The Ninja Warriors
1988 · Beat 'em up · Arcade
Overview
The Ninja Warriors (1988) is Taito's side-scrolling beat 'em up played across three screens side by side, in which two androids fight to overthrow a dictator.
Deep Dive
In a dystopian 1993, President Banglar has declared martial law, and anarchist scientists led by Mulk build two androids, the red Kunoichi and the blue Ninja, to end his rule. The game scrolls across six levels on a cabinet of three joined screens, giving the effect of a single very wide picture. One button slashes with a kunai at close range, the other throws a limited supply of shuriken.
Developer Story
Taito released the game in arcades in early 1988, with Romstar distributing it in North America. It was converted to the Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, with Japan-only versions for the PC Engine and Mega-CD.
Did You Know?
- It was the eighth highest-grossing dedicated arcade game in Japan in 1988.
- Natsume's 1994 Super NES game followed it, and new games in the series reached the Switch in 2019.
Sources & further reading
- The Ninja Warriors (1987 video game) — Wikipedia
