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)

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU---

@Paleo_Orca

Heh. I'm resigned. And really, playing for the retro club is the only way I'm ever gonna finish this game, which I already bought long ago on the VC, so this could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Show of hands, who will be playing along?

That's right bitches.

I'll start it tomorrow. I dont think I ever made it past the third stage

Fuck yeah, I'll play along. I've just got to hook up my NES, and I'll be raring to go I may even pick up the arcade game from the Virtual Console, if I feel so inclined.

Geeze I don't know. I bought Star Tropics & Wonder Boy with the express intention of playing along. And I barely got more than a couple of hours in on both before being distracted by other things.

With a game of this reputation, how long would it be until I allow myself to be distracted again?

Fuck all of you evil whores.

Downloading now.

Actually the funny thing is I have the cartridge. One of the 7 NES cartridges I still have. But it wasn't mine, it was my cousin's, he gave it to me a few years back when he was cleaning his room to move out.

But what I don't have is a working NES.

Actually maybe not downloading quite yet, I want to stick with Wonder Boy for now.

I've got the NES cart version I might, if I am feeling like torturing myself, join in.

In stage 2-2 now; I had my first death in 2-1, when I jumped over a bottomless pit to the ladder slightly too soon, and just missed catching onto it.

EDIT: Had to use my first continue in stage 4-3. I'm a little out of practice, as I've not really played the game since beating it in 2008, but I'm doing pretty well so far

EDIT2: The furthest I ever got in this game without dying, by the way, was to Act 5-2. I'm definitely not doing that well right now, but I'll be fine since there are infinite continues

EDIT3: Continued again in 5-1; I used all three lives here! Damn, I'm really out of shape

EDIT: Continued again in 5-3.

EDIT: I'm at Act 6-1 now. Here's where the really tough part begins.

EDIT6: Used a continue in 6-2.

EDIT7: Used another continue in 6-2.

EDIT8: Guess where I used another continue?

EDIT9: Ditto.

EDIT10: I finally remembered how to get past that one asshole jump in particular. I'm in 6-3 now, where I used a continue.

EDIT11: Used another continue in 6-3.

EDIT12: Beat the first of the three bosses in one go. I died to Jaquio though, and now I'm gonna try and go through 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3 again.

EDIT13: Used my tenth continue in 6-3.

EDIT14: Another continue in 6-3.

EDIT15: 12th continue in 6-3.

EDIT16: Beat Jaquio, but died to the final boss. I'm ready to kick his ass though. I just need to go through 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3 again.

EDIT17: 13th continue in 6-2.

EDIT18: Ugh, I made it to the final boss with only 4 health, so I died in two hits I have to go through 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3 again.

EDIT19: 14th continue in 6-2.

EDIT20: He had one fucking hit point and I died! Time to run the gauntlet, once more.

EDIT21: 15th continue in 6-2.

EDIT22: BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

EDIt23: 16th continue in 6-2.

EDIT24: 17th continue in 6-2.

EDIT25:

THE END


THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.
AND SEE YOU NEXT.
TECMO



No, it is I who should thank you Tecmo.
KURT


10/10

@X-pert74

Wow.

Well, that was fun. Time to put up another poll, maybe we can choose the next game before tonight.

@X-pert74

You're a jerk.

NINJA GAIDEN! YES!!! Time to bust out my hardc0re skillz.


@X-pert74
Awesome!

Already done with this one (again). Now back to Wonder Boy...

@ludist210

Geez, you too? You just played through it again?

This is kind of what I meant when I said I was disappointed with Ninja Gaiden being a choice in the poll. It's not obscure at all, everyone who's not me has already mastered it!

I haven't mastered it, either Guillaume. I've got a take home exam this weekend, but I'll try to find some time for it.

Sons of bitches.

When you actually look at the story of the NG trilogy, it's like a whole mess of WTF. But the storytelling was groundbreaking. Also, I love the music in this franchise. The pain of dying is always slightly ameliorated by that toe-tapping death jingle. I was so happy when Team Ninja brought back the Stage Complete music in Ninja Gaiden DS.

@Guillaume I don't think I've ever played past 2-2 or so in the past. Never really got into this game.

Finding it tough to get into it now. Enemies appear from nowhere!!!

This is like THE classic impossible game. Kudos to those of you who can beat it. You have more skills than I.

@kriswright

Play along with us!

Forgive me for my ignorance, but how do these threads work? Is the idea just to play the game a bit and then discuss it? Or are we racing each other?

I've got this one on both cart and VC and I'm down for playing a little Gaiden when I have the chance. Sure.

Yeah, we discuss, wherever it leads us. The first one about StarTropics was mostly about how weird the game is and how stupid we were to not play it back in the day.

The second was mostly about what a pleasant surprise Wonder Boy was, and bitching about the difficulty of Adventure Island.

I have a feeling this discussion will be mostly bitching, save for the occasional post from someone with a massive e-dong bragging about beating the game in little over an hour, before anyone else even got started.