The gameplay is similar to previous Ninja Gaiden games where the player jumps between platforms defeating and avoiding enemies.

Defeating him, the leader reveals that he was hired by a man named Totenkopf who was a smuggler who sells weapons to a variety of clients.

Attempting to find out why someone would steal the Dragon Sword, Ryu infiltrates the boat and kills Totenkopf, revealing a man named Mr. Tsin who he was selling weapons to in Hong Kong.

In a review upon its release, a critic for Electronic Gaming Monthly called it a "nice addition to the portables growing list of action carts", but disliked its "awkward" graphical style that looked more like Strider than a Ninja Gaiden release, as well as the gameplay, resulting in an average score of 6.75 from four reviewers.

"[8] Awarding the game three stars in a retrospective, AllGame journalist Kyle Knight praised its "clean" graphics and "very catchy", fast-tempo music.