Double Baboon Ninja swings back with more sprites and bigger boss battles on Amiga

There are some game titles that whisper gently to you. Double Baboon Ninja is not one of them. It kicks the door in, throws a banana-shaped smoke bomb, and asks whether you are ready to save Baboon City from an alien blob invasion. DanLabG’s upcoming Amiga AGA arcade platformer already looked like one of those lovely “how is this running on an Amiga?” projects, but the latest update gives it a proper shot of arcade adrenaline. The new build is not just a tidy polish pass. It is louder, busier, sillier, and quite possibly more dangerous to anyone who insists they still have “good platforming reflexes” despite last touching a joystick in 1994. The big headline is simple: more sprites on screen. That may sound like a technical note, but in a game like this, it is a big deal. Double Baboon Ninja lives and dies by the feeling of chaos: enemies bouncing around, hazards closing in, bananas probably being used irresponsibly, and two heroic baboons trying to look cool while everything goes completely wrong. More sprites mean more action, more visual energy, and more of that old-school arcade feeling where the screen is one bad decision away from turning into a zoo-based disaster movie.

The water collision has also been fixed, which is excellent news for anyone who enjoys physics behaving like physics and not like a haunted sponge. Platforms now disappear when they touch the water, adding a nasty little twist to the level design. In other words, the game has found a fresh way to say: “Nice safe platform you’ve got there. Shame if something happened to it.” And then there are the new stage names, which deserve applause on their own. Stage 1-3 now brings us “Panic Rush”, a title that sounds less like a level and more like the emotional state of anyone playing it for the first time. Stage 2-3 introduces “Flamingos Surfin’”, proving once again that video games are at their best when they stop making sense and start making flamingos do extreme sports. Stage 3-3 is called “Can You Fly, Bobby?”, which feels less like a question and more like something shouted moments before Bobby discovers gravity.

The update also adds animated backgrounds, helping the world feel livelier and more layered. This matters. Retro games can look beautiful when static, but animated backdrops give everything a little extra heartbeat. Baboon City does not just sit behind the action now; it moves, glows, and joins in the madness from the sidelines like an overexcited uncle at a school sports day. DanLabG has also reworked stages with new gameplay elements, which suggests the project is not simply growing sideways with more levels and more enemies. It is being properly refined. The best indie retro projects often have this quality: you can feel the developer going back in, tightening the screws, moving the platforms, improving the flow, and probably muttering “that jump is funny, but is it too evil?” before deciding that, actually, evil is fine. Boss fans have plenty to be excited about too. The update includes a new giant Level 2 boss and a new giant Level 3 boss, because apparently regular-sized alien trouble was not enough. Giant bosses are one of the great joys of arcade platformers. They are dramatic, ridiculous, and always give the player that brief moment of confidence before the first projectile hits them directly in the face.

There is also a sneak peek of Level 4, which is the sort of thing that keeps players watching development closely. A peek is never enough, of course. Retro fans are greedy by nature. Show us one screen and we immediately want the full level, a boss fight, a soundtrack preview, a map, three secrets, and confirmation that the flamingo returns as a playable character. We are not reasonable people. Small quality-of-life details are here as well, including blank characters for high scores. It is a tiny addition, but high-score tables are sacred territory. If you are going to immortalise your failure under a three-letter name, the game should at least give you the tools to do it properly. History demands it.

What is most encouraging about this update is that Double Baboon Ninja seems to be becoming more itself. The new build does not just add content; it adds confidence. The stages sound more distinctive, the bosses are bigger, the backgrounds are livelier, and the gameplay systems are sharper. It has that pleasing sense of a developer pushing the machine, the idea, and the joke all at once. For Amiga fans, that is exactly the good stuff. This is not a dry nostalgia exercise or a polite platformer wearing a retro hat. It is colourful, daft, busy, and proudly arcade-minded. It understands that sometimes the best reason to play a game is because two ninja baboons are fighting aliens while flamingos surf in the background. And honestly, what more do you want from art?

Spread the love

MORE AMIGA & RETRO NEWS