The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors (Switch) review "The irony of anatomically incorrect sexy android ninjas."

The Nintendo Switch was still young in 2019, and its popularity was enough that the original team brought us The Ninja Warrior and its sequel, Ninja Warriors, Again, on Super Nintendo decided to release a remaster. I was hopeful when I unearthed its existence on the eShop one day. This, unfortunately, is a tale of two qualities: One good, the other unfortunate.

For those unfamiliar, a Big Bad is in control of the city. Japan, presumably. The desperate rebels decide to send out their last-ditch attempt to put an end to the tyranny. That’s you, depending on who you choose to play. Each of the five characters, three of which are available at first, brings a unique strategic element to the game. They consist of Kamaitachi, the sickle-wielding quick-striker; Kunoichi, the red-garbed yellow-haired female ninja wielding sword and kunai; and Ninja, the massive purple (blue?) android-wielding spiked nunchaku. The last two are unlockable, and we’ll get to them.



If you’ve read my review of the previous game, you may recall that I made a point of no difficulty system in the SNES release. Well, that’s as good a segway as any to get into the improvements made for this port. For starters, the screen is much larger. Ninja, who took up a lot of space before, seems less intimidating. The graphics have been overhauled in many ways, such as enemies cut from the North American release that have been brought back. That brings up the likely reason they were cut.

How to put this delicately? Females in this game are exaggerated for the male gaze and no more anatomically correct than they were previously. It’s difficult not to bring up the subject of Yaksha at this juncture because the official screenshots and cover art don’t accurately depict her, and there’s a pretty good reason for that. She is further evidence that anime artists don’t believe in bras, though it’s explained away with some flimsy in-game mechanics.



I must admit being disappointed that the developers chose this path because the game lives up to the goal of being a proper remaster. There are many improvements: Paul Tesi’s interpretation of the soundtrack is right on point with its bass-tastic approach with cool chords and light synths that capture the complexity of digital effort that must be going through our protagonist’s processors along this violent journey. It’s 80s bombastic in all of its toe-tapping glory.

The graphics are a treat with extra animation frames, though I hoped for more. Standing poses are given some effort, but I expected to see fluidity between poses that isn’t there. Enemies receive a few extra frames here and there for a smoother feel. Every backdrop has a new treatment, making the game more unified and consistent. Balance is adjusted to be more even, which brings us to the subject of difficulty.



This remaster has two difficulty modes, Normal and Hard, and a stage score attack option for each one. Multiplayer—two-player only—is also an option, which is a nice feature. Though it reads like they wanted to figure out how to include more but couldn’t. Both players can choose to play the same character if they so desire. Neat. For our final improvement, though, the moulds were definitely broken, and they’re both questionable and dubious simultaneously.



Meet Raiden, the 32-ton behemoth and Yaksha, the 50-kilogram—uh, we’ll get to that—android, respectively. You’ll unlock them after completing hard and normal mode, also respectively. To be clear, before we take another step: All body types are normal. Raiden is questionable; Yaksha is dubious. The former occupies over 1/3 of the screen and is nearly impossible to play effectively. Yaksha scratches that male gaze itch by having very fluid “breast” animation, but get this: They aren’t. Instead, they are her extensible arms, so she looks flat-chested with them fully extended on cover art and other media. Wasn’t that a clever way to sneak the sexy female into the game under the parent’s noses?

Until the GameCube, Nintendo didn’t allow Mature content onto their platform, and we’re living with a schoolboy locker room “did you see that” chatter uncomfortably manifesting itself in games that had been sanitized in the past. While it was evident in Ninja Warriors, Again with the uncut character and Kunoichi’s anatomically incorrect body, there is a sexualized object where it doesn’t belong. It’s the hand of the author, leering like a creeper at every female in the scene. It’s trashy.



The net result is a game with a confused genre identity that limits its audience. Likewise, Raiden has some fun mechanics to play around with, though really, why? He can turn into blaster mode, granting access to an aerial attack and anti-tank cannon. The rub is that you must survive long enough to use any of this because you’re guaranteed to take a few hits. Three hits is all it takes to knock down any of the androids, including 32 tons of mechanical muscle.

The end result is a split personality of intent that muddies a mechanically fun action title. There are some great ideas here, but they aren’t followed through. Everything falls short of its potential like it was half-baked. I get this “good enough” vibe from the Tengo Project’s effort, and it's disappointing.

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Community review by hastypixels (April 09, 2024) Wisdom comes from effort and mistakes.