Ninja Gaiden (Master System)

About Ninja Gaiden (Master System)

Ninja Gaiden (1992) is SIMS's PAL-only Master System hack-and-slash platformer in which Ryu Hayabusa hunts the Shogun of Darkness after the massacre of the Dragon Village.

Ninja Gaiden (Master System) in Depth

Ryu Hayabusa belongs to the Dragon Ninja clan, which has protected Japan for generations. While he is away, the Dragon Village is brutally massacred, and the last survivor tells him with his dying breath that the sacred Bushido scroll, powerful enough for its owner to control the world, has been stolen. As the last ninja of the clan, Ryu sets out to recover it from the evil Shogun of Darkness and his minions, among them the Sumo Wrestler, the Yakuza Oyabun, the Tsutenkaku Samurai, the Jetpack Soldier, the Ice Monster and the Stone Golem. Its story is unconnected to any other Ninja Gaiden game.

Play closely follows the NES Ninja Gaiden games: movement, attacks and jumps work the same way, and special ninja attacks are triggered by pressing up and attack together. Some features were replaced, though: instead of climbing hand over hand or clinging to walls, Ryu can jump from wall to wall, an ability that anticipates the 2004 Xbox game and later 3D entries. Two versions exist, one narrated by Ryu himself in great detail and one by an outside narrator with fewer plot details, with some dialogue and names differing between them.

Making Ninja Gaiden (Master System)

SIMS developed it and Sega published it for the Master System in 1992. Because support for the console had ended in Japan and North America after poor sales, it was released only in PAL territories, where it was critically acclaimed.