 The game was released in Japan on December 9, 1988, under its final title "Ninja Ryūkenden", which roughly translates to "Legend of the Dragon Sword".It was developed and released around the same time as the beat 'em up arcade version of the same name; neither of the games were ports of each other but were parallel projects developed by different teams.According to developer Masato Kato (listed as "Runmaru" in the game's credits), the term "ninja" was gaining popularity in North America, prompting Tecmo to develop a ninja-related game for the NES at the same time the arcade version of "Ninja Gaiden" was being developed.