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I'd venture to say this game is about as good as Shinobi (Im not going to say better because I'm a SEGA fan ;) ) but man it's a solid hack and slash with power ups, special weapons, and an auto CPU co-op that goes up to 2 CPU assists. :o
This has to be the most underlooked games from NEC.
It really is great. It's almost like an arcade shooting game, except you control a ninja instead of a space ship. I wish I were better at the game.
I noticed the other day, that Metal Storm on NES recycles some of the Ninja Spirit stuff. Both are IREM though. Metal Storm has the stick to the magnetic/ceiling gameplay that's in a few stages of Ninja Spirit. And.. the boss explosions in MS are NES-fied explosion of NS (even has the same flashing white solid circle too).
A good friend of mine BITD would try to pit this game up against Revenge of Shinobi. But I never saw the parallels. One is a fast paced straight run arcade title (run'n'slash if there was such a sub-genre), one is a slower paced platformer (even with some back tracking). Two completely different style of games (and loved them both too).
Ninja Spirit rocks to no end. It is easily up there with the top Shinobi titles, though having ninjas in them is the only thing any of these games have in common. I think Ninja Spirit is a pseudo sequel to Legend of Kage and Demon Sword on the NES, both of which I enjoy quite a bit.
I keep forgetting to pick up Metal Storm, it's great!
love love LOVE ninja spirit. it has one of my favorite soundtracks.