Revision as of 16:29, 27 December 2020

Introduction

Ninja Master's: Haō Ninpō Chō (ニンジャマスターズ～覇王忍法帳～ roughly translated as "Ninja Master's Scrolls of the Supreme Ninja Arts") is a ninja-themed competitive fighting game produced by ADK originally released in 1996 for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform.

Ninja Master's was the sixth and final fighting game produced by ADK, following the four games in the World Heroes series and Aggressors of Dark Kombat.

It was later featured in the 2008 compilation ADK Tamashii for the PlayStation 2.

On December 6, 2012, Ninja Master's was also released on the Neo-Geo X handheld system.

Button Notation

= Light Punch/Weapon

= Heavy Punch/Weapon

= Light Kick

= Heavy Kick

Battle Screen

CHARACTER NAME AND PORTRAIT

The names and pictures of the ninjas engaged in battle.

WIN POINTS

A kanji appears once a ninja has won a round.

LIFE GAUGE

Shows the amount of strength the ninja has left before he is knocked-out.

Everytime you get hit or block special attacks, this gauge gradually depletes.

The gauge has 2 bars and 3 levels: Green (>50%), Yellow (<50%) and Red (<25%).

SPIRIT GAUGE

Shows the amount of power the ninja has currently stored.

Once the gauge is completely filled up, the ninja has a wide range of choices on how to activate and use his stored power.

TIME COUNT

Shows how much time is left in the round. Maximum time is 99.

Basic Mechanics

- Forward Dash

Can be canceled with any normal attack, but not throws or specials. Beware that if you dash under a jump you won't turn around for the normal.

- Back Dash

Cannot be canceled. Has a long period of invulnerability from the start but leaves you open at the end

While knocked down + any button - Back Rise

Roll backwards for a slower wakeup that leaves you further away from the opponent. You are vulnerable during the roll.

When close + / - Throw

Standard proximity throw, except that in this game it doesn't work on crouchers. To make up for this, everyone has a command throw that can hit whether crouching or standing. There is no throw tech.

+ - Draw/Sheathe Weapon

Pulls your character's weapon out or puts it away. Can be canceled into. Some characters attack while drawing and/or sheathing. This affects what specials you have access to and changes your punch normals, though one isn't necessarily better than the other. Generally armed attacks deal more damage while unarmed attacks deal more stun. Pressing + while crouching over your dropped/thrown weapon will pick it back up

Command Overheads

Every Character has one or more command normal that must be blocked standing. Unlike jump attacks, these will stagger a crouching opponent, leaving them wide open for a followup. On counter-hit these instead put them in a very floaty knockdown, giving plenty of time for a juggle

Stun

Stun is an invisible meter for each character that fills when you take damage and drains very quickly when you aren't taking damage. When you're stunned you'll instantly be knocked down and you'll drop your weapon if drawn, after which you'll be stuck in a long dizzy animation. You can reduce the time spent dizzied by mashing.

Juggling

There is a very short period after any attack that knocks down in which you can attack your opponent out of the air. Juggles are typically very short and rarely come up outside of counter-hit command overheads, but it's still important to know about them.

Combo Strings

Every character has preset combo routes performed with specific inputs a la tekken. Most of them are started on close normals, though this isn't always the case. String routes are often interconnected: mulitple starters can go into the same enders at different points. Any part of the string can have these properties:

*  - can perform special/super right after if connected

E  - ends string

O  - overhead

_  - must be blocked low

L  - launches opponent into the air (can be juggled with many attacks,including air throws if your character possesses one)

T  - notes that this is a Throw maneuver (throws in chains CAN be blocked)

W  - Weapon is drawn

U  - Weapon is put away

SE - Combo Super ender (must be in Hyper Mode or have a full super meter for this to come out)

Spirit Gauge

Your Spirit Gauge fills as you deal damage and has many different uses:

EX Special Moves

Stronger version of a special move, typically done by pressing both button strengths with the regular input. You need MAX spirit gauge to use them, but they don't cost any meter so use them as much as you want.

Power Moves

Somewhere between a special and a super. Come in two forms:

Leveled: Can be done at any time, but have 4 levels of strength depending on how much meter you have. The notches on the spirit gauge help indicate which level you're on, with lvl 0 being before the first notch and lvl 3 being at max meter.

Charged: Can only be done at max meter. Doing the input with less than a full meter will put your character in a charge animation and quickly fill your meter. You can't cancel out of the animation and the move will always come out once you reach max meter, but if you're interrupted you keep all the meter you gained.

Combo Super

A specific string ender that costs a full meter and deals heavy damage.

Desperation Move

A powerful attack that can be done any number of times, as long as your health is flashing red (about 25%). Doesn't use your meter

Finisher

These can be done when your opponent's life is flashing red and costs a full meter. Under these conditions, they do enough damage to kill on hit.

+ + - Hyper Mode

Going into hyper mode causes a small, invulnerable burst that knocks your opponent down on hit and changes your meter to HYPER:

The hyper bar slowly ticks down over time. While active, your attacks do slightly more damage, and you can perform any kind of super or max level power move at any point. However, doing so will cost the rest of your meter and end hyper mode.

Meter Cooldown

Any time an action that costs meter is performed, the meter first freezes for a second, and then drains to nothing. You can only start to gain meter again once it's completely empty

The spirit gauge retains its current state between rounds. This means:

You start the round with as much meter as you had at the end of the previous round
If you end a round in hyper mode you will start the next round still in hyper mode, with the same amount of time remaining
If the meter is draining after a super it will pause at the end of a round and resume once the round starts

Characters

Boss/Secret Characters

Boss Codes

1P

Highlight Kamui and then input the following:

left, down, left, up, left, down, left, up, right, down, right, and up.

You should be on Unzen. Now hit C + D to make Ranmaru and Nobunaga selectable.

2P

Highlight Sasuke and input the following:

right, down, right, up, right, down, right, up, left, down, left, up.

You should be on Unzen. Now hit C + D to make Ranmaru and Nobunaga selectable.

Video Exhibitions

Super Moves and Super Combos Exhibition

Links

| Review

| GameFAQs

Page Progress: - resize images, improve character section, rework string properties notation? Template:Ninjamasters

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 Cannot be canceled. Has a long period of invulnerability from the start but leaves you open at the end
+While knocked down {{b}} + any button - '''Back Rise'''
+Roll backwards for a slower wakeup that leaves you further away from the opponent. You are vulnerable during the roll.
 When close {{f}} + {{kof.lk}}/{{kof.sk}} - '''Throw'''
@@ Line 69: / Line 73: @@
 {{kof.lk}} + {{kof.sp}} - '''Draw/Sheathe Weapon'''
-Pulls your character's weapon out or puts it away. Can be canceled into. Some characters attack while drawing and/or sheathing. This affects what specials you have access to and changes your punch normals, though one isn't necessarily better than the other. Generally armed attacks deal more damage while unarmed attacks deal more stun
+Pulls your character's weapon out or puts it away. Can be canceled into. Some characters attack while drawing and/or sheathing. This affects what specials you have access to and changes your punch normals, though one isn't necessarily better than the other. Generally armed attacks deal more damage while unarmed attacks deal more stun. Pressing {{kof.lk}} + {{kof.sp}} while crouching over your dropped/thrown weapon will pick it back up