Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō,, is a ninja-themed 2D fighting game produced by ADK and originally released in 1996 for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. Ninja Master's was the sixth and final fighting game produced by ADK, following the four games in the World Heroes series and Aggressors of Dark Kombat. It was later featured in the 2008 compilation ADK Damashii for the PlayStation 2. Ninja Master's was also re-released on the Neo-Geo X handheld system in 2012, and for the Virtual Console in 2013.
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. Like the Art of Fighting series, Ninja Master's features a super meter.
Fighters
Sasuke Sarutobi - the main hero of the game. A ninja expert and betrayer of his own ninja clan who seeks to avenge his father's death.
Houoh - a skilled exorcist who is unsure of his own powers.
Goemon Ishikawa - a ninja thief whose goal is to collect the largest treasures in Japan.
Kamui - the rival to Sasuke. An old acquaintance of Sasuke's, Kamui hopes to destroy him after Sasuke has forsaken the clan.
Karasu - a serial killer and bodyguard who is obsessed with ravens.
Kasumi Kotenkenbu - a ninja apprentice whose grandmother prevents her from going after Nobunaga.
Natsume - an orphan who, after having a nightmare, strives to kill Nobunaga. She reappears in a hack of Sega's Streets of Rage 2 called Girls' Paradise.
Raiga - a renowned bounty hunter whose mission is to defeat Goemon.
Ranmaru Mumiyo Kagura - the sub-boss of the game. An immortal and loyal servant to Nobunaga, Ranmaru attempts to vanquish Haoh, who possesses Nobunaga.
Tenho - an old Japanese man who was abandoned in Korea at birth.
Kongouarahan Unzen - a former monk in search of the best aspect of life.
Like various ADK games, SNK Playmore also revived characters from Ninja Master's in later releases. The main character of Ninja Master's, Sasuke, appears as an SNK character card in .
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Ninja Master's on their July 1, 1996 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful arcade game of the year, outperforming titles such as Neo Turf Masters and Strikers 1945. 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." In a retrospective review of the Neo Geo AES version, AllGames Kyle Knight called it "a fairly good fighter that could've been a lot more."
