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The Ninja Warriors (1987 video game)

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This article is about the 1988 arcade game. For the English translation of the Japanese sports tournament, see Sasuke (TV series). For the martial arts discipline, see Ninja.
The Ninja Warriors
Developer(s)Taito Corporation
Publisher(s)Taito Corporation
Designer(s)Shunichi Taniguchi
Composer(s)Hisayoshi Ogura
Platform(s)Arcade, Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, TurboGrafx, Mega-CD
Release1988
Genre(s)Beat 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player

The Ninja Warriors (ニンジャウォーリアーズ) is a side-scrolling beat'em up video game developed and released by Taito in 1988.

Story

The game is based in a dystopian future where Banglar, the President of the United States in 1993, issues martial law on the nation, with the military having total control over the law.[1] A group of anarchist scientists decide that it is time to revolt against the government. Knowing full well that approaching the military themselves could be considered an all out suicide mission, the scientists create two androids that can sustain various forms of damage in order to do the mission for them. The robots, code named "Ninja" (male character) and "Kunoichi" (female character, the most famous between the two), are sent by the scientists in order to end Banglar's tyranny once and for all.

Gameplay

Good representative of the beat'em-up genre, The Ninja Warriors gameplay presents side-scrolling hand to hand combat. Each of the main characters have different combos — one to be executed normally, and another that can be performed while crouching — and specific moves such as dash attacks, throwing, stabbing and air strikes. On the screen, separate from the life bar, there is a special energy bar that fills itself as the main character progress. When full, the bar will allow the player to perform a special move. If the character suffers some damage, the special bar will reset, starting a new count-up.

Ports

The originally arcade game was ported to the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Sinclair Spectrum 128K, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx, only in Europe, and the Mega-CD, only in Japan (despite the game having an English vocal track, indicating that it might've been intended for a Western release).

Development

The game is particularly unusual because it has three contiguous screens (one screen in the usual place for an arcade game, and two more screens in the cabinet below, reflected by mirrors on either side of the middle screen) which created the effect of a single, "triple-wide" screen, depicting ninjas.[2] The same cabinet was also used for Darius and Darius II and Konami used a similar format for its X-Men arcade release (6 players).

Music

The music was composed by Hisayoshi Ogura and Taito's in-house band Zuntata. Pony Canyon and Scitron released the two soundtracks for the game in 1988 and 1991,[3][4] while further arrangements were released in 1993[5] and by Zuntata Records and Taito in 1988 and 2009.[6][7] The track "Daddy Mulk" which is played during the first level of the game has been also sampled by an Australian rock band Lucius Hunt in the track "This Haunting (2006)".

Reception

In 2008, GamesRadar featured Kunoichi as the best assassin in the video game history, commenting: "She cut a memorable figure, rocking the huge blonde ponytail and bright-red shozoku. On top of that, she wasn't just a ninja - she was a ninja Terminator. It's hard to imagine a better assassin than that."[8] In 2010, CraveOnline featured the The Ninja Warriors in the article Top 10 Ninja Games Of All Time.[9]

Remake

Main article: The Ninja Warriors Again

Natsume developed a remake named in Japan as The Ninja Warriors Again for the Super NES, though in North America it was named the same as its original. It shares a similar premise, however the gameplay has been heavily revised.

References

  1. ^ Crash, Issue 1.90, page 52.
  2. ^ Your Sinclair, Issue 1.90, page 91.
  3. ^ D28B-0001 | The Ninjawarriors -G.S.M. TAITO 1- - VGMdb
  4. ^ PCCB-00074 | The Ninja Warriors - VGMdb
  5. ^ PCCB-00116 | Ninja Warriors Complete Album - VGMdb
  6. ^ ZTTL-0024 | Z-REPLICA Vol.1 DADDY MULK THE NINJA WARRIORS - VGMdb
  7. ^ ZTTL-9016 | The Ninja Warriors arrange sound tracks - VGMdb
  8. ^ The Top 7... Assassins, GamesRadar, 2008-02-05
  9. ^ Top 10 Ninja Games Of All Time, CraveOnline, September 18, 2008

External links

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