From movies, television, and of course, video games, ninjas are everywhere, and for good reason - they are stealthy assassins who typically used espionage, deception, and surprise attacks using ninja stars, swords, and other stealthy weapons to stay undetected and get out unnoticed.
Many great games have you filling the shoes of ninjas in a variety of different genres. As seen by this list, ninjas fit in just about anywhere due to how awesome and universal they are. So to look at some of the best games to feature the stealthy assassins, here are 10 great games that feature covert agents of feudal Japan.
10 Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas
Developed by Konami and exclusive to arcades, Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas is a side-scrolling run and gun similar to other Konami games like Contra and Sunset Riders. You play as one a few different characters that are all either ninjas or samurais and fight with either shurikens or daggers. After you lose a life you are able to change to one of the other characters and continue the game.
There are a total of nine stages throughout the game, each with an accompanying boss. As most arcade games are, Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas is very tough and will eat many of your quarters.
9 Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tenchu is a long-running series created by FromSoftware, the same developers who made Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The series started off on the PlayStation 1 with Tenchu: Stealth Assassins which was released in 1998.
In Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, you play as one of two ninjas from 16th-century feudal Japan. The objective of the game is to infiltrate enemy bases, take out enemies, and collect info without being seen. This is one of the very first games to let you truly feel like a ninja in a three-dimensional space.
8 Strider
Strider started off as an arcade game before being ported over to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and more. The game was later followed up with Strider II which was very similar to the original and Strider 2 for the PlayStation 1 which blended 2D sprites with 3D environments.
The series laid dormant for many years until Capcom decided to reboot the series and turn it into a Metroidvania simply called Strider. The game never saw a physical release but it is on available digitally for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Mutant Turtles: Turtles in Time
Konami was the King’s of arcade beat ‘em ups in the 80s and 90s, releasing many great games like X-Men, The Simpsons Arcade Game, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game was later brought home to the Super Nintendo and in most cases, that spells a degradation of quality but this was an exception. Teenage Mutant Ninja Mutant Turtles: Turtles in Time, while not as good looking as the arcade version, offered more content and more refined gameplay, standing as one of the greatest beat ‘em ups of all time.
6 Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance stars Raiden after he was turned into a cyborg ninja. The game takes a lot of inspiration from Devil May Cry and Bayonetta series with deep combat that focuses on large combos and juggling opponents.
A unique addition to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the ability to slow down time and guide where your sword will swipe. No matter what you pass your sword through it will be severed from that point, whether it be watermelon or a military-grade chopper which can make for some very entertaining gameplay as you chop your enemies into small bits.
5 Shinobi
Shinobi, developed by Sega, started off as an arcade game before being brought home to the Sega Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System, PC Engine, and many other home computers.
Rather than going in quickly, Shinobi requires you to take your time and slowly move in, taking cover and picking when to shoot your shuriken. Each level has 2 parts with an accompanying boss at the end. The game saw two sequels on the Sega Genesis with Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III: Revenge of the Ninja Masters and was even rebooted for the PlayStation 2.
4 Shadow Dancer
Shadow Dancer is a spiritual successor to the Shinobi games and plays rather similarly to the first game in the series as well as Namco’s Rolling Thunder series. Added from previous Shinobi games is a dog friend.
Your dog friend can be charged up and used to incapacitate enemies while you move in for the kill. However, if you time your dogs attack incorrectly, it will be attacked and revert into a puppy until you find a powerup. This was the last game in the series to use the cover-based gameplay that was first established in the Shinobi.
3 Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden started off as a beat ‘em up that was released for the arcades and later brought home to various home computers. Rather than attempting to squeeze the arcade original onto the Nintendo Entertainment System, Tecmo instead created an entirely new game that would utilize the NES’s hardware.
What came of it is a fantastic action-platformer that requires dedication to make it through the games 6 levels. The game was followed up with 2 sequels for the NES and was later rebooted for the original Xbox which also seen sequels of its own.
2 Nioh
Nioh began development in 2004 and was initially suppose to be released for the PlayStation 3 but development was halted until 2014. Nioh can be seen as a spiritual successor to the Ninja Gaiden trilogy that was released across the sixth and seventh generation of consoles.
While the game does take a lot of inspiration from the Dark Souls games, it also takes a lot of inspiration for its spiritual predecessors with charged attacks and overall movement and attack style. Nioh was incredibly successful, so much so that a sequel was released not long after called Nioh 2.
1 Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Muramasa: The Demon Blade, developed by Vanillaware, the creators of Odin’s Sphere and Dragon’s Crown was initially released for the Nintendo Wii before being remastered for the PlayStation Vita. Like many of Vanillaware’s other games, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a beat ‘em up with heavy RPG elements and a very distinct and beautiful hand-drawn art style that takes inspiration from Japanese folklore and anime.
You can either play as either Momohime, a Princess from the Narukami clan, or Kisuke, a runaway ninja with amnesia. Unfortunately, unlike many of Vanillaware’s other games, Muramasa: The Demon Blade has yet to see a re-release on home consoles.