The Ninja Warriors (1994/2019) Is Fully Amazing

An absolutely essential brawler classic that I almost missed

This modern remaster has a terrible title, but a great everything else. Screenshot taken by the author.

I have an embarrasing admission to make. Until last week, I thought that The Ninja Warriors (1987) and The Ninja Warriors (1994) were more or less the same game.

They were both made by a team now known as Tengo Project, which is part of Natsume Atari. They were both published by Taito. Both games are set in the same fictional universe and kind of tell the same story about cool robot ninjas battling other robots and soldiers.

The first is an arcade game that had a huge widescreen monitor display. The latter is a home game made for the Super NES that I honestly thought was just another port of that arcade original. It turns out that the ’94 game is actually a full-on sequel and that bad branding the US meant that ten-year-old Alex was confused, and it took me three decades to figure this all out.

The game’s visuals are still gorgeous, perfectly enhanced with wider artwork for modern screens and more animations. Screenshot taken by the author.

I’m glad I did, because while I think the original arcade game is a solid and fun thing — the sequel is genuinely amazing. It’s one of the best side-scrolling brawlers I’ve ever played, and even though it doesn’t have the…