Ninja Master's - Haoh Ninpou-chou (c) 1996 SNK
Criminally overlooked and combo-friendly medieval Japanese fighter with
great animation. Ten selectable characters and two end bosses.


- TECHNICAL -
SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware
Game ID : 0217
Main CPU : 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)
Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.19 Hz
Palette colors : 4096
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light punch, [B] Strong punch, [C] Light kick, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -
Developed by ADK.

Released in May 1996.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Supreme Ninja
Arts Scroll'.

The main design, as well as some of the special moves of the character
'Karasu' seem to be quite inspired by the main character of the 1994
movie hit 'The Crow' which was in turn, based on the graphical novel of
the same name by James O. Barr (Even the name 'Karasu' stands as the
Japanese word for "crow"!). :)
The character 'Nobunaga' is based on the real Japanese warrior 'Nobunaga
Oda' who, during Japan's medieval period, overthrew the Ashikaga
shogunate and ended a long period of internal strife by uniting half of
Japan's provinces under his rule. In doing so he paved the way for the
reunification of the country under the Tokugawa shogunate in the
following century. His merciless use of power as well as his skill as a
military strategist made him one of the most powerful & feared leaders
in Japan. The image of him in the game as a warrior who wields the
demons power may have been some sort of a criticism to his eager embrace
of Western culture, religion & technology.

The character 'Goemon' is based on Ishikawa Goemon, the most famous
thief in Japan on the Edo era (about 400 years ago) known to steal large
sums of money from bad people and give the money to the poor. In other
words, he was Japan's very own version of Robin Hood!
The character 'Sasuke' seems inspired on Sarutobi Sasuke, a famous
legendary ninja with a strong sense of justice created in Tachikawa
literature at the end of the Meiji period. Another source of inspiration
may have been 'Ninja Kamui' an old anime series whose main character
Kamui was an incredibly skilled ninja who wanted to abandon his ways as
a killer thus becoming a 'nukenin' (runaway ninja) and marked for death
by his own clan that vows to pursue and eliminate him.


- TIPS AND TRICKS -
* Play As Ranmaru And Nobunaga (Player 1) : Highlight Kamui and press
Left, Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up and
hit C+D.

* Play As Ranmaru And Nobunaga (Player 2) : Highlight Sasuke and press
Right, Down, Right, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up and
hit C+D.

* Time Attack Mode : At the character select screen, highlight Kamui and
press Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Right(x4), Up,
C+D. Now choose your character.

* Successfully complete the game with a single credit within 8:30:00
minutes and the game shows you how to execute your character's
'finisher' move!

- STAFF -
Producer & Planner : Hiroyuki Toda
Chief planner : Kazuhiro Shibata
Planners : Visitor Y. Oni, M-Honda
System programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba
Sound programmer : Makio Chiba
Desgin tool programmer : Ryu Hiroyuki
Total adviser : K. Sakanishi
Chief programmer -main- program : Teruaki Shirasawa
Chief sprite designer : K. Hakamata
Sprite designers : Gensan, Hideyuki Yamada, Yokoo, Muneki Shiraishi, H.

Ozono, Tohru Okamura, West-Maison, Takahiro Arahata, Mitsugu.T,
Shigechi, Ruc, Hirotaka Orita, Syoichi Satoh, H. Hasegawa-CRM, Kei
Kuramochi, Hitoshi Aoki, Ben, Yukari Shinozaki
Scroll designers : Shinji Moriyama (as 'Sinji Moriyama'), Masako Sato,
Kaori Kumagai, Kazunori Uchiumi
Demo designers : M. Mitsuya, Sinku
Sound : Hiroaki Kujirai, Y. Watanabe, Hiroaki Shimizu, Takeshi Muramatu
Sound effects : Kujirai Type-02
* Character Voices :
Sasuke : Kabao Kikkawa
Tenho : Shinobu Sekimoto
Kamui, Raiga, Unzen : Masahiko Yano
Natsume, Narration : Mayumi Minoda
Kasumi : Masami Katou
Goemon : T. Mukaiyama
Houoh : Yoshikatsu Fujio
Karasu : Kouichi Koba
Ranmaru : Yasue Ishii
Nobunaga : Masao Harada
Market Research : Yukio Gotou
Public Information : Taguchi-1, Satsuki Ito, Sugi Yamaki Yotaka, Kayo
Yamagata
Quality Control : Showgatsu Nagata, Masao Tachikawa, Kiyotaka, Takagi,
Uma
Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai
BGM : Back Of My Mind, H. Kujirai

- PORTS -
* Consoles :
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)
