System 3 Software · C64 · 1988 · 13 Subtunes
Last Ninja 2
A level-by-level editorial on one of the greatest SID suites ever written - from the jazz warmth of Central Park at midnight to the electronic menace of the Final Battle.
The Greatest SID Suite
Last Ninja 2: Back with a Vengeance (System 3, C64, 1988) is the benchmark against which SID composition is measured. Thirteen subtunes - loader and in-game pairs for each of six themed levels, plus a high score jingle - score a single coherent journey from New York City's Central Park to the villain's penthouse mansion.
Matt Gray's achievement is not merely technical, though the technique is formidable. It is compositional: each cue is distinct in character, atmospheric in intent, and contributes to a unified narrative of the ancient world meeting the neon city. The three SID voices are used as an ensemble - melodic material distributed across all three rather than the conventional melody/bass/chord separation.
The Central Park loader is the most celebrated, but every level has its moment. This page works through all six levels and explains why each cue matters.
Listen to the complete suite in the SID player or watch the stereo Dolby Headphone recording on the videos page. The source code was released by Gray under Creative Commons - available from the resources page.
Central Park
The opening of the game establishes everything: a New York City night, specific and atmospheric. The loader theme is the most-cited SID composition in the corpus - a walking bass line with two melodic voices playing in counterpoint. The bass walks jazz changes; the upper voices respond with melodic fragments that build and release. The effect is cinematic despite being rendered on three oscillators and a noise channel.
The in-game theme is lighter, more percussive - designed to loop without becoming oppressive over an extended play session. It shares melodic cells with the loader but rearranges them into a different rhythmic feel, as if shifting from establishing shot to action sequence.
Central Park represents the apex of what the 6581 SID chip could produce in the hands of a composer who understood both music and the hardware. The chord movement is sophisticated enough that it has been analysed in terms of jazz harmony - the SID rendered as a kind of broken-down jazz trio.
“Central Park was the one where everything came together. I had the bass line first, then worked out what the other voices could do against it. It was very much a process of finding what the hardware would let you do and then pushing slightly beyond that.”
— Matt Gray, Arcade Attack interview (paraphrase)
The Street
The Street loader moves the register downward - a darker, more urban palette. Where Central Park had jazz warmth, The Street has tension: the bass is more syncopated, the melodic material more fragmented, as if something threatening is approaching. The city at night feels less romantic here.
The in-game theme sustains this tension while remaining playable - a delicate balance that Gray maintains throughout the suite. Music that creates atmosphere without becoming sonically fatiguing in extended sessions requires careful management of the SID's limited voice range.
Play The Street Loader in the SID Player → | View catalogue entry for Last Ninja 2 →
The Sewers
Below street level, the Sewers loader is the suite's most forbidding moment. The bass line moves in longer, slower phrases; the melodic content is sparse and dissonant; the filter is used more aggressively to create a muffled, subterranean quality. This is New York underground - menacing, damp, dangerous.
The in-game music lightens only slightly. It needs to be functional - not so oppressive that it overwhelms the game's demands on the player's attention - but it maintains the location's character throughout.
The Basement
The Basement marks a transition point in the suite. Where the Sewers was damp and organic in its menace, The Basement feels more mechanical - this is the interior of the enemy's operation. The rhythmic structure tightens; the SID voices take on a more electronic quality, as if the music is commenting on the shift from street-level New York to corporate infrastructure.
The loader and in-game themes here form the pivotal mid-suite moment - the point where the ancient world of the ninja is most deeply embedded in modern urban machinery.
The Office
The Office loader is one of the suite's most sophisticated moments. The music reflects the sterile environment - more ordered and hierarchical than the levels below - while maintaining the underlying menace. This is corporate power expressed as SID music: clean on the surface, calculating underneath.
The in-game music sustains this tension across what is typically the most tactically demanding level of the game. The texture is refined; nothing is wasted in the voice distribution.
Play The Office in the SID Player → | View full catalogue entry →
The Mansion · Final Battle · High Score
The Mansion loader is the suite's penultimate statement - grand and architectural, as befits the villain's inner sanctum. The music reaches a kind of dark majesty here; the SID voices are working harder than at any earlier point, creating a density of texture that rewards close listening.
Final Battle is the climactic cue - more percussion, more rhythmic urgency, the harmonic language stripped back to essentials for the moment of confrontation. The SID filter is modulated to create a sense of increasing pressure.
High Score, the closing jingle, is brief and triumphant - a moment of release after the suite's long build. Even in 45 seconds it contains characteristic Gray voice-writing: the three voices in brief counterpoint before resolving to a cadence.
Together, the thirteen cues of Last Ninja 2 constitute the most complete and sustained SID composition of the 8-bit era. They have been analysed, remixed, reinterpreted, and released in orchestral form through the Reformation series - but the original SID remains the definitive version.