The Ninja Warriors Once Again is the second remake/remaster from Natsume-owned studio, Tengo Project. This studio is a group of individuals, originally from Natsume, that have reuinited and, for the past few years, have been on a mission to remake the games they've worked on years past. The first one was Wild Guns Reloaded, a fully loaded remake of the SNES 1994 original, Wild Guns. The second one is The Ninja Warriors Again, a fully equipped remake of the SNES 1994 original, The Ninja Warriors Again. They've struck gold once again, because this remake, and all their remakes, are blueprints of what remakes should be like.

The Ninja Warriors Once Again is a beat 'em up. Unlike most other beat 'em ups, this one is not a belt-scroller, but a side-scroller. You can play as one of five characters, two of which are unlockable by completing Normal and Hard mode. Each one has their own moveset and combo strings. They are all very different and play very different, which offers a lot of replayability to this title. I struck a cord with Ninja, a big robotic grappler who has a lot of really strong throws that assist with crowd control.

I cleared this one, and the only real walls I ran into were Stage 5's boss, Jubei, who's just insane to run into after playing the first 5 levels. He's fast and strong, and you need to preempt and block a lot of his attacks to get an opening. The second is Stage 7's boss, Zelos. The boss himself isn't bad, but in Hard mode, he gets a lot of fodder that you need to kill or avoid or throw at him in order to do some good damage. I died to them several times on my runs, but once you get through, you're pretty home-free for Stage 8. Just be careful with the final boss.

I wholly recommend this game if you're looking for a great 2D beat 'em up in an era where there are so few.

It's okay I guess.

Looks and sounds great! Especially with the upgrades made here... and the new characters add more to the game. I had fun using Yaksha's special attack to grab people from far away and throw them. Just for a little bit

But the gameplay is just too simple imo. You walk from left to right, do your basic punch combo. Ocassionally throw or do a jumping attack.

I had some fun juggling enemies in the air with Kunoichi when I could, but there's not enough complexity or variety in the movest. I found the gameplay to still be uninteresting.

It'a a beat em up from the 90's, the story ain't gonna save it. And you can finish it very quickly.

If you're itching for it bad enough, get it on sale. It does at least go pretty cheap.

The Ninja Warriors was one of the best beat em ups on the SNES and this remake makes it ones of the best I've played.

An excellent side scrolling beat em up with good art, mechanics, animations and a well made remake that adds a lot to the game. The remake includes different music options to use, a larger playing field with updated backgrounds, two new characters for a total of five, new moves for each character, uses both the Kunoichi and Monkey enemies that were in different region versions of the original game, and adds a two player mode. Each of the five characters plays in a very unique way with very different focuses to their playstyle and how they move, with one of the new characters being the largest character I've seen available in a beat em up that can transform between two different modes and who is so large that they use a button combination just to turn around. One of the few beat em ups to both include an option to block and being even rarer among games by having it be both useful and responsive and holding block allows you to still move around and gives access to quick dodges that can avoid or block attacks and put you behind or closer to enemies. A fairly rapidly recharging battery meter allows you to perform a screen wide damaging bomb attack to deplete the full charge or to use a portion of it for a special move unique to each character either done from a stance or by altering the final blow of a combo, taking a harder hit that knocks you down will drain your battery back to nothing giving even more incentive to block and dodge.

There is both a normal and hard mode with the hard mode changing up enemy numbers and variety and the game unlimited continues that start you at a stage checkpoint with the option to change character. Three problems I had come form of there being no ability to save or continue from where you left off so you need to finish in one sitting or keep the game left on (though beaten stages can be replayed by themselves and it is not a long game so this isn't too much of an issue), there is no ability to rebind block to a button instead of holding attack which I've always found an awkward way to block (though this might be the only game I've played to use that method while still being responsive), and enemies love moving off screen and just staying there frequently backing away to leave the screen or trying to attack while out of sight.

Video: https://youtu.be/VJpmE7hdghs?si=xBmAh-cY8MgEZnKX

when I first played TMNT: Shredder's Revenge upon it's release last year as someone who's experience with the beat 'em up genre was an oft-forgotten memory of playing Streets of Rage 2 for 15 minutes on the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection on the PS3. When I played River City Ransom, I glanced into an adjacent genre (to say, I think River City Ransom is less of a beat 'em up and more of a brawler, which one can easily relate to the Yakuza series) and imagined a world where every Final Fight had RPG elements. I thought to myself "A series with such interesting character designs and a fun world deserves something more than a quick and easy beat 'em up, it deserves something deeper". A few months later (Last week!) I played Final Fight, and decided that Final Fight deserved nothing. I looked deep into the design elements of both Final Fight and Captain Commando, two games I played on back to back days. I decided the separating factor between an all timer beat 'em up and Final Fight is X-Factor. I prophesised that any good beat 'em up had at least one pertinent element worth discussing with any friend about why they should play THAT beat 'em up, as opposed to any other one.

I'll tell you now, I was wrong.

The Ninja Saviors is the best beat 'em up not because of any design trick, or cool spectacle moment. It's because, simply, The Ninja Saviors is designed by developers so adept in their own craft that even the strongest of armour would be cut by it's sharp edges.

Every movement in The Ninja Saviors is deliberate, every hit and every block is crucial. Every enemy slowly builds a library of tactics in your mind, and there's never a confusion of what to do once an enemy hits the screen. When five enemies appear on screen at the same time, there is no immediate confusion on what the solution is. This consistency shines brightly in a world of similar titles designed with your quarters in mind.

The Ninja Saviors is slow. It's slow on purpose. Closing distance is not always easy, getting away from an enemies attack even harder, yet it all comes together in a perfect mosaic of action design. Jumping and attacking feels purposeful, and the slow get up animation requires the player to plan out what they want to do in advance. It's heavy in all the right ways, leaving a real weight to every attack.

To put it simply, The Ninja Saviors is a sanctuary of action. It doesn't require any tricks, it requires no spectacle, because it's design is so innately intuitive and exemplary. It's the best beat 'em up of all time, no question about it.

I had a blast playing through Tengo Project's Ninja Saviors. I ran through the game mostly as Ninja, a hulking cyborg-ninja with glowing red eyes and huge metal arms. It felt like I was playing through one of those ultraviolent 90s OVAs, and I was playing as the bad guy. Like all beat em ups, there's not very much difficulty here outside of the bosses, and even the majority of those are chumps; unlike most beat em ups, the minute to minute gameplay is really fun and interesting. The different action buttons all change depending on the direction you're holding, and the context—whether you're holding an enemy, on the ground, in the air, dashing, etc. There's a ton of depth to the beating them upping, and getting a handle on your character is really rewarding. My only real complaint is that a few bosses can feel cheap, and that it's just a smidge too long for me to run through on a whim. Looking forward to dipping back into this one and playing with the other characters.