This August, I decided to address a serious problem in my
reviews: the lack of Ninjas. Sure I’ve presented games with Ninjas in them, but
they were often character options or of the Turtle variety. I feel like talking
about games where the focus is to play as a ninja. It’s like instant awesome
for your game console (just ask TV Tropes). With the amount of ninja games
available, I decided to limit myself to 8-Bit systems. I’ll start with the most
obvious one since, when you think about 8-bit ninja games, you think about Tecmo’s
Ninja Gaiden series. So to start of 8-bit Ninja month *GONG * we have Ninja
Gaiden 2 : The Dark Sword of Chaos for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
You guys all know I’m going to eventually say it, so I might
as well get this point out of the way right now: the Ninja Gaiden games are hard and this game
is not an exception. But it’s a good kind of hard with a nice difficulty curve
and no sudden spike in the challenge. You just have to constantly keep an eye
out, have sharp reflexes and be prepared to handle any situation.
However, this is not the only thing the Ninja Gaiden series
is known for: there is also the wall jump ability. I talked before about how
awesome I think this skill is. Tecmo knew they had gold here, so many
platforming areas rely on it. New to this game is the ability to climb up and
down after clinging to a wall, which I’m not sure if I like or not. On the one
hand, it allows you make adjustments and in some cases it allows for level
layouts otherwise impossible. On the other hand, it eliminates the challenge of
having to be precise with your jumps. It also made it so that you have to climb
up or down a ladder at some point to move to the next screen, but if you jump
down instead, even if you are right next to the ladder, it counts as a pit fall
death.
All this excellent game play goes well with the level
designs. Most levels have stage hazards (things like blowing wind, slippery
ice, random darkness, etc…). These do a good job of building on the game play
to offer a new challenge, but never change the game enough that it feels like
something completely different. I do have a nit-pick that pausing at the right
time can get around some of these hazards, which seems like bad programming to
me.
And other than that, all I can say is that you have
unlimited continues, so try, try again.
On a technical level, this game is AWESOME. It took me a
while to figure out why the graphics look so different than other NES games,
but it’s because, unlike games like Mario or Zelda, the Ninja Gaiden sprites
are actually well proportioned (no big head). Ryu Hayabusa (the player
character) is colored with a bright blue costume and oddly reddish outline, and
since some of the enemies have a slight inhuman quality to them and most of
them are washed out in dark colors, it makes a great visual contrast between
good and bad. The cut scenes are really good too. It’s on the NES, so the
animation looks like moving carboard cut outs, but there was a lot of effort
put into making the characters as well detailed as possible.
The music in the game kicks ASS and gets the blood going. It
fits the game perfectly: you’re a ninja on a mission, obstacles will get in
your way, but you will get past them. Mystical and dark elements are felt in it
too and you have to be serious. It’s all just well composed.
Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos is one
of those games that really lives up to its legacy. It’s fun, it’s hard, it’s
really well made, it kicks ass and it will kick your ass. Sadly, I hesitate to
give it a perfect score, as when I thought about it critically, there are a few
things I would say are wrong with it: enemies repeatedly spawn if near the edge
of the screen, if you lose ONE life on a boss, you have to redo its level, and
then there’s that pause cheat and the ladder/pit annoyances I mentioned
earlier. These are minor nit-picks however to an overall great gaming
experience. Though I haven’t played through the entire NES trilogy, I feel as
if it’s safe to say you need one of the Ninja Gaiden games if you have an NES.
This particular one is said to be the easiest (as I think more can people beat
it), but it still has a big challenge. I give Ninja Gaiden 2: the Dark Sword of
Chaos for the NES 9.5 levels out of 10.
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