Doing remakes or remasters of older games can be a bit tricky. The developers can either go all in and make the game from scratch again, like in the case of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, or they could remaster the graphics with a few new additions like in the case of Sonic Mania. Natsume, developers of the Wild Arms remaster, has decided to go with the Sonic Mania route and remastered the Taito classic arcade and SNES beat em’ up The Ninja Warriors with The Ninja Saviors: The Return of the Warriors.
Ninja reborn
Enhanced graphics- While most 16-bit graphics do still hold up today, there’s no harm with getting a bit of an update while keeping the same look. Tengo Project, the original team of developers who worked on The Ninja Warriors, kept the original look and style of the graphics and gave them an updated look. The game looks even better than the original thanks to the updated sprites and additional frames of animation.
New characters- In addition to the three original characters, Ninja Saviors introduces two new ninjas that can be unlocked. There’s the short female multi-armed ninja, Yaksha and the colossal mechanized shinobi, Raiden. These two new characters have a more modern play-style than the original three ninjas.
Great for speedrunners- Since speed-running is a popular thing to watch on YouTube and Twitch, Ninja Saviors is built for those who like to speed-run through games. As players go through the game normally, they unlock the ability to speed-run individual stages all the while speed-running through the game. If the player dies they’ll be able to complete the stage but their time won’t be taken for the rest of the game. Players can speed-run through the game solo on normal and hard difficulties and with a friend in multiplayer.
Simple yet complex combat- At first the combat in Ninja Saviors looks a bit outdated and simple, but behind that simplicity is a pretty complex system. Each of the ninjas plays differently and have different move sets, For example Ninja, the muscular blue one, has a short jump that players can then turn into different attacks such as a dash into a punch or kick, an elbow drop and a move where he hovers in the air for a few seconds and does a spin attack. All of these attacks, triggered with a direction and the jump inputs. Much like the ninja, these moves are hidden in the shadows, waiting to pouch on their target.
Couch Co-Op- Sometimes I don’t understands the decisions that developers made during the 90’s. For example, there were plenty of games that were able to do two player co-op, meaning two players at a time. And at the same time there were games that had players either take turns or was a single player only game when the arcade version of that same game could have two players (or more depending on the game) at the same time. The Ninja Warriors was one of those games. Decades later, The Ninja Saviors now has two player Co-Op. Better late than never I suppose.
Ninja vanish
Archaic system- In some reboots and remasters of older games, not all things age well. The Ninja Saviors have a couple of things that did not age well. Such as the one live, game over system. I understand that how the game originally was and the game does have unlimited continues, but it gets annoying to have to start either all over again at the beginning of the level or at a predetermined checkpoint.
Lack of modes- When older games get remastered or rebooted, usually new modes get added in, such as boss rush, score attack, time attack etc. In Ninja Saviors, other than multiplayer and a hard mode, there isn’t other new modes. Which is a missed opportunity as the game could have added boss rush or a simple vs mode.
The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors is a excellent throwback to the SNES era of gaming. It retains the looks and feel of the SNES classic while simultaneously updating the the visuals/gameplay elements and adding new content, such as multiplayer and new characters. The game is perfect for speed-runners who want to add a classic under their belt and as mentioned before, can have a friend along as well. The game does suffer from not really updating its combat system (with the exception of Yashka and Raiden) and could have used some new modes. Regardless The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors was a great time. If you’re a fan of older SNES remasters or a fan of beat em’ ups, add this game to your collection.
