izigame.me

Having invested a lot of time in this game, if you see this on sale for about 5 dollars, I could recommend getting it.
This game is primarily designed around speed running. The fatal flaw of all of the Tengo Project games is that I think they never quite live up to their potential save for the fidelity upgrade. In terms of gameplay loop, this game focuses on timing the player. So, speed running/Time Attack.
The problem with this is that the enemy behaviors and combat are both an upgrade, while simultaneously a massive DOWNGRADE from the SNES original, which is baffling. Specifically, enemies can just stall out with zero manipulations or methods to create consistency. As with most Tengo Project games, sans Pocky and Rocky, there's just a baffling amount of RNG that was inserted into the game.
I have multiple top times in this game's stage time attack, but doing a whole run is just hilariously awful because there's just so many questionable decisions. If a boss blocks? Your run is over. If an enemy chooses to go airborne when you approach them on wake up? Your run is over. If the enemy stalls, back pedals and hangs off screen? Your run is over.
Enemies are allowed to be degenerate in this aspect. They will react perfectly to the player, but the player has no real way with most characters, save probably NINJA, to counteract this awful type of design. You reset over and over, but for ANYTHING. Enemies just do not cooperate and I don't think the designers understand, let alone thought about "What are you testing the player for?"
In the Super Nintendo game that Ninja Saviors functions as a remake for, enemy attacks had distinct high and low properties, same with the player. The player now has no such recourse, if enemies block then they block perfectly, most enemy attacks will hit the player whether they are crouching or standing. Because Ninja Saviors' foundational design is based on being a purely 2D scrolling beat em up, with no Z-Axis, this is very baffling. Enemies ABSOLUTELY have high and low attacks, however. They can strike at your legs and hit you with "lows" like sweeps or standing low slashes to your legs.
Hence, why I say "questionable" or baffling. Why isn't the player allowed to do this? Why does the player have no way to utilize this style of combat on enemies, while enemies are allowed to attack the player, wake up with complete invincibility and go airborne. This affects concepts like grouping, okizeme or attack enemies while they rise. Computer opponents have MASSIVE considerations and favorable properties that will drain huge swaths of time as the player is forced to watch them escape and otherwise sit off screen or stall.
Stalling. In a time attack/speed running game, is a show of incompetence. There's no real way to put it otherwise, the enemy behavior in this game is sub-standard. Another aspect that multiplies this flaw is that enemies are also allowed to sit on the borders of the screen constantly out of range of the player. This just serves to punish the player for things that make zero sense. That they might, oh no, strategically group enemies or utilize the play space to go faster is instead coded or designed as if that's a terrible thing.
Why put a timer on the screen and time the player if ultimately the designers made decisions that show that the game isn't actually willing to make this sporting? Whether you're playing casually or for the speed running aspect, this just makes it so engaging with enemies lacks a feeling of fun because the play this creates just utterly non-interactive. You have to hope the game cooperates and just keep resetting/retrying for swaths of arbitrary reasons.
As a licensed property, I would actually say the original Ninja Warriors succeeds at being a well themed title, where you're a literal Ninja Terminator that unceremoniously slits the final boss' throat. This is the other direction that Ninja Saviors/Ninja Warriors Once Again just cannot live up to. This game trades in that type of theme and flavor for a game that emphasizes dynamic combat... but because enemies behave so degenerately, the player ultimately has to ask themselves if playing through a game that doesn't nearly match the narrative of the game it is following in the foot steps of is worth it.
There are no multiple endings, the final boss is a completely underwhelming, arbitrary fight.
The game is really faithful to being a higher spec 16-bit game, but its ultimate flaw is that it just does not justify its design decisions in any direction, be it scenario or just being about speed running. Speed runs are contingent on consistency, and I would still say that an enjoyable action game should not leave the player feeling helpless/infuriated when everything comes down to something the player just has no direct control over.
Do not get this game unless it's on a major discount if you're the type of person who loves consumer protection. If you're not afraid of playing an unfortunately mediocre game that is held back by one glaring flaw (enemy behavior, which ultimately affects anything you do) this isn't necessarily the worst game out there, but it absolutely has a fatal flaw that unravels what it has to offer.