This is not Ninja Gaiden. It's slow, boring and forgettable.
.This is the first Ninja Gaiden game ever
.Two player co-op
.Pretty visuals
.Best game over screen ever
The bad:
.Combat is slow, shallow and sometimes isn't very responsive
.Enemies become cheap, killing you in one hit later in the game
.Music is forgettable
.Everything is so slow
.Platforming is bad
Ninja Gaiden. I'm a pretty hardcore fan of the series. I can beat the original NES without getting a game over and beat the Xbox game on it's hardest difficultly. Those games are awesome because they're fast-paced, have extremely satisfying combat, smooth control and are challenging without being cheap. The arcade game that started the franchise, though, is rubbish. Combat is shallow and slow and everything is really forgettable. The reason why I even have this on my Wii was to see where it all began. Boy, was I surely disappointed.
The story for the game is well….. there isn't any. All that happens is you get a cutscene of Ryu, of whom I believe, killing a Jason Voorhees look alike and once you press start, it says NINJA IN USA and that's it. Story elements are not the residual strong point of the game, unlike its NES counterpart, which is far superior but games don't need story to be good, how about the gameplay. Ninja Gaiden games always have outstanding gameplay, right? Right?
Well, gameplay wise, it's a beat-em-up, kinda like Double Dragon or Final Fight. Sadly though, where those games had some depth to combat, this game only has about 4 attacks. 2 of them, you need either a horizontal pole or a special item to use your sword. All you can really do is punch and kick (which are the same attack) and do the Guillotine Throw (you know, like the Xbox games?) The enemies aren't really that hard, but from how much damage they can do and the range of their attack, it can become real hard and crosses into cheap territory, which in my case, rarely happens in a game. Luckily, you can share the pain with a friend, but surprisingly, the game becomes much easier with a friend. Enemies don't stack up in numbers and it helps having a friend. Unfortunately, your partner has the same moves as you and thanks to shallow combat, it isn't that fun. Sure, Double Dragon had both players have the same moves, but combat was awesome and had much more depth to it. It doesn't help that you move at the pace of a snail on sleeping pills, either. Ryu moves very slowly and the levels feel much longer than they actually are. There's even a couple of platforming sections to break the pace up. Sadly, this does little since platforming requires split second timing and at times, the control is unresponsive and doesn't grab what you need to make it across and you end up dieing. Speaking of dieing, this what people remember the game for. It's one of the greatest game over screens I've ever seen. A bunch of demonic faces looks down upon Ryu as he's strapped to a table while a saw blade is coming down to rip his chest in half. So awesome. Even with that, gameplay just falls flat on it's face due to boring and shallow combat, poor platforming and its slow pace.
The graphics are the strongest point of the game though, to make up for the horrendous gameplay. Colors are vibrant, enemies designs are good, environments are varied and animation on sprites is decent. When hitting enemies into certain objects, you do get to see them actually crash into it and it explodes and it's kinda cool. The only real complaint I have are the cutscenes after every level. Ryu's always in some sort of weird situation, whether he's at a bar or at a casino, Ryu seems a bit off. I don't know, he just looks kinda weird. Maybe it's an anatomy problem I see, but I don't know. Other than that, no complaints visually.
Sound is fairly decent. The music is extremely forgettable, which is a major disappointment. Ninja Gaiden music always sounded great, had some really great tunes and even those that are, well, rememberable. Not the case with the arcade game. The soundtrack feels weak and kinda tinny at times and while fits the mood, isn't catchy by any means. The sound of things breaking and punching people all sounds pretty decent and even the saw blade at the game over screen is decent. It's weird that Ryu just says "Ooo!' when he gets hit, though.
Overall, Ninja Gaiden on the arcade is mediocre at best. While it did start a fantastic franchise that personally one of my favorites of all time, this was lousy. With slow and shallow gameplay, forgettable soundtrack and extreme difficulty (even for a Ninja Gaiden game), it soured the deal for me. I will admit, I never actually beat the game, but I manage to get to the final boss and thanks to one hit kills on the final level, it's near impossible to actually beat him. It doesn't help that your attacks barely do anything and he's like Sonic the Hedgehog with his speed compared to Ryu's. There's a lot of better arcade games out there, like TMNT, Double Dragon, Final Fight, NINJA BASEBALL BATMAN. There are tons better than Ninja Gaiden.
Overall: 5.1/10