The 25 Most Awesome Ninja Video Games

Platform: NES
Year: 1990
Publisher: Culture Brain

Jack and Ryu set on their quest to find out why Chinaland (yeah, yeah, we know) is being invaded by Blu Boltar. Done in RPG style with both characters being able to upgrade weapons and equipment, Little Ninja Bros was entertaining to say the least although some of it could border on offensive.

Platform: Sega Genesis
Year: 1994
Publisher: Atlus

Many games copied the Street Fighter II formula but no one copied it exactly the way Power Instinct did. They basically "borrowed" the characters, backgrounds and overall look of Street Fighter. But the game tweaked its storyline to center around the Goketsuji clan who were battling each other to be the head.

Platform: NES
Year: 1991
Publisher: Taito

Although Shadow of the Ninja was a blatant Ninja Gaiden knock off for the NES, the two player game was a co-op title that gave you control of Kaede and Hayate. Why get frustrated with the harder levels by yourself? Misery loves company so bring a pal to the party.

Platform: PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Mac, Google Chrome
Year: 2009
Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Here is a third-person fighting game with six playable characters, each with their own special fighting technique. Characters are able to switch between a number of fighting styles to best defeat their enemies. While most games would limit characters to fighting style, Mini Ninja gives us a few options to slice and dice with.

Platform: PlayStation
Year: 2010
Publisher: Working Designs

What made Arc the Lad a pretty good game was the fact that the game had RPG elements, think Ninja Gaiden mixed with Final Fantasy. Together you've got an action packed title with a great story.

Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2007
Publisher: Atlus

Izuna and crew have been kicked out of their master's castle because he thinks ninja's are no longer needed. Izuna and her clan settle in a nearby village to make a living and find themselves in tons of trouble.

Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Year: 2009
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games

Loosely based on the Cartoon Network TV series, the game was released with a whole new storyline. Afro Samurai was on a mission to avenge his father's death and become the number one samurai in the land. Throughout the gameplay, you could expect appearances from all the characters from the show.

Platform: Commodore 64
Year: 1987
Publisher: Activision

The Last Ninja was one of the first open world ninja games where the main character was able to time travel on some Marty McFly ish. Sure, it teetered the edge of ridiculous but you'd have to write it off to the multitude of ninja related everything at the time it came out.

Platform: PlayStation
Year: 1997
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Unlike any other ninja game, Bushido Blade had no health-bar. Clearly this upped the challenge for all players as the character can die from one vital hit. Borrowing from actual sword combat, If you were truly skilled, you could end a round in one swing.

Platform: GameCube
Year: 2006
Publisher: Tomy

Clash of Ninja 2 had a whopping 35 characters to pick from and 30 different fighting levels. The Wii version includes an exclusive story-line with each character having 10 different missions. It's one of the best anime-to-video game titles you'll ever come across.

Platform: NES
Year: 1989
Publisher: Ultra Games

The cult classic four player co-op game allowed you to use all the ass kicking turtles with each of their own unique weapons and speciality moves. If you happen to see one of the rare arcade machines anywhere, you can bet that you'll find a crowd around it, reliving their old turtle power days.

Platform: PlayStation 3
Year: 2010
Publisher: Sega

As history tells it, the Yakuza decends from samurai and ninja who roamed without a master. With no work they joined together and eventually became the organized crime families that now rule Japan's underworld. It's that particular lore that made the Yakuza series such a big part of Japanese pop culture (such as the Godfather movies in the States). What set this game apart from other martial arts games was the use of famous Japanese actors' voices and likenesses through 3D imaging. Although many players in the states were unaware of who they were, Yakuza was a big deal in merging gaming and the Japanese film world.

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1994
Publisher: Midway Games

Released around the time of the Mortal Kombat hype in the 90's, Killer Instinct took some of the popular elements of MK (like Fatalities) and added their own ultra combo system where players could pull off 20 hit combos. Can you see why everyone is so combo crazy these days?

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1993
Publisher: SNK

Riding the Street Fighter II wave in the early 90's, SNK released an all Samurai fighting game. What made this game different from all the other fighting based games was that the characters and even the announcer only spoke Japanese. Who knew what these guys were saying?

Platform: PS2, Xbox
Year: 2004
Publisher: EA

This was one of the better hack and slash games where characters have the ability to perform combos or special "clear-out" moves. Samurai Warriors was a similar to the classic strategy fighter, Dynasty Warriors except there was no mission system in battles.

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1988
Publisher: Data East

The most of unlikely ninjas, two dudes in tank tops, sweatpants and 80's fingerless gloves head out to save the President. They do so by fighting off bad guys on top of tractor trailers and cars. Think Jean Claude Van Damme & Arnold Schwarzenegger as ninjas.

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1992
Publisher: Midway Games

Mortal Kombat featured several characters, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Jade and Reptile. Each character differentiated themselves from their different fighting styles. While Scorpion used his spear, Sub-Zero froze his opponents , Reptile had an acid tongue and Jade had a fan equipped with knives.

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1989
Publisher: Capcom

Taking the concept of the first Street Fighter, Capcom made it into a full fledged side scroll game with three selectable characters, Haggar the wrestler, Cody the brawler and Guy the ninja. Guess which one was our favorite?

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1989
Publisher: Capcom

While there were two versions of this game the actual fan favorite was the arcade version which was way more action packed while the Nintendo version weighed more heavily on stealth.

Platform: Sega Genesis
Year: 1990
Publisher: Sega

Shadow Dancer is the sequel to Sega's classic Shinobi. The game-play is similar to the original version but with the help of a pooch. It was an odd team-up but it worked. While the dog attacked the enemy, Joe Musashi sliced and diced with his sword.

Platform: Arcade
Year: 1987
Publisher: Taito

Twin brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee first appeared in arcades in the 80's moving up to the NES System in 1990. No fancy swords or ninja stars in this one, just straight up hand to hand combat.

Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Year: 2012
Publisher: Tecmo

You may not have ever played any of the Dead Or Alive games BUT I'm sure you have heard of them. The main characters are a bevy of scantily clad Ninja Babes.

Platform: Sony PlayStation
Year: 1998
Publisher: Activision

Tenchu was one of the first games to utilize actual stealth ninja skills. Tenchu uses poison rice balls as ammo, and catches his enemies slipping in their most vulnerable state, while they sleep!

Platform: Sega Master System
Year: 1987
Publisher: Sega

The theme for most ninja games is "Main character avenging master's death or saving a damsel in distress". Not Shinobi, he's saving his students from a band of terrorist called Zeed. Save the children!

Platform: NES
Year: 1988
Publisher: Tecmo

Ryu Hayabusa is a ninja's ninja. He can climb walls, throws ninja stars, do magic tricks and kill bad guys at free will. Out of the litter, this is probably the hardest Ninja game you will probably ever play.