Mirai Ninja/Walkthrough

Namco's Japan-only 1988 beat 'em up arcade game Mirai Ninja is divided into twelve stages, each of them based upon a key scene in the movie: The Deserter, Who Awaits You, Battle Cry, The Core, Intrusion, Labyrinth, Water Course, Metropolis, Upsidedown, Head Winds, Castle Kurosagi and Arrival. The first, third, fifth, seventh and tenth stages are all very straightforward, but there are a multitude of paths that you can take through the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and eleventh stages; however, the eleventh stage is unique in that you will be trapped in it forever unless you know the correct way out due to it being littered with "Warp Statues" that will "poof" you back to the beginning if you get too close to them. The twelfth and final stage is an immediate boss fight with the Evil Master Shikinami Kurosagi himself.

Mirai Ninja's life meter uses Kanji numerals instead of Arabic ones, which had previously been used in Namco's own Genpei Tōma Den for the score display (along with the Ken and Zeni counters in the bottom-left corner of the screen). For those of you who have not played that game, here is what they mean: 〇 = 0, 一 = 1, 二 = 2, 三 = 3, 四 = 4, 五 = 5, 六 = 6, 七 = 7, 八 = 8, 九 = 9. At the start of the game, Mirai Ninja will have 99 (九九) energy points, and will lose 12 (一二) to 15 (一五) of them each time he gets hit; however, each time he clears a stage, he will gain 25 (二五) to 30 (三〇) of them back. If Mirai Ninja should run out of energy points (〇〇), the game will ask you if you want to continue by inserting another coin and pushing the start button before a timer runs out - but if you choose to do so, your score will be set back to a value that subtracts the current stage's number by 1 and multiplies it by 30000. Therefore, continuing is not recommended if you are playing for points.

There are eight different types of powerups that can be found throughout the game: Chishiki (blue, allows Mirai Ninja to throw his shurikens in an upward curve for a short period of time), Cocolo (turquoise, effect unknown), Honoh (pink, effect unknown), Ikari (red, allows Mirai Ninja to throw energy orbs at the enemies instead of his usual shurikens for a short period of time), Inori (gray, shrinks any enemies currently on screen and immediately beyond), Kudaki (orange, instantly destroys any enemies currently on screen), Waza (green, allows Mirai Ninja to throw three shurikens at once for a short period of time), and Chikara (yellow, gives Mirai Ninja 20 energy points). Finally, if you should get the highest score on the cabinet to date, you will be allowed to enter up to sixteen letters in your name at the top of the table - but if you do not, you will only be allowed to enter up to three. This means that the default high scorer's name of "MIRAI NINJA TM" will be shortened to "MIR" if topped.