Shadow Warriors (arcade)

Ninja Gaiden
Sales flyer for the arcade game.
Developer(s)	Tecmo
Publisher(s)	JP/NA/PAL: Tecmo NA: Atari NA: Hi-Tech Expressions EU: Ocean Software
Director(s)	H. Iijima
Artist(s)	Shinobu Iwabayashi
Writer(s)	H. Iijima
Composer(s)	Mikio Saitou Ichiro Nakagawa Ryuichi Nitta Tamotsu Ebisawa
Series	Ninja Gaiden
Platform(s)	Arcade Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Atari Lynx, Commodore 64, DOS, IBM PC, Wii Virtual Console, ZX Spectrum
Release	October 1988 Arcade NA: October 1988 EU: 1988 JP: February 1989 DOS NA: 1990 NA: February 15, 1991 (re-release) Commodore 64 NA: 1990 EU: 1990 Amiga EU: 1990 Amstrad CPC EU: 1990 Atari ST EU: 1990 ZX Spectrum EU: 1990 Atari Lynx NA: 1991 IBM PC NA: 19?? Wii Virtual Console JP: July 28, 2009 PAL: November 13, 2009 NA: December 21, 2009
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Two-player, co-op

Ninja Gaiden, later released in Japan as Ninja Ryūkenden (Japanese: 忍者龍剣伝, lit. "Ninja Dragon Sword Legend") and in Europe as Shadow Warriors, is a 1988 side-scrolling beat-'em-up originally released by Tecmo as a coin-operated arcade video game. It was first released in North America, and Europe in 1988 and in Japan in 1989. The Ninja Gaiden arcade game was produced and released almost simultaneously with its home console counterpart for the Nintendo Entertainment System, although they are different games with only a few similarities. The designer of the arcade game is only credited as "Strong Shima", but Masato Kato, who worked on the NES version, identified him as one "Mr. Iijima".

Home versions of the Ninja Gaiden arcade game were released in Europe under the Shadow Warriors title in 1990 by Ocean Software for five different computer platforms (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC) and in North America for IBM PC by Hi-Tech Expressions. An Atari Lynx version was also released. The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is also included as a hidden bonus game in Ninja Gaiden Black for the Xbox in 2005. The arcade game was published as a Virtual Console game for the Nintendo Wii in 2009.