Collection essentials #89: Ninja Gaiden (NES)

Originally, Ninja Gaiden was an arcade game, but rather than simply bring that game to the NES, Tecmo decided to build an entirely new game from the ground-up, tailored for the console, and it paid off. 

Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling action platformer that takes place across a series of linear levels. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja armed with a sword, the ability to cling to walls, and to use power-ups that you find throughout the levels which grant strong and important attacks with a limited number of uses. The controls are tight and the game just feels good to play. And what is perhaps most notable about this game are the cutscenes in between areas. Previously, the stories in most NES action games were pretty simplistic, and sometimes not even mentioned in the game itself, only the instruction manual. But Ninja Gaiden takes things to the next level in making the story an integral part of the experience, as you guide Ryu to get revenge against those responsible for his father’s death. Not only does Ninja Gaiden have cutscenes, but they aren’t done with the game’s normal character graphics. Instead, you get to view the story events played out with large, specially-drawn anime-style illustrations of the characters with the dialogue written out below (since the NES can’t do much in terms of human voices). It was groundbreaking for the time, and still looks cool now.

What Ninja Gaiden is equally known for is its difficulty. And indeed, it’s a very challenging game. It does ease you into it a bit, at least, as the first couple levels aren’t that tough. But pretty soon, swarms of enemies will unleash an onslaught that is difficult to get through. If you kill an enemy, but back up even a little bit and return to where you were, you’ll find that the same enemy has reappeared, making your kill worthless. Ryu does have a life bar so he can take multiple hits, but there are many places with bottomless pits that you can rather easily get knocked into for an instant death.

For the most part, I actually don’t mind the high difficulty. In fact, I welcome a good challenge. And, in fact, you’re given infinite continues, so as long as you keep the game powered on you’ll never be kicked back to the very beginning. But there is one particularly egregious thing about Ninja Gaiden’s difficulty that does cross the line a bit, that being the final boss. I don’t mind the final boss being really hard per se, but the problem is that if you die, even once, EVEN if you have extra lives in reserve, you get booted SEVERAL levels back. This means that, if you’re approaching the room to the final boss encounter and you have an extra life but your health bar is low, the best course of action is literally to DIE ON PURPOSE so you can have a full health bar with your next life. It’s so backwards. The game is very, very, very tough to beat without cheating because of this one thing.

So if you’re the type that really has to beat a game to be satisfied, be warned. But that doesn’t ruin the game by any means. It’s still a wonderful game and a must-play if you enjoy these types of action games, provided you don’t stink at them. If you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, you can go and play this game on there for free right now (I’ve been neglecting to mention modern ways to play these games lately…oh well).