THE NINJA WARRIORS AGAIN
( Ninja Warriors )
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ザ・ニンジャウォーリアーズ アゲイン
©Taito Corp. 1994
Release: 1994-01-28 (¥9300)
Cartridge SHVC-NI
Action/Fighting game
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Released in America as
THE NINJA WARRIORS
( SNS-NI-USA )
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Released in Europe as
THE NINJA WARRIORS
( SNSP-NI-XXX )
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The Ninja Warriors Again is a side-scrolling fighting game published by
Taito and developed by Natsume. The tyrant Banglar has
become a ruler and uses his army and oppressive regime to control
the country's population. An obscure underground opposition group still remains and three
ninja-androids are built to assassinate the merciless dictator. The player controls
one of three cyborgs - Ninja is a large and heavy fighter with powerful
fists and metallic nunchakus, Kunoichi is a female Ninja and the most
balanced character of the lot and finally, Kamaitachi is a fast and frenetic
fighter with expendable blades in its forearms. Our heroes can jump, grab
enemies, pick up bikes and large metal containers and throw them in the air with ease.
A power meter located at the bottom of the screen slowly fills up and a powerful
explosion-attack can be unleashed when maxed out - the gauge however
drains down each time the Ninjas get hit. Blaster combinations can also be
triggered when the power meter is completely full and each robot has his
own set of specific moves - for instance Ninja can use his jet
boost to propel himself through the air and Kunoichi can trigger
spectacular overhead attacks. The game is vast and features eight
long stages.
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The first and original Ninja Warriors arcade game was originally released by Taito
in 1988 and featured an unusual game display built around three monitors. This allowed the
game to use a fairly large play field and the system was also used for the original Darius
developed by the same company. Ninja Warriors was then ported to countless home
systems of the time such as the Commodore 64 (1989), CPC (1989),
Atari ST (1989), Sinclair Spectrum (1989), PC Engine (1989),
Amiga (1990), Sega CD (1993). The sequel The Ninja Warriors Again
was released in 1994 for the Super Famicom. It was simply renamed Ninja Warriors
in the United States and Ninja Warriors The New Generation in Europe.
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The game was also released in the United States and Europe. As expected, some of
its original content was slightly modified. Interestingly, the Japanese version features
green blood, maybe in an attempt to avoid potential censorship troubles. This
was obviously not enough and this effect was completely removed and replaced by
an impact effect. All the women fighters were also omitted and replaced by more "suitable" enemies.
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Teaser text from the American version:
Three androids, programmed with all the ancient
skills of Ninja Warriors, are sent forth, untried,
to defeat an army and bring down the tyrant,
Banglar. They will attack their foes with fist,
sword, knives, curving steel blades, and their
own powerful bodies. They have no human
emotions to weaken them, and onle one
mission -- to destroy all enemies.
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Teaser text from the Japanese's introduction sequence:
This once great and opulent
nation, is now in the midst
of a terrible crisis.
Banglar the tyrant, having
become the ruler of this
nation, uses his powerful
army to oppress the
population.
Having been brainwashed, the
people had lost their power
to think for themselves.
The society was in ruins,
and what was once a great
economic power lie in
darkness.
However, there was a ray of
light left.
A small bue powerful
underground opposition force
led by Mulk was mounting a
great campaing to overthrow
Banglar and restore light to
the nation.
Banglar was to be
assassinated by using the
force of three androids.
An android strong enough to
crush Banglar's armed forces
would take a long time to
develop, and by the time the
testing stage had been
reached, time had run out.
Banglar gathered his forces
to crushs the resistance,
Here and there, the
resistance force was quickly
and severely defeated.
The resistance force was no
match for Banglar's
overwhelming force.
With no time left, the
untested androids had to be
used.
"Your mission is to
overthrow the despotic
regime and assassinate
Banglar."
With this, the final battle
had begun.
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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Planner
S. Taniguchi
Programmer
T. Miyabe
Game Designer
S. Taniguchi
T. Shinpo
S. Wada
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Sound
H. Iwatsuki
N. Tate
Software Support
A. Tanaka
H. Iwatsuki
H. Komuro
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Special Thanks
M. Matsumoto
K. Ishihara
H. Autumn
Jim Yajima
(c)Taito 1994
Programmed By Natsume
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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The Ninja Warriors Again is nothing short of a masterpiece, an epic
sequel to a rather average first installment. It is in the small details that
The Ninja Warriors Again really shines - the character design is absolutely
breathtaking with intricate structural details. Just look at the way how
Ninja plays with his nunchakus or how Kunoichi quickly and stealthy
attacks her opponents. Superb. Despite the obvious and unavoidable enemies repetitiveness,
the game features some really unusual bosses and special effects rarely seen on
the Super Famicom hardware - the 'cloaking ability' used by one of the Boss
later in the game is certainly one of the greatest example. The gameplay is also
perfect with a well balanced difficulty level and a slick learning curve.
A brilliantly atmospheric and solid game.
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