Ninja Master's: Haoh-Ninpo-Cho (ニンジャマスターズ ～覇王忍法帳～, Ninja Masutāzu ~Haō Ninpō Chō~, "Ninja Master's Scrolls of the Supreme Ninja Arts"), most known as just Ninja Master's, is a ninja-themed competitive fighting game produced by ADK originally released in 1996 for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. It was later featured in the 2008 compilation ADK Damashii for the PlayStation 2. It was the sixth and final fighting game produced by ADK, following the four games in the World Heroes series and Aggressors of Dark Kombat.
Story[]
The game focuses on the main hero Sasuke, and his quest to kill Nobunaga and end his reign of terror and war.
Gameplay[]
Ninja Master's follows the conventions of many previous 2D fighting games released for the Neo-Geo. The player must defeat their opponent in combat in a series of best-two-out-of-three matches. Characters can change between using the character's weapon or fight hand-to-hand during the middle of combat.
Ninja Master's also has a super meter similar to The King of Fighters and other fighting game series.
Characters[]
Bosses[]
Sub-Boss[]
Final Boss[]
Like various ADK games, SNK Playmore also revived characters from this game in their last releases. In this case, Sasuke (the main character of this game) appears as an SNK character card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS.
Stages[]
Critical Reception[]
In Japan, Game Machine listed Ninja Master's on their July 1, 1996 issue as being the fourteenth most-popular arcade game at the time. The game received generally positive reception from critics since its release in arcades and other platforms.
In a retrospective review of the Neo Geo AES version, AllGame's Kyle Knight called it "a fairly good fighter that could've been a lot more." Covering the Neo Geo AES version, the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly offered some praise for the game's special moves and the ability to fight with or without a weapon, but generally panned Ninja Master's for its failure to distinguish itself from the many previous Neo Geo fighting games and for its outdated graphics, particularly the small character sprites and lack of scaling. Shawn Smith and Ken Williams remarked that the game's mediocrity is shocking given SNK's history and the $150 price tag. In contrast, a Next Generation critic found originality to be the game's biggest asset, opining that although Ninja Master's lacks the balance and smoothness of the best Neo Geo fighting games, the ability to switch between weapons and bare-handed combat in mid-fight "adds dramatically to the strategy."
Consoles Plus's Maxime Roure commended the detailed sprites, fluid animations, longevity and playability. MAN!AC's Andreas Knauf felt mixed in regards to the audiovisual presentation and Samurai Shodown-style character roster but criticized the jerky animations and lack of innovations. In contrast, Nintendo Life's Corbie Dillard regarded Ninja Master's as one of the more unique fighting games released on Neo Geo stating due to the ability to change between two fighting styles, stating that "at times it feels like a combination of Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters rolled into one game." Ken Pyle of Manci Games praised the feudal-Japan- atmosphere, fast gameplay and responsive controls but felt mixed in regards to the character roster and criticized the audio design.
In 2014, HobbyConsolas identified Ninja Master's as one of the twenty best games for the Neo Geo CD.
Gallery[]
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