PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999.
The end of the millennium. To fulfil the apocalypse, BLADESTRADAMUS springs the crazies from ALCATRAZ and kidnaps the PRESIDENT. With nuclear warheads primed, victory once again falls to Washington's strongest allies: the nameless shadows of the SENGOKU.
"1,000 YEARS OF WAR AT YOUR COMMAND!"
Ninja Ryukenden / 忍者龍剣伝 [1988 STRONG TEAM]
Ninja Ryukenden is the first of Tecmo's two beltscrollers, swiftly followed by
Wild Fang. Whilst bunfights have raged on the primacy of Arcade and Famicom Ryukenden, they were in fact produced simultaneously by separate teams, from the concept "NINJA IN USA." Thus, the correct approach is to treat earnest
FC as a movie, and raucous
AC as a manga about its stuntmen on their days off.
Whether maze chaser (
Guzzler), scrolling STG (
Star Force), action/platformer (
Rygar), or carnival shooter (
Riot), inter alia, Tecmo rarely left genres as they found them. Their beltscrollers, released in Double Dragon's blockbusting wake, are no exception. Far from coasting to an easy payday on its cutting-edge bombast, Ryukenden is perhaps Kunio's most distinctive 80s rival. (pace Jaleco's
Takeda Shingen; a weapons beltscroller of little polish but undeniable ambition, distinguished from
Golden Axe by wicked touch-of-death strikes and an austere jidaigeki air)
Like Shingen, Ryukenden places fatal import on individual hits. Technos zako jabs are lethal in aggregate, but individually unlikely to halt skilled play. Ryukenden mooks have the deadly stopping power of Double Dragon midbosses, complete with cruelly inescapable combinations. With signally recurring balance, the converse applies: stricken enemies and bosses face merciless thrashings from your
Final Fight-prefiguring PPP, amongst other ordnance. With perilously short lifebars, readable windups, and deliberate movement, Ryukenden is thus more boxer than brawler; sharpening the Z-Axis to pugilist clarity. Canny players will learn to lead targets slightly, connecting as they step into the pocket.
Ryukenden's PPPs differ from FF's in not just form - a rolling trio of fists and feet, identically timed for consistency - but also result. Battered foes fly in splendid arcs, obliterating scenery with great shattering rackets. Ever cathartic, these wipeouts also liberate items from their scenic vaults. Key drops are guaranteed, with randoms liberally sprinkled; a little advent calendar fun without overindulging RNG. Amusingly, players make equally good sledges; a nasty fall may see you rebound with wounds salved or katana raised. In a superbly filmic touch, while fallen enemies slam face-first into the floor, your shinobi rolls with feline grace, skidding bloodied but unbowed through splintering debris until he's finally KOd.
Said katana brings Ryukenden briefly yet closer to Shingen; a finite-use POW that mows through targets with abandon. While its power is constrained to ten strikes, you've a couple mainstay alternatives.
First is the iconic Flying Guillotine throw, famously revived for the 2004 Xbox reincarnation. Closer to home, it was purloined by East Technology, then Technos themselves for
Double Dragon III and its FC port. An understandably popular move! Leap at any foe with [attack] held to lock a steely arm about their throat, wrenching them off their feet and into oblivion. Not even hulking bosses are safe! Bravura martial panache; a signal union of spectacular form and icy function. A little disappointingly, thrown enemies won't wipe out their comrades. Though tempting, the balance is clear: with the Guillotine's range and speed, an onslaught of flung bodies would collapse any horde. Hurling foes into fatal pitfalls is compensation plenty, as is the tactical pleasure of sniping high-value scenery.
Your other big gun is the [grip] button. Hit it near any handhold to muscle on - attackers from either side now facing an almighty double-legged boot. It's a walloping satisfaction, marvellously spontaneous in the heat of battle. Yet, I think these handholds should've been limited-use, ala the katana; breaking after say, three mighty blasts from your iron core. Perhaps STRONG TEAM were relying on players to share their sense of choreography; you will know when you're camping, as seen in the nervous final stage of my replay.
The two [jumps] - regular and super - are germanely agile lifelines for the cornered. The latter is especially quirky; the classic tier switch gone one-way evac. Whether credited to Namco's
Rolling Thunder (1986), Konami's
Shao-Lin's Road (1985), or UPL's
Ninja-kun (1984), it's easy to imagine Ryukenden's take as a happy accident; simpler to leave the command active, regardless of player position.
A less obvious but no less critical asset is the speed advantage of diagonal movement. Old hands of 2D and 3D hardcore alike will be unsurprised at the phenomenon; and yet, with Tecmo's consistent excellence, I'm willing to call it another deliberate facet of a meticulous game. Regardless, diagonals are vital, crossing up even the quickest attackers.
Ryukenden's fundamentals are as diligent as its action is extravagant. Though innately startup-heavy, attacks are laser-accurate and generously bufferable/cancellable, with sensible velcro on Guillotines and Grips. As with Rygar's somersault stomp and its liberating i-frames, it's unmistakably tuned by and for line-riding diehards. Indeed, the attention ever-rewarded by Tecmo reveals a subtle magnetism between player fist and enemy face. A charming favour from STRONG TEAM to apt stewards of their work - though as always here, a two-way street!
Enemies are crisply diverse, the core quartet arrayed tight around zoning. Jason Mask establishes a comfy average reach and speed. Tonfa and Lucha buff these traits respectively, while Big Boi goes all-in on range with his mighty log. Mounted foes swap longevity for impact, fast and hard-hitting but readily smacked aside to fiery doom. Bosses tend to attack in pairs, with zako support atop that; despite the imposing odds, they're pleasingly more thrashable than the genre norm, falling just as readily to good Z-Axis footwork.
Stage design builds smartly upon the burgeoning verticality of Double Dragon. Much of Ryukenden is dual-layered, suited for running battle as enemies clamber with convincing bloodlust. Several make use of [grip] for gymnastic transitional areas; 2D interludes versus 1HP onrushers and occasional 3HP heavies, almost recalling Piston Nishiyama's legendary
Spartan X. As garnishes, they're sensibly light and fleeting, yet never throwaway, all demanding the same deft handling as the mainstay beltscrolling.
For such a mechanically ambitious member of beltscrolling's early years, impressively few technical hiccups intrude. I can recall precisely one; it seems possible for your PPP to miss the Naginata heavies found exclusively in Stages 1 & 3's catwalks. This seems very rare, and fortunately, they can be just as handily dealt with via hanging boot or Guillotine.
With its leisurely autoscrolling, and the viable tactic of punishing enemies as they enter range, it can be tempting to call Ryukenden a relatively passive brawler. Truer to say it supports, rather than enforces defensive play; reviewing my shaky one-life clear, I see myriad spots to trim its halting 25min. As slowly as the camera pans along its rail, stages are short, and demolishing each wave before it can settle into place is thirsty and dangerous work. Suffice to say, it's only as passive as you allow it to be; the ceiling for speedy clears is deceptively high.
Aesthetically, Ryukenden is endearingly knowing sendup. Where the FC game is remembered for an affecting journey of filial duty and sacrifice, AC is a rollicking snapshot of working shinobi vacation. STRONG TEAM are consummate apostles of first-class 80s pulp;
Predator and
Battle Tendency flags flying proud, over armies of Hokuto-buff combatants in their best Puro n' Mad Max gear. A DEFCON 1 raid on blood-crazed fanatics is apt time for Tokyo's finest to do Vegas and hit the rapids; the searing Go Nagai terror of the
Continue? screen clearly the product of end-user failure! Utterly unbothered by its ninja-mad day's rules of cool, and therefore the coolest; the old spy fiction coda -
"The world will never know of its saviours!" - not just invoked, but caught in 4k streaking through a hotel lobby.
Like Konami's
Crime Fighters 2 and IREM's
Undercover Cops, it's the unmistakably affectionate work of people who enjoy drawing; stage after stage brimming with detail, from the humblest bricks to most searing neon gauche. Personal favourites are Stage 5's subtly weathered railyard, punctuated by a gorgeous alpine vista, and Stage 2's unfolding harbour panorama; from placid waters and lonely buoys to the stunning Brooklyn skyline, amidst a biker onslaught so intense, it's commendably easy to miss the whole thing.
While Ryukenden's BGM is not quite as notable as its vivid pop-cultural pastiche, it does pack a handful of outstanding tunes from a young Mikio Saitoh, aka Metal Yuhki, perennial bright star of Tecmo and later Konami's 80s/90s works. An expert magpie, his reworking of Black Sabbath's
Iron Man (theme of the equally blatant Road Warrior expies) is infamously omitted from modern console releases. But frankly, I value his other big lift
Shadow Soldier - a storming cover of JP metal legends
Anthem's Bound To Break - far more. Provenance aside, it all sounds great; supporting composer Shitamachi Kajiya's original, the soulfully
Raiden II-esque
Chasing Him To The Very End perhaps my favourite. (a few short years on, Anthem's founder and lynchpin, bassist Naoto Shibata, would direct Konami's
Battle ~ Perfect Selection ASTs; arranging many of Saitoh's
Thunder Cross II songs. I've always wondered if there are any good stories from either man there, haha.)
The possible caveat of its slower tempo - though not a necessarily milder pace! - aside, Ninja Ryukenden stands as one of Technos's proudest competitors; testament to the powerhouse artistry of Tecmo in their 80s prime. Coming in blind via the ACA port, I'll attest that nostalgia is no prerequisite here. A formidably detailed and vividly characterful beltscroller, well worth a visit for any curious enthusiast.
(not that those magazines didn't have a few good'uns; fellow shumps homie David Siller, James Mielke, and Shane Bettenhausen all preached the good word BITD)
), it's one of those intriguing bits of crossover with the overtly demonic FC series. (see also the player visual design, the Voorhees enemy cosplay, and the long railway bridge battle) And of course a Devilman-lovin' bloodlust that was well and truly let off the chain in Wild Fang, which nails punters with even bloodier scenes in its Attract mode.
