Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas

Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas (ミスティックウォリアーズ -怒りの忍者- Mystic Warriors - Ikari no Ninja^?), also known simply as Mystic Warriors, is an arcade run-and-gun video game developed and published by Konami in 1993. It is a spiritual successor to Sunset Riders. The game allows for four player simultaneous gameplay. It was released on consoles for the first time on December 20, 2023 via Arcade Archives.

Plot[]

The Mystic Warriors are a group of five modern-day ninjas who fight against the evil Skull enterprise, which plots to take over the world. At the beginning of the game, one of the ninjas is kidnapped by the villains - the victim is chosen at random between the non-selected characters, or in case of four simultaneous players, it will be the last remaining character. The kidnapper is a strong and tall ninja who wears a similar costume as Spyros. This character reappears numerous times along the heroes' journey to taunt them, eventually culminating in a honorable match to the death.

The group of heroes eventually succeed in infiltrating the enemies' base and rescuing their comrade... although just for a short time, as the latter ends up sacrificing themself in order to save their friends. The main objective of the game then involves the Mystic Warriors heading directly to the Skull enterprise's headquarters to put a stop to their evil schemes once and for all.

After many arduous battles, the heroes finally break into the office of Skull's CEO and mastermind - a middle-aged, bald and overweight man who at first sight doesn't look like a match for them. However, after pressing a button on his desk, he gets clad in a powerful four-armed mecha bearing a skull head for the game's final match.

Gameplay[]

The game plays much like Sunset Riders, with a few new additions. The main change is the presence of a health bar in lieu of lives, with players being able to take up to three hits before dying, and with health restorative items found within the stages. Alongside power-ups and score items, players can also find Ninjutsu, which will either clear the screen of enemies on pickup or grant them temporary invincibility. Up to four players can join in at any time in simultaneous cooperative play.

Players can choose to play from five available ninjas:

Spyros: A ninja clad in a full blue suit and leader of the group.
Keima: A kabuki ninja with long, blue hair which he uses for close combat.
Brad: An eighties styled African-American monk-like ninja wearing shades.
Kojiro: A ninja wearing a yellow sleeveless costume and fashioning a traditional Japanese ponytail hairstyle.
Yuri: A skilled kunoichi wearing a rather revealing apparel.

As in Sunset Riders, stages commonly include sections with two layers the player character can stand on, a ground level and an upper level. The player can change between these two planes by pressing either UP + JUMP to climb to an upper level if on the ground, producing with this a higher jump; or DOWN + JUMP if they want to drop down from an upper level. There are also certain spots in some levels that have tall walls which cannot be jumped over; these can be climbed on by moving the player character into them, which will make them stick to the wall and become able to escalate it. A few stages also count with sections where the player character can hang onto a rail, usually in order to traverse a hazardous zone (for example, the cables of a ski lift to easily move over a snowy mountain landscape).

The player characters attack by throwing an infinite supply of small ranged weapons, which mainly consist on shuriken and kunai. These can be thrown in eight different directions, and the ATTACK button can be held down to rapidly throw them without stopping. If the player character is close enough to an enemy, they will instead attack them with their melee weapon (usually slashing them with their sword or performing some form of martial art), which is significantly more powerful than their ranged weapon.

Weapons can be upgraded up to two levels by acquiring special items, granting them more projectiles/wider range when thrown and/or increasing their power. These, and other power-ups, can be uncovered by breaking special boxes. These boxes are usually accessed by defeating enemies that carry them, or are carried into the screen by small parachutes, or are already found lying on the field.