Kinniku Banzuke: Road to Sasuke

Sasuke (also known as Ninja Warrior outside of Japan) is an annual sports TV show where 100 competitors compete each year in 4 obstacle courses. The courses require both agility and strength and are increasing in difficulty. Courses do not dramatically change every year and are basically the same, although there are some alterations in parts of them every now and then.

The game lets you do the training on each of the courses with some of the pre-defined characters, or you can create your own character and enter the full competition. Sasuke is a sport where failure is not an option. No matter how far you've come, if you either make a mistake and fall into the water that is at the bottom of each of the first three courses, or run out of time, you lose and get disqualified. As courses are gradually increasing difficulty, in real life after the first course only a handful out of a 100 competitors remain to try the second course and so on. Sometimes none of the competitors even reaches the last course, and even rarely finishes it all.

Gameplay-wise, it's a button mashing game where you press specific button or repeat a button sequence in order to make your character run with occasional pause when you need to jump or perform a more unique action specific to the course. The first course is less muscle and more agility, meaning you'll have to run and jump a lot to make it in time to the end. Some of the obstacles consist of jumping over bodies of water, holding onto the rolling tree log without falling down, rope climbing, or balance walking. Second stage is more muscle focused and will require you to hold onto something or to lift heavy objects. Third stage tests your limits by having very few places to stand and rest, and you have to pass most of it by holding onto something or your body weight with just young fingertips. The final stage is direct rope climbing where you have to climb 15 meters high in 30 seconds flat. The game also features real-life commentators, Tsutomu Taruki (垂木 勉) and Ichirou Furutachi (伊知朗 古館).