(AfroGamers.com) I’ve always been a fan of ninja video games since playing Ninja Gaiden and Revenge Of Shinobi during my childhood days because I loved using powerups and ninjutsu to not only defeat tougher foes with them, but to also slice them in close combat.
Here are my favorite ninja video games.
1. Shinobi III – The Return Of The Ninja Master – When I first played this game on The Sega Genesis back in the day, I was absolutely impressed with the greatly improved graphics and gameplay from the previous Shinobi game. In this game, you could ride on a horse or a jet ski and still dish out damage on enemies who try to chase and hunt you down. I also enjoyed doing other things in this game like jumping on top and climbing across dangerous electrical hazards in the final stage of this game. The ninjutsu in this game was amazing because you could use them to either shield you 
from getting hit or instantly defeat on-screen enemies. The two toughest boss fights for me from this game were against the stage 6 and the final bosses of the game. This game will always have a special place in my heart.
2. Ninja Gaiden – I was a real big fan of the original Ninja Gaiden on The NES growing up because unlike the arcade and Sega Genesis versions which were basically beat ‘em ups, The NES version was much better because you can pick up various types of weapons like the traditional shrunken to the flame shield that protects the player from being harmed for about ten seconds. The first three stages were easy, but stages four through six were what made this game among the toughest NES games that I’ve ever played because there were so many death traps to avoid and not to mention avoiding getting killed by bosses like The Jaquio. This game is often credited as the first game to actually present the storyline with cut scenes and this has been emulated by many other gaming companies for the past three decades now.
3. Mystic Warriors – This was the very first ninja arcade video game that I played a while back and I absolutely loved this game from the moment I played it because the gameplay is very similar to other run-n-gun games like Contra and Sunset Riders. The storyline of this game was that 5 young heroes had to save the world from being conquered by an corrupt evil organization called “The Skull Enterprise” and there’s a black hero called Brad whose character design was heavily influenced by Mike Tyson. I remember playing Brad and the Skull Enterprise henchmen kidnapped the white female ninja that I was forced to save and I absolutely hate video games where I have to save white characters by the way. The toughest fight from this game for me was against the final boss. I definitely enjoyed this game.
4. Shadow Dancer – Even though this game had no tie-in to the official continuity of The Shinobi series on Sega, I for one enjoyed this game because of the main fact that you can actually use your dog to distract enemies before you eliminated them. The two things that I didn’t like about this game was that there was not many different ninjutsu to use in this game nor could you flip and throw out eight shrunkens at the same time. Despite those two missing elements from this game, but having a dog to help you out greatly made up for that.
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Growing up, I was a huge fan of The Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in the day because they not only love to eat their favorite food in the pizza, but also lay the smackdown on the baddies like Shredder and his henchmen like Bebop and Rock Steady. This arcade game was so badass because my favorite turtle back then was Leonardo and I absolutely loved to pick up and throw enemy foot soldiers several feet off of the screen and loved to beat them down and I loved the sound effects of this game in the form of when you put in quarters, you’ll hear “Cowabunga” which was definitely amazing to hear. Definitely one of the best all-time arcade games.
The Conclusion – Playing as ninjas in video games brings a much different perspective as well as fighting styles and good storylines to make a ninja video game great.
Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)