Ganryu

Ganryu is a side-scrolling hack and slash action-platform game similar to Shinobi and Strider where the players take control of either Miyamoto Musashi or Suzume through five stages set in Japan, where the main objective is to rescue Otsu from an evil clan of ninja servants led by a resurrected Sasaki Kojirō, the main antagonist of the game, along with one of his creations that act as a boss at the end of the stage in order to progress further through the game. Each of the two playable characters have their own advantages and disadvantages that comes into effect during gameplay, with Musashi being the strongest but least agile while Suzume is the most versatile but least strongest respectively. In addition to the regular single-player campaign, there is also an alternating two player mode, where two people can play through the game by taking turns after one of the players die.

All of the levels featured in the game, although linear in nature, are large and populated with obstacles and enemies which involve the players on traversing them by jumping and running while slashing and dodging enemies that roam around the playfield. The stages also feature multiple hidden rooms and routes to explore, encouraging the player to explore them in order to find hostages that grants various rewards for the effort, such as onigiri or takoyaki which restores health, or ryō currency to receive extra points. Items and additional sub-weapons are also scattered in treasure chests across the stage to be collected. If players sustain too much damage, their player character is killed after the health bar is completely depleted and respawns on a checkpoint location but once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the player insert more credits to continue playing.

Controlling the characters is done with a joystick, which moves them left and right. Attacking enemies is performed by pressing the A button, while B makes the character jump and C activates a grappling hook that allow players to pull forward, swing onto the latched object as well as attack enemies at a distance. Players can also perform a jump kick move with the B button that not only attack enemies, but allows their character to climb walls. By holding A, players can unleash a powerful attack against enemies after charging, however, it leaves them exposed to enemy attack.