In Ninja Gaiden

Game of the Week 38/2007 (week from 2006/09/18-25)

Ninja Gaiden.

Japanese title is "Ninja Ryuukenden" (忍者龍剣伝).
"The original Ninja Gaiden, a platformer, was released in Japan on December 9, 1988, in the United States in March, 1989, and in Europe on August 15, 1991. A ninja named Ryu Hayabusa finds a letter by his recently missing father, Ken, telling him to go to America and and meet with an archaeologist Dr. Smith, Smith tells Ryu that 2 statutes hidden by Ryu's father and the doctor have the POWer to end the world if united. Ryu eventually ends up in South America battling Jaquio, the evil mastermind responsible for the attack on Ken Hayabusa."
Wow, wonderful story. ...
Read more on .

I tried that game only on emulators and I must admit it's too tough for me.

I know some of you guys love that game, so here it is as Game of the Week.
Post everything you like. Your hints, cheats, walkthroughs, recorded videogames of your speedrun (or links to other people's speedruns if there are such),...
From me you get Japanese and US boxart and stuff, like every week.

Japanese cart and box:


US version cart and box:


Now fight... no, discuss.

Ouch.
Like you, Manuel, this one is very tough for me. I think the closest I ever got to finishing it was the confrontation with the end boss, and I just couldn't take him down. (Or it, as I remember, it was some sort of multi-armed monster or something, or maybe I'm thinking of another game).
The storyline idea really impressed me when this game was new, of course most every game has something like this now. But this was the first one I ever played to include this type of thing. I was very impressed with that addition.
Overall, I like this game, but it's just difficult. I return to it every now and again, it's another on the "one of these days I'll finish it" list. I also own the cart of this, as well as the NES ROM. I've got all the sequels on NES ROM, and I haven't tried them yet. I'd like to finish the first one before I try those!

For me, this is another one on the "I'll NEVER finish this one of these days" list. I can do fine sprinting through the first few levels, but then I die. Period.

I always liked the way it looked. The way Ryu ran, his sword, the little "HA!" thing whenever he swings, it blew me away the first time I played it. My gaming experiences previous to it were Mario, Tecmo Bowl, Mario Brothers 1 and 3, 1942, Stealth, Pinball, and hours and hours of Trog. It had a totally different look and feel that I hadn't seen yet.

:D :D :D

Yeah, here we go. My favorite NES game ever... GREAT choice Manuel ;)

Where do I begin? This game is just absolutely perfect IMO. As stated already, the story is great. I love the way that the music fits the mood of what's going on in the cinema screen at all the appropriate times. Memorable characters are in the game as well. I liked the way they tied in Malth and Ryu's father together as the ones that battled.

I honestly can't tell you about the first time I ever played this game, but I do remember being blown away... I couldn't even get to the second boss that very first time I played haha Wow, that was a long time ago. I played it so often before that I could get through the game without dying, which I think is a pretty good accomplishment. I've been playing it more lately now because I need to re-record my VirtuaNES movie of it... I did HORRIBLE on that run. I'm going to get a no-death run up whenever I get my retrousb NES controller in the mail.

This game is pretty tough, but if you keep playing it you'll soon be able to play in patterns. After that you get bored with the patterns and start trying new stuff. Like just recently I started learning to get to Bloody Malth with the spin attack. I usually just ran up to him and swung, but I'd like to beat him without getting hit ;)

Also, this is one of those occassions that I like the artwork we got in North America moreso than the Japanese artwork. The Japanese cover and cart looks a bit too drab to me.

To be true, this one was especially for you, Roth.

Please make sure to post that speedrun here. I'm looking forward to it.

Being the MAME fan that I am, I discovered there's an arcade NES ROM of Ninja Gaiden. I thought it was a NES-only game! Unfortunately, it was missing too many files (bad dump).
Anyway, has anyone played the arcade version, and was it better/same/worse than the NES one? And no, this wasn't the Playchoice 10 NES ROM.

To be true, this one was especially for you, Roth. :o

Please make sure to post that speedrun here. I'm looking forward to it.

hehe, thanks! But it won't be a speed run, just a no-death run... as long as everything goes right.


Being the MAME fan that I am, I discovered there's an arcade NES ROM of Ninja Gaiden. I thought it was a NES-only game! Unfortunately, it was missing too many files (bad dump).
Anyway, has anyone played the arcade version, and was it better/same/worse than the NES one? And no, this wasn't the Playchoice 10 NES ROM.

First off, I can almost asure you that it's the emulator that is broken. Luke had the same problem and couldn't get the game to run. I could, however. After checking, we had different versions of MAME. I guess they accidentally break alot of games when they update MAME... one of the reasons I stopped using it, and don't really play many of them anymore.

The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden isn't that great. It's a beat-em-up actually. I really didn't like it. If you want to play other versions of Ninja Gaiden though, there are a few out there. Over in Europe they released a version of Ninja Gaiden on the SMS. It's a totally different game, but it's still really good. I made sure to get a copy of it (CIB), as there's no regional lock-out on the SMS ;)

There's a Game Gear version as well. Short and easy, but not TOO bad... not too great either. Game Boy had Ninja Gaiden Shadow, which actually plays like Shadow of the Ninja (NES). I used to own it years ago, and remember thinking it was pretty decent. The TG-16 had almost a direct port of what was on the NES (or Vice versa, I've never checked release dates between the two). The TG-16 version is pretty good, but the main problem with it is the music is totally different... I feel like it doesn't match the game too well.

A little bit off the actual subject, but the Lynx had NG III. I can't recall what it was like though. Also, I almost think there was a Genesis version, but I can't really remember right now.

I'm in the same boat as Newb, i really enjoy it for the levels I can actually beat, then, I just die. Music is great too, it's probably my favourite out of the trilogy.

Well, I got the arcade version to work. I just didn't have the parent NES ROM.
And I have to agree with you, Roth. It's not even the same name (it says Shadow Warriors in the title screen), and you're fighting a bunch of what look like....hockey players?
No. The .zip of it went into the recycle bin. I'm sticking with the good 'ol NES version, even though I still can't beat it!

I've not played Ninja Gaiden much (didn't really click with me) so can't comment on it really, but I thought I'd mention the name change in Europe. It was renamed Shadow Warriors apparently because of the 1980's censors dislike of the word 'ninja' (see Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and others). What I find funny about this is that 'Ninja Gaiden' is still written on the box directly below 'Shadow Warriors', making the whole name change pointless!

Hmmm...

I don't recall fighting that giant pixelated "X" on the game before.

But yeah, 'Ninja Gaiden' is one of the bestest ever NES Games.

Dammit! It shows up on mine... can anyone else see it?

i see a big X too.

For anyone seeing an X, just copy the web address of it and paste it in another window. Hit Go, then Refresh. You should be fine after that.

you know, i tried that last night and it didn't work, but just now it did.

Helps if you're not a hotlinker.

I 'shacked it, works now.

WHoops. Completely forgot about rehosting it. I'll shack the other one, too.

This game rocks, and it’s so tough. It’s a game I bought back when it first came out. I didn’t conquer it until just recently.
Minor SPOILER about the last boss…I could defeat the first form without any problem at all, it’s the second one that had always given me trouble. I could not for the life of me dodge those curving fireballs consistently. I decided to take him on using that spinning slash technique, and it worked so amazingly well-I jumped through him 2 times, and he was dead. The last form was luckily beaten on that same life. <END SPOILER>

I suppose I should have taken more interest in the storyline. Whenever the cinema stuff would come up, I would always skip it to get back to the game play. By the time I had made it to the end, I had no idea who the people were that were being talked about.

My 2 most annoying things in that game were 1) the birds, which would always come at you at the wrong times which is probably just good level design, 2) the way you fly backwards after taking a hit and it always happens when you have no platform to land on.

I loved all the ninja weapons, and the great play control in that one though. I like launching the orange ninja star, which comes back to you, and then I keep jumping to avoid it so that it keeps going back & forth around me.