Clinically Wiitarded: Retro Review - Ninja Gaiden (NES)
by Mr. Death
(Asked Link if he could do a review.)
Ninja Gaiden on the NES is considered one of the all time best games ever! I’d have to say it is probably one of the best games on the NES. It was groundbreaking at the time for it’s use of cinematic cut scenes and it’s deep (well, as deep as you can get on the NES) storyline. Plus the gameplay is good, if a bit hard. But does the game still hold up today? Well, yes!
Story: You are Ryu Hayabusa. Your father left to go duel somebody. In the letter he leaves you, he tells you that if he does not return, you are to go to America and seek out Walter Smith. Ryu does this, but when he gets there, he is drugged and kidnapped by a CIA agent. When he comes to, he is given a statue and is sent on his merry way. He finds Walter, who tells him the statue is EVIL! But it is then stolen. Ryu goes and gets it, but when he comes back, somebody kills Walter. Then the CIA come and tell him he must go to the Amazon. Will he be able to stop the statues from bringing back the evil demon Jashin? Well, only if you can survive this hard game!
Gameplay: The controls in this game are really great! Ryu is very easy to control, which is good because there are a lot of tricky jumps and such in this game. But some of the jumps can seem a little stiff. Most enemies (except the bosses) aren’t to difficult to kill (except those damn birds! I hate those guys!). Some of them, however, have this cheap little system where if they hit you once, they will keep repetitively hitting you without giving you a chance to fight back. The bosses themselves are fun to fight against. But let me tell you, this game is hard! If you have little patience, this is NOT the game for you, as you will die, die, die, die, and die again! Luckily with the Virtual Console you can pause the game, turn off your Wii, and then start the game directly from the point you left off. And it has unlimited continues. But even so, sometimes the difficulty can get on your nerves.
Graphics: It’s always hard for me to rate NES graphics because they are all really similar, but for the time, the graphics were really good. You can tell what everything is, there are no characters where you wonder “What the hell is that thing?” The stages are vibrant enough and you can always tell what is safe to land on and what is not. Thats really about it. They are good.
Audio: Very memorable soundtrack! Everything is really clear and there are no tunes that you just get sick of hearing (well, except the death tune, but just because of the shear repetitiveness of it). It is in no way the greatest soundtrack out there, but it is fitting for the environment and will leave you humming some of the tunes for the rest of the day.
Overall: Ninja Gaiden is a beloved series, and for a great reason! The controls are great, except the occasional stiff jump, the bosses are fun, the levels are fun to travel through, the graphics are good, the music is memorable, what more could you want? The difficulty can be a little over the top sometimes, and some of the enemies only need one hit to take you down, but it is still a fun game with a high replay value. Overall, Ninja Gaiden gets a much deserved 8.5 out of 10.
Short Version
Pros:
- Levels that are fun to navigate through
- Deep storyline
- High replay value
- Fun Bosses
- Great soundtrack
Cons:
- Some annoying enemies (god damned birds…)
- High difficulty
- Occasional stiff jump
Score: 8.5
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