The game follows the adventures of famed ninja Ryu Hayarime 龍流行目 in his quest to avenge his own death by killing every bad guy in the game because he is a time-traveling ninja. In a move much criticised, the plot writers decided that to keep in line with Japanese custom that all of the bad guys should commit seppuku instead of dying at the hands of a ninja. It is blamed for the reason that of the five cartridges originally sold, thousands were returned, destroyed, incinerated, eaten by grues, and/or dumped in a landfill site in New Mexico. It is rumoured that there is a secret mode in the game in which the main character becomes a magical talking cat, but this has been denied by the developers, who called the idea "stupid" and "incriminating".