Ninja Gaiden

I'm continuing on the Nintendo Entertainment System and today I've moved onto a more iconic game: Ninja Gaiden.  Developed and published by Tecmo, Ninja Gaiden was released in December of 1988.  Now this one isn't the same as the one for the current generation of systems, it can easily be argued that the original Ninja Gaiden is more difficult.  On the newer version, the difficulty spawns from the absurd number of enemies, the original is difficult due to well placed enemies that require precision in both jumps and slashes to survive.

Ninja Gaiden's story is what sets it apart from games on the NES, it's cut scenes give no question to what's going on.  The story actually begins in the pre-game preview, you see two ninjas dart at each other in a field, jump into the air and trade blows before one falls.  The scene continues from Ryu Hayabusa's view point where he is determined for revenge against the ninja his father dueled and lost to.

So the first act is very straight forward, you are running down a street with enemies in from of you, it's just a matter of learning the controls are you'll be fine.  The game is very kind as it teaches you to climb by jumping between walls, gives you the different secondary weapons to try out (throwing stars, windmill throwing stars that boomerang back to you, upwards fireballs, and the spin jump).  None of the enemies are all too difficult: the dog is the worst.  The dog runs towards you in a full charge and usually comes from behind so you actually have to turn around.  The most difficult part of the level is right before you enter the bar for the boss fight, there are two boxers guarding it and a dog charges from behind you; it is very easy to get knocked between the two boxers by the dog and take a bit of damage before fighting the boss.  The boss himself isn't hard at all, he actually has less range then you.  As he moves forwards slowly, you slash him, take a few steps back and continue and he's done before you know it.

The act ends with a cut scene where Ryu is trying to figure out why these people are following him.  He notices a woman behind him and ignores her, but she is not one to be ignored and shoots him.  Ouch.  The next scene starts with you realizing that it was a tranquilizer and Ryu was captured, but the same girl releases him, gives him this ugly statue and tells him to escape.  And so the game continues. 

The second act begins with Ryu escaping from the warehouse he was held in.  I started moving and the game begins to lose it's compassion.  I moved through the first area rather easily and climbed the later to the second part of the level, but a dog ran up behind me and I took my first hit of the act, and got knocked into a bottomless pit and died.  That is how this game really makes itself difficult, a miss-timed jump or taking the wrong hit knocks you back and down a life.  It isn't as bad until you actually get outside where the level becomes entirely platforming.  There is no more straight running, you jump from crumbled pillar to crumbled pillar hoping to not be take out by the machine gunner or the running ninja or the dagger juggler. 

The game doesn't completely hate you yet, as it does give you an invincibility flame shield to let you make it through one of the harder sections where almost every pillar has an enemy on it, but the section after that requires more timing and precision.  As you get to the second boss, he's more difficult then the first (but considering how dull the first was, you can't expect much worse).  This guy has a sickle and chain that he spins around his head while moving forwards, then he throws his arm out to try and hit you when he's close.  He's vulnerable as he moves forwards so swipe at him then, but you have to make sure to try and jump over him off the wall when he attacks. 

And so I am going to stop writing at that point (though I continued into the next two acts before biting the dust).  I'll move to another Nintendo game tomorrow and continue with this current trend.  Adios for today though.