Ninja Master's (W) / Ninja Master's: Haou Ninpou Chou (J)

[Source]
Ninja Master's ~Haou Ninpou Chou~ / SNK, ADK
Pony Canyon / Scitron  PCCB-00209  Mar 21, 1996
ADK Ontama
City Connection  CDGM-10017  Dec 28, 2013
[Generator]
MAME 0.164, modded by Valley Bell

One of only two fighting games in ADK's
catalogue that are not "World Heroes" games,
"Ninja Master's" (yes, there's a greengrocer's
apostrophe in the title) is ADK's version of
SNK's "Samurai Shodown", with the innovation of
every character being able to draw or sheathe
their weapon whenever they want--including
during combos! It also shows that ADK can put
their feet down and do something serious when
a game calls for it.

The music is largely atmospheric but
exceptionally well-written, matching the dark
mood of the game as Japanese warriors wielding
blood-drawing weapons try to stop historical
figure Oda Nobunaga, here brainwashed by a
demon, from taking over the world. There is
less use of FM in favor of recordings from
other synths and samples of traditional
Japanese instruments, adding to the grim and
feudal atmosphere of the game. All in all, I
recommend this one.

(Special thanks to Valley Bell for updating
vgm_sro so I could properly compress track 23,
which, due to an oddity with one sample,
crashed vgm_sro when I tried to use it!)

— The Green Herring