The history of Ninja Gaiden is complicated. It started in the arcades before moving to home consoles.
Ninja Gaiden was Tecmo's most successful IP—without question.
Hideo Yoshizawa was the producer of Ninja Gaiden. After completing the original trilogy on the FC, he jumped ship.
Years later, Yoshizawa claimed his departure from Tecmo was for a reason: the company was just that bad, and no normal person could stand working there.
As it turned out, Yoshizawa wasn't just complaining. Tecmo really was a mess.
It wasn't until the PlayStation era that Tecmo brought in a newcomer, Tomonobu Itagaki. He spearheaded the 3D transition of Ninja Gaiden and created the Dead or Alive series, keeping Tecmo on life support for a while.
But Tecmo was too stingy to pay Itagaki a proper salary, so he simply ran away.
Of course, Itagaki was no saint himself. He harassed female employees, acting like a wandering flutist—specifically, one who only played for "big-breasted beauties"—much like Rachel from the 3D Ninja Gaiden games.
But putting his personal life aside, given his talent as a producer at the time, Tecmo—a company on the brink of bankruptcy—should have paid him a high salary or even given him shares.
But Tecmo was unwilling to pay up, so Tomonobu Itagaki left.
This ultimately led to a crash in Tecmo's stock price and its subsequent acquisition by Koei.
In short, Tecmo wasted a lot of great works. For instance, the Fatal Frame series, which Kobayashi Tetsu really liked, was actually developed by Tecmo. But Tecmo failed to fully realize the series' potential. It was supposed to be a classic of Japanese-style horror games, yet it ended up a dismal failure.
All in all, Tecmo may have had a brief moment of brilliance, but its collapse was well-deserved.
Hideo Yoshizawa was an ambitious man, but Kobayashi Tetsu didn't care. He was just buying Tecmo on a whim, much like buying a piece of sushi.
"Next week, report to Kunio Taki. Atlas will designate a special area for Tecmo's use. From now on, you'll be called Team Ninja," Kobayashi Tetsu finally concluded.
Hideo Yoshizawa bowed his head and said, "Team Ninja is a good name."
Seeing that Kobayashi Tetsu seemed to have no objections to his development plan, Hideo Yoshizawa bowed again, turned, and left.
Ninja Gaiden was already a great game, so Kobayashi Tetsu wouldn't get involved in its development. At most, he would help coordinate and solve some technical challenges. For example, Ninja Gaiden was a rare game for the mid-FC era to feature cutscenes and cinematic shots, which could absolutely be considered a grand-scale production for its time.
The original Ninja Gaiden was developed for the FC, and like the MS, the FC was an 8-bit console.
That, of course, wasn't enough. This time, Kobayashi Tetsu insisted they develop it for the Mega Drive. A 16-bit Ninja Gaiden was bound to bring unexpected changes to this timeline.
Naturally, the development process would likely take much longer.
Each team would be responsible for their own tasks. After bringing in a large group of artists from Koei, Kobayashi Tetsu immediately turned his attention to the development of Metal Slug.
This was his most critical priority at the moment.
The most urgent task was, of course, the character designs for the two protagonists, Marco and Tark.
In front of the assembled artists, Kobayashi Tetsu casually sketched two exaggerated figures on the whiteboard. He couldn't draw overly complex images, so he drew two exaggerated little characters in a style reminiscent of American comics.
Yet, even so, everyone could instantly recognize the expression style—frantic and comical.
"My requirements for the character art are very simple," Kobayashi Tetsu explained. "I want everyone to achieve this level of detail. We need to bring out this exaggerated style as much as possible. As for the in-game designs, don't follow convention. Whether it's enemies or allies, I want them to feel fluid and lively."
Kobayashi Tetsu didn't just explain—he sketched a quick drawing.
On the edge of a cliff, a tiny figure stood on tiptoe, teetering on the brink of falling. His face was a mask of terror, a giant snot bubble dangling from his nose. It was both hilarious and heart-wrenching.
This single example instantly conveyed Kobayashi Tetsu's vision to the art team.
"So, you want it to look like a gag manga," one of them said.
"And the enemy designs should follow the same style."
Kobayashi Tetsu nodded, but then added emphatically, "Not just that. The new console's performance is incredibly powerful—it's practically on par with arcade hardware. That means I'm demanding more detail than any home console game has ever seen. More detail! When a character is panicking, their expression should change. When the temperature drops, they should breathe out visible mist. Even the tanks in the game should behave like animals: they should crouch like cats when they hunker down, and when they're hit, they should pant like dogs—or rather, pant with their cannon barrels."
"While maintaining this exaggerated style, I want you to unleash your imaginations. Design as many diverse animations as possible! Don't worry about the console's processing power, and definitely don't worry about storage space. Your only concern right now is whether you can actually create the visuals to match!"
As a 16-bit console, the Mega Drive's performance was far higher than people imagined. It absolutely could not be viewed as an 8-bit console like the FC.
After finishing his explanation, Kobayashi Tetsu turned to the programming team.
This was the same team that had previously made Street Fighter, and they now had the experience of working together.
"You'll still need to adapt to the new development kit and the overall development experience, but it's largely in line with the MS. The AI in the game needs to be improved. If possible, I hope it can respond differently based on the player's skill level. If the player is good, the monsters should become stronger; if the player isn't very good, the monsters should be a bit more brain-dead."
In essence, this was dynamic difficulty.
Kobayashi Tetsu wasn't exaggerating—dynamic difficulty had already existed for a long time. Capcom had already started trying to introduce it back when they were making arcade games. When players played well, they were more likely to be slashed by monsters, but when they played poorly, they could take a few more hits.
This was a relatively crude form of dynamic difficulty, but it worked well and provided a good experience for all types of players.
After Kobayashi Tetsu finished making the arrangements, he clasped his hands together, suddenly thinking of another issue.
The soundtrack.
Tsukasa Masuko was no longer working alone; he now had a three-person team composing music for Atlas's games. However, Masuko's personal style didn't suit every project, so Atlas outsourced some of its music to Miki Higashino—who hadn't even graduated yet.
Now, when it came to Metal Slug, the soundtrack obviously needed to match the game's style.
"Maybe I should find a few more music producers? Like that band inside Sega codenamed SSTS... but I can't just keep exploiting one person, can I?"
Kobayashi Tetsu's gaze gradually drifted, looking into the distance.
Konami.
Konami it is!
Konami had an internal music team called the "Rectangular Wave Club." Compared to their competitors, they were one of Japan's top game music teams in the late eighties and early nineties.
If Kobayashi Tetsu hadn't already gone to find Miki Higashino, she would have probably joined the Rectangular Wave Club.
Poaching talent from the list of people who had already joined—or were about to join—the Rectangular Wave Club was definitely a good choice.
So, Jun Funabashi and a few of his buddies were now standing outside the Mitsui Building.
Some of them had already joined Konami, while others had not yet, but they had all come to Atlas together.
Jun Funabashi was the leader of this small team.
Or rather, the organizer.
Later, there would be another director also named Jun Funabashi, but the two were not the same person. Their names were written with the same kanji, but their Japanese pronunciations were actually different.
If nothing unexpected had happened, Jun Funabashi was originally supposed to join Konami in 1988 and work on the music for a series of games such as Castlevania, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Batman.
But now, the unexpected had obviously happened.
"Atlas!" Jun Funabashi clenched his fists and encouraged his buddies: "Osu! Everyone, cheer up and show them our best skills. Since we've been invited to join Atlas, let's show them what we've got. Our music will definitely be the best!"
The rest of the group clenched their fists in turn and let out a collective "Osu!"
Passersby stared at the group, then gave them a wide berth to avoid catching whatever madness had infected them.
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