Review: Ninja Gaiden

Ask ten people what the hardest game they've ever played is. Chances are more than half of them will say Ninja Gaiden. This game was massively popular when I was a kid, and was a frequent Friday night rental. It was only as an adult that I could appreciate how challenging this game can be. At the same time, being older and wiser has allowed me to see how well this game was designed, all the way back in 1989.

STORY

Yeah. Girls aren't allowed to play Ninjas. 

Before Ninja Gaiden, games rarely had any focus on story. Maybe you got a hint of a backstory in the game's manual, but very few plot points were ever delivered in-game. Ninja Gaiden changed all that. Your primary motivation is to avenge the death of your father. But after beating each level, you're treated to one of these beautifully directed cutscenes which dished out twist after turn almost flawlessly. 

Not only did these story segments look incredible for the time, but the script was actually translated properly into English. It's not Shakespeare, but its certainly light years away from "All Your Base Are Belong to Us!" Not a single example of Engrish in the entire game. Very impressed.

The story is indeed one of the coolest things about Ninja Gaiden, it's unfortunate that it's buried in our memories under the relentless difficulty.

GAMEPLAY

F those eagles, man. F em. 

Ninja Gaiden shows incredible precision in game design. Everything you do feels immidiately responsive and reactive. Your sword is quick and deadly. Your jumps land exactly where you want them, and special moves and projectile weapons work with the basic mechanics to create a beautiful harmony of elegant gameplay. 

The difficulty curve is fairly sharp, however. After the first level of introducing the player to the basic mechanics of the game, you are then subjected to the two biggest flaws in this game's design: 

1) Respawning enemies

2) Bottomless pit deaths

These two flaws work in tandem to ruin your entire life. Let me explain. 

Every enemy in this game has a spawn point - a specific location where it will appear. If you kill that enemy, move away and then come back to that same point, it will reappear - over and over again to infinity. This is particularly infuriating when you are near a bottomless pit, think you've killed something, take a step back to get up to jumping speed and are killed by by bumping into the stupid thing which you've already killed. 

To beat this game, you have to know exactly what you're doing at all times. No hesitations, no second guesses. You have to be 100% confident and make no mistakes. In a way, that adds to the mystique of the experience. Everyone has heard that training to become an actual Ninja is one of the hardest things any human can do - so why not make a game about a Ninja extremely demanding on the players reflexes and responses? 

When you do master everything and blow through a level like nobody's business, there isn't quite a better feeling. The word accomplishment doesn't even begin to capture the feeling of beating this game and mastering its devilish levels. It was hard as hell, and I loved every second of it. 

PRESENTATION

 Comin to getchu, son.

The actual in-game graphics aren't anything to write home about. Merit must be awarded for the game running smoothly for the entire length, with little frame rate dips or disappearing sprites. But overall, it's not anything that you hadn't seen before on the NES. 

 But the story cutscenes are where it was at. Back in the NES days, graphics were king. If you bought a game with sweet-ass pixels, all your friends were totally jealous. And any friend who saw Ninja Gaiden's beautifully detailed and film-noire inspired cutscenes in your console would surely be eating a piece of the old humble pie.

STUFF I LOVED: 

• Insane story-based cutscenes. Revolutionary for the time, and still impressive today. 
• Pitch perfect control. Ryu always moved exactly where you wanted him to. 
• Feeling of absolute accomplishment when you do everything right and beat it once and for all.    

STUFF I HATED:

• BRUTAL difficulty. While it did make you feel good for beating it, there were MANY spiked controllers on the way to the final screen. 
• Cheap deaths and respawning enemies. It's just not fair.

In the end, I am probably most proud to have this one on my "Finished" pile. It's a badge of honor I can wear with my nerd friends and to be able to finally tell them that I beat Ninja Gaiden.

Review in Ten Words or Less: 
Perfect gameplay. Brutal difficulty. Awesome story.