Secret of the Ninja

The Choose Your Own Adventure series offered an option every few pages to choose how the story would continue. According to your preference, you would follow its instructions by turning to the appropriate page of the book as indicated by your choice. This was a popular and revolutionary idea when the series was first launched in the early 1980s, driving it to incredible sales levels for many years until it was overshadowed by variants on the idea that took the concept to more elaborate lengths (e.g. Fighting Fantasy) and especially by other interactive media.

The plot: Your dojo in Kyoto is being threatened by supernatural powers, and a mysterious sword delivery. Track down the sender of the sword, or go back in time to find the threat's show more origin?

Observations: It begins with some handy background notes stating that "most of the adventures in this book are drawn from Japanese folk legends", and a glossary. Judging from the many subsequent titles in the series that featured some variant of martials arts, I suspect this entry found some much-needed popularity. show less

Lots of mystery and intrigue!