Ninja Gaiden. What can I say about Ninja Gaiden on the NES? The original NG in the arcades (also available on the Virtual Console) was a beat-em-up in the same vein as Final Fight, in which you played as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja with an arsenal of three different moves and who could only use his sword for a limited time after grabbing a power-up. Awesome, right?

Tecmo didn't seem to think so either. And so when it came time to bring the game to the NES, which had no hope of ever running a decent post, Tecmo decided to instead make a completely new original game, an action platformer instead of a brawler. The game has a strange resemblance to Castlevania: close range weapon, sub-weapons activated by holding up when attacking, having to hit candles or lanterns to find these weapons and ammunition... even the HUD bears a resemblance. But Ninja Gaiden is a much faster-paced game, and its hero is much more agile: he can run, change direction mid-jump, grab on walls and, if you are dexterous enough, climb them.

The game has a reputation for being balls-hard. The "problem" here is that as agile as Ryu is, the enemies are not limited to close-range weapons and some of them, such as birds and bats, are even faster than the hero. Plus, they respawn immediately should you backtrack even a millimeter when you kill them. But victory is nonetheless possible, if only by memorizing the levels as you get pushed into the omnipresent bottomless pits over and over again.

Oh, I almost forgot: the story in this old NES game is actually worth talking about. Ryu is not on a quest to save a princess from some villain, but is trying to elucidate the mystery surrounding his father's death. This story was told through cutscenes which were simply amazing at the time. They were detailed, well directed, and full of intrigue. Negative Worlders, you may just play through this game for the story.

Then again, you probably won't.


Why not add Ninja Gaiden (NES) or perhaps even Ninja Gaiden: Arcade to your collection, and indicate you are currently playing it?


List of Awesome:
X‑pert74 (beat the game overnight!)
ludist210 (beat the game also overnight? What's going on!?)
TriforceBun
Jargon
Guillaume
anon_mastermind
Paleo_Orca
Rebonack
CPA Wei

URL to share (right click and copy)

Ah maybe that's why I wasn't making much progress. Thanks.

This is one of the bosses where making good use of the clones is fairly easy.

Gah the first form of Jaquio is really giving me trouble. Any advice?

@Jargon

No use running all over the place. I stayed in the corner, closed my eyes, swung my sword (and threw shurikens), occasionally jumping if it seemed like a good idea. That took care of it.

As usual, the Art of the Fire Wheel worked well for me in most boss fights. It's got a huge range and a lot of the bosses like to float about you (and it also wipes out projectiles as a bonus).

Finally beat the game. Beat the "last" boss in my first try.

Took me over two hours tonight of going over 6-1 through 6-3 again and again until I finally beat that damn boss.

My opinion? I still think Ninja Gaiden is a ridiculously overrated game. It controls are pretty good, had cutting edge cut scenes for the time, and the graphics and music are solid. However the god damn level design is just frustrating and some enemies are just cheap as hell.

@CPA Wei

Is this the first time you beat it? You made it sound like you were a pro at this game earlier in the thread, so I just assumed. But maybe you're a pro only for the first 5 acts, haha.

Well, I just defeated Ninja Gaiden 2. Took down the first form by combining Gui and TriforceBun's advice and the other forms were push overs (and the supposed fourth form was a big lie).

Unfortunately, I did not have nearly as much fun with this one as the first one. The first one, for all its flaws, is a really fun game which I will definitely play through again at some time or another, but the hit detection problems (which seemed to happen always, whether I had clones or not) really broke the game for me. Glad to have taken it down, but once is enough.

Shall I go on to #3? Doubtful, no unlimited continues is bad news.

@Guillaume
I had many deaths leading up to Act 6 I can assure you. Most notably in Act 5...

That said I just got damn good at Act 6 because I couldn't for the life of me beat the final boss. Before I finally finished the game I could actually go through the entire Act 6 without seeing the Game Over... sadly...

Made it to 5-2 in NG2. I'll try to finish it this weekend.

Because Rebonack is too frickin' modest to link to it himself:

Ninja Gaiden review.

Come on, man. We don't encourage constant spamming of the board with links to, um, competing (?) sites but this couldn't be more on-topic...

@Guillaume

Well, uh, I was just about to post it! Yeah, let's go with that.

Thanks for posting it though. It IS pretty on-topic. Totally didn't even think to post it here, not being modest or anything. That and I haven't been on much today. I should have though, since this was the whole reason I played the game, and this thread is for discussing it... [face_dumb]

Still tempted to pull the trigger on Ninja Gaiden II, but I'm resisting, mostly due to having other games to play rather than the obscene difficulty (which grew on me in NG).

Seriously, RGC is a brilliant idea. It's great to play something that isn't Mario or Zelda (which is what I usually play on my NES, lol).

@rebonack
Nice write-up on Ninja Gaiden.

Anybody else playing Ninja Gaiden 2? I made it to Act 6, and I'm finding the game quite easier than the original. I'd say it's worth it for anyone who made it through Ninja Gaiden to check out the sequel while your skills are still in tact.

@anon_mastermind

It's easier, but also much more frustrating for me, because of the bad hit detection.

@Jargon
I noticed the hit detection problems on some enemies but it's really not that bad. You have so much ninja power at your disposal.

@anon_mastermind

Yea, I guess it depends on how you like to play. In the first game, I was all about being a bad ass ninja jumping around and slashing through my enemies. Despite the difficulty, it was consistent and as I kept playing I got better and better at it.

I couldn't do that in the second game because I couldn't get a consistent feel for using my sword and it made the game significantly less fun for me.

I finished off Ninja Gaiden 2 last night. It's a heck of a lot easier than the original, that's for sure. My play time for Ninja Gaiden 2 was a mere 3 hours and 30 minutes while the original took me 5 hours more to complete.

I think I like the sequel better for the more forgiving level design and enemy placement. Also, I enjoyed being all powerful with the powerups, shooting from walls, climbing up and down any surface. The game just feels more fluid than the original, and controls just as well. There are a few hit detection problems but they didn't annoy me that much. I like having helper shadows for the bosses, made a few of them quite a bit easier. I thought the music was up to par with the original, and the story just as crazy. A little disappointed that there was no kiss at the end like in the first Ninja Gaiden.

Even though the game has 7 Acts, every act only has 2 stages and then the 3rd stage is the boss. If I recall correctly, the original had three stages per act and then the boss encounter. So in the end, I think the original may actually be a bit lengthier.

On the TV and Lust podcast, our friend Het_Nkik (who is dead to us ) claims to have beaten all three games.

Even Ninja Gaiden 3!

WTF!

Not exactly, Anon. In NG 1, Act 1 had 1 stage (then boss), Act 2 had 2, Act 3 had 2, Act 4 had 3, Act 5 had 3, and Act 6 had 3. Which ends up being 14 stages, the same number as NG2's. Of course, if you factor in repeating Act 6 a zillion times, then things get different...

I too was disappointed at the lack of smoochin'. Kisses make pretty much any video game ending better.