Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ninja Gaiden - Unlockable Classics, Difficulty Worries?

Posted by simoniker on from the the-new-animal-crossing dept.

Thanks to IGN Xbox for their hands-on look at Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, as the eagerly-awaited ninja action title got an updated showing at the Tokyo Game Show. As well as what GameSpy call the "beautiful and frenetic action" of the main game, the developers showed off the NES Ninja Gaiden games that were recently announced as unlockable features, found "...hidden inside of a random chest. After finding it, series creator Tomonobu Itagaki directed us to a rundown arcade cabinet in the corner of the [in-game] room. Suddenly... we were playing the original Ninja Gaiden in all its 8-bit glory." Intriguingly, Itagaki was concerned that the new Ninja Gaiden was too easy, and "...said many Japanese gamers don't really like challenging games, and that he wanted to make sure the American fans were pleased and found the game challenging enough."

1 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Original Ninja Gaiden by MilenCent · · Score: 2, Informative

    First, "Ninja Gaiden" is actually the name of two different games produced by the same company. It was originally an arcade port (a brawler, I believe), but Tecmo created a game with the same name but mostly different content for the NES. This is not the first time this has happened: the original Rygar and Astanynax were also arcade games with little to do with their NES counterparts. (But I admit, my memory is a little fuzzy concerning these.) The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden eventually got a port for the Atari Lynx, but because of the massive installed base for the system and its pioneering use of "cinema scenes," e.g. cut scenes, most people remember the NES version now.

    I'll admit to having played through both Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden 2. (The last game was 3, at which time the company announced it'd be the last game.) At the time I played them eagerly, and beat them both on a single rental. Now, I have to admit, I consider them poor imitations of Castlevania. They both have the same side-scrolling, stage-oriented, hit-candles-for-stuff, sub-weapon-based, boss-infested gameplay. Castlevania was a much slower (though just as hard) game, but at least when you took a hit you could see how it was your fault. Latching onto some of those wall things in NG really annoys me to this day.

    The first Ninja Gaiden game is incredibly annoying in places, and the second isn't much easier. I think I remember them making improvements to the core game as the series progressed to try to limit the annoyance factor. But I have to say, I still regularly play the original Castlevania and Castlevania III, and have gotten to where I can beat it on one credit, but I'm not similarly taken with the NG games.