Another tyrant has surfaced in the West and subjugated it, thus obligating Ryu Hayabusa to go on yet another quest of covert retribution. This is the plot of this game in a nutshell.
(It is worth nothing that this game was supposed to be a port of the NES game Shadow of the Ninja, which this reviewer has played and reviewed.)
With the forgettable intro aside, the player is then trust into the game - which isn't really pretty to look at, if the NES Ninja Gaiden games are to be used as comparisons.
Ryu, being the protagonist, has the benefit of having the greatest number of animation frames compared to other in-game models, though some frames look really odd, such as the ones used for his injury animations where he, inappropriately enough, appears to kneel in remorse whenever he takes damage. Furthermore, his weapon attacks do not seem very impressive, such as his ranged, conical attack which this reviewer cannot ascertain whether it consists of shuriken or fireballs.
The regular enemies in the game are less animated, with few frames reserved for tell-tale signs of an impending attack. As such, the player will have to spend some time behind cover to observe their firing rates as well as patterns, thus slowing down the pace of the game a little more than it should be. Furthermore, it won't take long for the player to notice that most enemies have turret-like behaviours, in addition to being robotic or mechanical.
The bosses, on the other hand, are an impressive bunch to look at as well as enjoyable opponents to defeat. For example, early on in the game, Ryu Hayabusa have to tackle a pair of individuals, one being a brute that denies the lower level of the screen to the player and the other serves as a harasser.
When not fending off enemies, much of the gameplay in the game has Ryu doing platforming busywork. The level design is competent and fun enough, if rather generic for platforming games of the time: there are segments where Ryu has to perform a series of jumps and vaults to survive the oft-used lava-rising scenario, escaping an Indiana-Jones-boulder situation and sloughing through conveyor belts that just have to revolve in the opposing direction.
However, this reviewer notices that certain models of platforms are repeated throughout the game regardless of the theme of the level, if only to tell the player that Ryu can perform certain actions on said platform, such as hanging from it and/or vaulting onto or below it. It helps the player to know what to do to progress, but it certainly does detract somewhat from the theme of the current level.
The audio is the most flawless aspect of the game, and helps to compensate for other aspects of the game that are below average. There are none of the grating noises usually heard in GameBoy games of the time. Every swish of Ryu's sword is subtly audible, there is an impact to be heard whenever he lands on or clings to any platform and all of the bosses have audio clips unique to them.
In conclusion, while this game does stay somewhat true to the Ninja Gaiden theme, whether it deserves a place within the Ninja Gaiden IP or not is plenty debatable no thanks to its less than impressive gameplay.