Mystic Warriors

The game's controls consists of an eight-way joystick and two buttons for attacking and jumping. Like in Sunset Riders , the player can jump between higher or lower levels, as well as slide. The player character attacks primarily by shooting an unlimited supply of shurikens / daggers , or using his/her weapon at close range. The game includes some improvements that were not included in Sunset Riders , such as the ability for players to change characters after they lose a credit as well as a life gauge that allows the player to sustain up to four hits from enemy attacks before losing a life.

The player must defeat box-carrying enemies in order to obtain power-up items. These include a shuriken power-up that can increase the player's shooting power by up to two levels (which differ between characters), food ( sushi , tempura , udon , sukiyaki ) that will replenish the player's life gauge, a blue orb with the kanji shinobi ( 忍 ) that will surround the player with a barrier for a limited period, a yellow orb with the kanji chikara ( 力 ) that will destroy all on-screen enemies, and various kinds of jewelry for extra points and temporary invincibility. There are a total of nine stages in the game, in which its own boss awaits to challenge the player. Like in Sunset Riders , each player is graded at the end of a stage by how much they shot the boss; the player with the highest hit percentage will receive bonus points.