626: The Ninja Warriors series

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for The Ninja Warriors series for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[AndrewElmore]

I've played the PC Engine and Super Famicom games here and there over the years, but never quite clicked with them. It wasn't until Tengo Project's release of Ninja Saviors/Warriors Once Again/etc. that I understood the entire point, and I began to appreciate this series. I don't much care for belt scrolling beat-them-ups in a general sense--even in multiplayer settings, the repetition is something that I just have very little appetite for. Likewise, I don't have much of a taste for fighting games, outside of Bushido Blade. I love a lot of their aesthetics, and I find the precision of their design and play impressive, and equally intimidating. I don't quite know how to make my brain work that way is all, I suppose. I admire them from a distance. I do promise all of this rambling is going somewhere! The combination of Ninja Saviors and the Mega Drive release of Mad Stalker both entering my life around the same time helped me synthesize elements of both of those genres into snappy, crunchy arcade games--into a language I could speak, so to speak. Learning that there was so _very_ much more to these games than "walk to the right and punch dudes", in the style of The Kung Fu/China Warrior on PC Engine. I'm still not what you'd call 'good' at any of these games, but I do actively enjoy them now; certainly enough to revisit them with regularity for years to come. I knew my gut instinct to trust in Natsume would lead me to Ultimate Enlightenment, and it feels nice to have that instinct affirmed. Though I suspect that my interest in the original, pre-Tengo games may (realistically) subside to a standing that is, let's say, largely academic in nature. That having been said, I'd still happily play them any time, should the fancy strike.