A Nintendo community
by the fans!
           
  Forum main
 + 
Retro Game Club Discussion Thread - 03 - Ninja Gaiden [community]
 

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)
04/29/11, 08:40    Edited: 10/27/11, 08:06
 
   
 
I used to have this game when I was little, and I'm pretty sure I got far, but I never beat it. Somehow I now own it on VC and TWO physical copies, and yet I still haven't beaten it. So I'm going to try now! I'm up to 4-2, and I gotta say, the third boss was a bit of a pain. This game definitely gets more challenging as it goes on.
05/06/11, 02:15   
Paleo_Orca said:
Well... I've made it to 6-2. I've been playing the game off and on during my study sessions before I go take my Bio 2 final today.

I'll probably try beating the game if I can when I get back home. Any advice?

Well, the thread is peppered with tips already, do you have anything specific you need help with?
05/06/11, 05:41   
I'm at 4-1.

To be totally honest, I do not like this game. It's sloppy.
05/06/11, 06:03   
@Guillaume I haven't discovered any of those glitches. Although there is one ladder in 6-3 that I've jumped completely over once before, because it's placed so close to your platform, and you can't adjust how high you jump so if you keep holding right it's possible to go past it, rather than climbing up to the next floor.
05/06/11, 08:20   
Why are you sent to 6-1 when you lose to the boss? What kind of jackass thought that was good idea?
05/06/11, 08:33   
@chrisbg99 According to this interview (warning: contains Ninja Gaiden II spoilers), it was simply a programming error that the developers decided to leave in the final game
05/06/11, 08:55   
@X-pert74

Wow, what dicks. They didn't bother to correct the error? They were just like: 'Wow, it sends you all the way back to 6-1... this is gonna be a hard game... hm... leave it in!'
05/06/11, 08:57   
@X-pert74

Jackasses.
05/06/11, 09:00   
It's not really that bad...6-1 is a piece of cake, 6-2 is indeed quite hard but once you know what to do it's not so bad. 6-3 is actually easier than 6-2. I can make it back to the boss in a couple minutes.

Anyway, that being said I only tried the boss once yesterday, and quickly died because I was low on health. Then moved on to Monster Hunter. I'm gonna tackle this final hurdle tonight.
05/06/11, 16:51   
@Zero
It IS sloppy! I even thought so when I was a kid!
05/06/11, 17:21   
@Anand I know! I never really liked this game as a kid either. Everything felt... off. Especially the controls. Of course, this was true of a lot of NES games. But yeah, wasn't really a fan, giving it a second chance now, still not a fan.

BTW guys, I just realized something. We should do Castlevania 3 in one of these retro game clubs. Might inspire me to actually finnish it...
05/06/11, 22:33   
I'm officially in the level 6 grind! That's farther than I've ever gotten in Ninja Gaiden before, so that feels like an accomplishment in itself.
05/06/11, 22:42   
What exactly is sloppy about the controls? I find them quite good actually.

Edit: beat ya by a millisecond
05/06/11, 22:45   
Edited: 05/06/11, 22:46
@Zero

Funny, I've always felt that the thing the game did very right was the controls. It is the things you can't control that are problematic.
05/06/11, 22:45   
Edited: 05/06/11, 22:46
@chrisbg99@anon_mastermind

Me three. To me, this game controls more or less like Castlevania. Nothing wrong with that.
05/06/11, 22:51   
Zero said:
Might inspire me to actually finnish it...
Dude, it's already been done.
05/06/11, 22:57   
Edited: 05/06/11, 22:57
Honestly, the only "bad" thing I find about this game is that it's balls-hard. It fucks you over, on purpose. But some people do like that, and personally I like mastering a stage and knowing exactly what to do. Everything else is golden. Fun action platforming with great music, nice graphics and cut-scenes. Probably could be a bit longer but it's so hard that completing the NES cartridge in a single sitting could take a while and many probably never did.
05/06/11, 22:58   
Well peeps, I'm at 6-3 now, but I'm having trouble with the third screen.

Also, I'm dreading the boss killing me to take me back to 6-1 so....

I looked ahead to see how to defeat the boss so I don't have to go through the trouble of 6-2 again. Am I a bad person for that?
05/06/11, 22:59   
I agree that the controls are quite good and a lot more fluid than most NES games. I don't think the game as a whole is sloppy either, but the glitches do get in the way of the experience, notably the ridiculous respawning (probably the worst I've seen in a game) and insane knockback.
05/06/11, 23:10   
@Zero Especially the controls? How so? I think Ninja Gaiden has some of the best controls of any NES game ever. I'd take it over Castlevania's slow clunkiness any day.

@Paleo_Orca I don't blame you for that
05/06/11, 23:11   
  Forum main
 +