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 DETAILS
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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
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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.

>>> TRICKS AND TIPS
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* 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!

>>> DESIGNERS / PROGRAMMERS / STAFF
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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

>>> GAME PORTS TO OTHER SYSTEMS
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* Consoles :
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)

>>> OTHER GAME RESOURCES
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Game's rom.
Machine's picture.