Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden is an action game franchise created by Tecmo. The series was originally known as Ninja Ryukenden in Japan. The word "gaiden" means "side story" in Japanese. The original 1988 arcade game, first two Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games and the Game Boy game were released as Shadow Warriors in PAL regions. As of 2008, the series had shipped over 7.7 million copies worldwide.

The series gained popularity on the NES for its action-platform gameplay, catchy music and, according to G4's X-Play, for being the first console game to have the story presented in cinematic cutscenes. The 8-bit trilogy was enhanced for the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Sega released two Ninja Gaiden games for the Game Gear and Master System, the latter only for PAL regions.