Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas

About Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas

Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas (1993) is Konami's ninja run and gun from the Sunset Riders team, in which five young ninja battle the Skull Enterprise across a dystopian future.

Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas in Depth

In a dystopian future New York, the evil Skull Enterprise has taken over the nation and plans to conquer the world. Five young ninja are targeted by its forces: Spyros, Keima, Kojiro, Brad and Yuri. Up to two or four players, depending on the cabinet, pick their characters, and one of the remaining members is kidnapped, prompting the others to set out. Crossing several regions of Japan, they find and free their friend, only for the rescued ninja to sacrifice themselves to release the others from an electric trap. The rest of the game is a quest for revenge, and after defeating Skull the survivors mourn their companion before returning home.

Controls use an eight-way joystick and buttons to attack and jump, and as in Sunset Riders, players can jump between upper and lower levels and slide. Characters throw unlimited shuriken or daggers and use their weapons up close. Improvements over Sunset Riders include switching characters after losing a credit and a life gauge that absorbs up to four hits. Box-carrying enemies drop power-ups: shuriken upgrades of up to two levels, food such as sushi, tempura, udon and sukiyaki to restore life, a blue shinobi orb that creates a temporary barrier, a yellow chikara orb that destroys every enemy on screen, and jewellery for points and brief invincibility. Each of the nine stages ends with a boss, and the player who hit it most earns bonus points.

Making Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas

Konami developed and published it for arcades in 1993, using the same team that produced Sunset Riders and keeping much of that game's play while adding close-range weapon attacks and a life gauge. Game Machine listed it as Japan's ninth most successful table arcade unit in April 1993. Its complete soundtrack was released in August 1993 on the two-CD album Konami Amusement Sounds '93: Summer Edition, and the game returned three decades later in Hamster Corporation's Arcade Archives series for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.