Lynx LCD.
Gallery
Wee Ninja Lynx World 1-2
Wee Ninja Lynx Game Over
Wee Ninja Lynx World 4-2
Wee Ninja Lynx World 4-3
Wee Ninja Lynx World 6-2
Wee Ninja Lynx World 2-2
Wee Ninja Lynx World 2-1
Wee Ninja Lynx World 1-3
The post Review – Wee Ninja for the Atari Lynx appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.