dragonninja
DragonNinja (ドラゴンニンジャ), known outside of Japan as Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja and often referred to simply as Bad Dudes, is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Data East. The game is notable because it deals with 2 lone street fighters facing hordes of powerful ninja and also has a memorable epic soundtrack composed by the late Azusa Hara, a female video game composer who did the music for several other famous Data East games.
During the game player one controls the character named "Blade" in white pants and player two controls the character named "Striker" in green pants, who have the ability to do punches, kicks and jumps. Some moves are special like spinning kicks and the ability to charge themselves up with "inner energy" by holding the punch button to throw a powerful long-range attack that hits all opponents in front of the player. Most enemies can be beaten with only a single hit of any kind. Players will also come across several power-ups: some are weapons like sai knives and nunchakus, and some are energy drinks that recharge the player's health, or clocks that add more seconds to the remaining time.
The various types of ninja enemies encountered in the game have their own means of attack. The basic blue-colored ninja directly charge the player, while some leap with their katana swords or throw shurikens and makibishi; there are also acrobatic kunoichi female ninja, attack dogs and even ninja who are on fire. At the end of each level, one of the "super ninja" bosses also appear, until the last level where they all face the players again before the final boss, the titular Dragonninja.
Dragonninja was followed by a 1991 spiritual successor called Crude Buster (known outside of Japan as Two Crude Dudes).
After Data East became defunct due to their bankruptcy in 2003, G-Mode bought the intellectual rights to the arcade game as well as most other Data East games and licensed them globally. The arcade version is also featured, along with several other Data East arcade games, on the Wii title Data East Arcade Classics, produced by Majesco Entertainment with permission from G-Mode and released on February 19, 2010.