''Sega Ninja'', originally released as in Japan, is a

run and gun video game Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

released in arcades by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

in 1985. The game features Princess Kurumi (くるみ姫 ''Kurumi-Hime''), the titular

female ninja An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and males ...

, battling enemies using

throwing knives A throwing knife is a knife that is specially designed and weighted so that it can be knife throwing, thrown effectively. They are a distinct category from ordinary knives. Throwing knives are used by many cultures around the world, and as such ...

and shurikens. The game was originally released in arcades as ''Ninja Princess'' in Japan and ''Sega Ninja'' internationally. In contrast to most later games in the genre, ''Ninja Princess'' has a

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

setting with a female ninja protagonist. A revised edition for the

Sega Mark III is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

console titled ''Ninja Princess 1 Mega Ban - Ninja'' (忍者プリンセス1メガ版忍者) was released in 1986, replacing the female protagonist with a male

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

protagonist who has to rescue her. This version was later released as ''The Ninja'' for the

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

internationally.

Gameplay

''Ninja Princess'' is a

. The gameplay involves the player shooting enemies and defeating bosses along the way. Enemies include

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

and dogs. The player's normal weapons are an unlimited supply of throwing knives, but

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a Game mechanics, game mechanic. This is in contrast to an Item (game), item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that ca ...

s to shurikens are available. In addition, the player can also turn

invisible Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light fr ...

for a short period of time. While most of the stages are vertically scrolling, a few of the levels add some variety including a level where the player must scale a wall.

Plot

The game is set during Japan's

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, in about the year 1630, in a province called Ohkami in the western region, where the power has been seized by an evil tyrant named Gyokuro. The goal is to end his oppressive rule and restore peace.

Release

Ports of the game were released for Sega's

SG-1000 The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nak ...

and

consoles. The latter version, retitled ''Ninja Princess 1 Mega Ban - Ninja'', was released a year after the arcade game and changed the protagonist from female to male.Ninjas in Games , An evolution of ninjas in video games throughout the years.
, UGO.com, June 4, 2008 Other changes include the rearranging of stages from the original Japanese release in western releases of the game as well as a

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

system, which requires the player to collect five green scrolls in order to get to the final level of the game, as all of them give hints on how the final level must be entered. If the player finishes the game without them, the game will backtrack to a level closest to where a missing scroll lies. Graphics are also different, made in a more realistic style.

Reception

In Japan, '' Game Machine'' listed ''Ninja Princess'' on their May 1, 1985 issue as being the most-successful

table arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

of the month. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' stated that the Master System version was the most entertaining of three martial-arts games that Sega released together (the others were '' Black Belt'' and ''

Kung Fu Kid ''Kung Fu Kid'', known in Japan as , is a 1987 beat 'em up video game developed and published by Sega for the Master System. It is the follow-up to ''Dragon Wang'' for the SG-1000. Gameplay Players control Wang as he faces an onslaught of en ...

''), and approved of its unusual visual perspective.

Legacy

In 2017, Sam Derboo of ''Hardcore Gaming 101'' noted that ''Ninja Princess'' predates

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

's genre-popularizing run-and-gun shooter ''

Commando A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally, "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as oppo ...

'' (1985), and he considers ''Ninja Princess'' to be "in some ways the more advanced concept." While he considered ''Commando'' to be a refinement of

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...

's ''

Front Line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an Military, armed force's Military personnel, personnel and Military technology, equipment, usually referring to ...

'' (1982), he said that ''Ninja Princess'' brought "a fresh setting and interesting new elements." He also praises the female protagonist, but criticizes the console versions for making the protagonist a male ninja who has to rescue her instead. He nevertheless considers it "no doubt one of the better overhead run-n-gun shooters out in the mid-’80s." ''Sega Ninja'' is a plot point in the novel ''

Ready Player Two ''Ready Player Two'' is a 2020 science fiction novel by American author Ernest Cline. It is the sequel to his 2011 debut novel '' Ready Player One''. Plans for a ''Ready Player One'' sequel were first announced in 2015, though Cline did not beg ...

'' (2020).

Notes

References

External links

*{{MobyGames, id= -group/sega-ninja-games , name=''SEGA Ninja'' games 1985 video games Arcade video games Master System games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer hotseat games Run and gun games Sega arcade games Sega System 1 games Sega video games SG-1000 games Video games about ninja Video games about princesses Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists