Mirai Ninja

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Mirai Ninja
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date	1988
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods	4-way Joystick; 2 buttons
Cabinet	Upright, cabaret, and cocktail
Arcade system	Namco System 2
Display	Horizontal orientation, Raster

Mirai Ninja (未来忍者) is a beat 'em up arcade game that was released by Namco in 1988 only in Japan.

[edit] Gameplay

The player controls Mirai Ninja who must fight various enemies and bosses by throwing his ninja stars at them.

[edit] Trivia

The game's name translates from Japanese as "Future Ninja".

The life meter uses Kanji for the numbers. This was previously done in Genpei Tōma Den for the score display.

The game was based on a Japanese movie of the same name, also produced by Namco. Character designs and directing of the film were done by Keita Amemiya of Zeiram and Kamen Rider fame. Both the game and the movie were released in the same year. Oddly enough, the film did receive an English straight to video release under the title "Cyber Ninja."

The plot of the movie: A man's body and soul are stolen and used as part of a demon castle. What's left becomes a Robo-Ninja named Shiranui. He teams up with the chi students whose cyber-earmuffs show matching red symbols. They fill their swords with ammunition, grab some neo-retro-cyber-antique guns and attack the demon robot expendable ninja squad. Each fight is won by whichever side uses more gratuitous special effects. They slay the Tron-like hover droids, who are destroyed in their shame. There's a showdown with a white-armored guy with dreadlocks, who is later reincarnated by the eclipse and a lot of multicolored lightning. After killing the make-up wearing effeminate spider person, the chi school fires a giant gun at the demon castle spider cyber robot. It blows up.

[edit] Technical Info

The game ran on Namco System 2 hardware.