Developer: Tecmo Publisher: Hudson Soft Released: January 24, 1992 Genre: Action
If I had to make a list of the games I have spent the most time with Ninja Gaiden would be in the top five. The amount of hours I have sunk into that NES cartridge should be illegal by all accounts. Not just because I like the game so much but because it is also one of the most difficult games of all time. It is no exaggeration when I say the majority of that time was spent in stages 6-2 and 6-3; those of you familiar with Tecmo’s classic know why. A remake of Ninja Gaiden hit the PC Engine in Japan and is certainly interesting. On the one hand this is still the same great game released for the NES in 1989 at a base level. But there are enough changes that it doesn’t measure up to the original.
The visuals are the most interesting component of this version of the game and what everyone is curious to see how it stacks up. Unfortunately not as well as it should. The overall color palette is brighter and the resolution is much higher. It makes the game looker nicer in some respects but also completely destroys the grittiness that made the NES version look so good. Rondo of Blood is a good example of using the system’s capabilities to make a game look better while staying true to its unique visual style. The sprites are even worse than its NES counterpart; I don’t know how the hell they managed that. The sole bright spot would be the redrawn cutscenes, which feature better art and more detail.
The biggest screw up however comes in the game’s backgrounds. The backgrounds have been redesigned in a more realistic style that does not mesh with the character sprites. Even worse though is the piss poor parallax scrolling. Not only is it choppy the scrolling is wrong as the backgrounds move faster than the foreground. I can appreciate what they were going for and in some cases it can look nice; stages 2-2 and 4-2 look spectacular. But as a whole it is incredibly inconsistent.
The soundtrack has also been rearranged and is different and in my opinion terrible. The few tracks that it has in common with its NES counterpart sound like garbled approximations. The new music tracks lack any distinctive flavor and don’t match the action either. Which is sad as Ninja Gaiden on NES had a fantastic score, one that I enjoyed listening to in the game’s hidden sound test.
At the very least in terms of gameplay things are mostly still the same. The level layouts are identical however item and enemy placement is different. The controls aren’t as tight as I remember but they don’t impact the game at any rate. There have been a few weapon adjustments, some are a welcome change while I question others. You keep your current weapon when using the Art of the Fire Wheel which makes sense as it is temporary. Unfortunately the Spin Slash is no longer the overpowered weapon of choice; it moves slower making it possible for enemies to knock you out of it. That reduces its usefulness significantly. One other change I do not like is the life bar; it is one long bar,, making it harder to tell how many hits you can take before death.
Buried underneath these surface level changes are a few flaws that really bring the game down. The collision detection is off and is most notable during boss battles. It is incredibly frustrating to see three or four sword slashes not register. Because of this certain smaller enemies are also harder to hit as well. Even more so than that is that you no longer have a moment of invincibility when hit. This almost breaks the game. Pray to God you are never caught in a corner during a boss fight.
Add up the myriad number of problems and you have a game that is easier in some respects but actually harder in others. Respawning enemies are definitely a bigger problem here. The hall of Demons in Act 6-2 might be even more of a nightmare this time around if you can believe it. And the Jacquio? Forget it. Your jaw will drop when you see six fireballs coming for that ass. I still beat the game but I attribute that more to the many, many hours spent memorizing every particular detail of the game than just my skill. I doubt anyone would have the patience to do that now nor should you.
At its core this is still Ninja Gaiden and for all of its missteps that still means it is a better action game than most on the platform. However it is a shame that the primary reason for this version of the game to exist, the graphical upgrade, is its worst aspect. Considering how much it goes for you are still better off going with the cheap and better NES game.
