Gameplay 8/10
Tecmo did a good job keeping me entertained in this game. The difficulty ranges from easy for the first two levels, medium once you get to level 3 and 4. But, once you get to level 5, stuff just start getting hard especially when you get to level 5-2 when you have to make that difficult jump to grab part of a wall so you can reach a lower platform. Unlike Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3, you couldn't climb up and down a wall. When you get to level 6-2, it gets totally ridiculous. When you get to the final bosses, you better bring your A game with you. If you die at any of the three last bosses, it's back to 6-1 instead of to 6-3. The reason I had to take off points from the game is because there are times when you sword won't register a hit and it totally messes up your gameplan when you are trying to run through the game. This usually happens after you take a hit. Another problem I had with the game was the recoil from getting hit being too much. You can be a foot away from a pit and get hit and end up being knocked into it. Then there are those enemy spawn points that seem to make jumping over pits hard because the enemies can come out at the wrong time unless you know what to expect but the first time you play through the game, you will be unprepared.

Story 10/10
The story is excellent and well planned out. You are this kid living in Japan and find out that your father was defeated. You arrive in America and meet a nice young lady who knocks you and as the game goes on, you have a task of keeping the light and the dark demon statue separated from each other before the lunar eclipse which obviously everyone knows is going to fail at the end of the game. Girl has gotten kidnapped, Ryu saves her, they kiss. The End.

Graphics 9/10
The graphics have been neatly drawn out. You got excellent graphic displays of Crystal Lake (3-1), Amazon (4-1), Jay's Bar (1-2) to name a few. The colors fit in perfectly but there are some levels where the graphics may confuse the player like enemy shots will sometimes blend in with the background and it's almost hard to see which walls are climbable or not in some levels but other than that, good work.

Sound 10/10
Although I can't say that the sound is good as the games of today for the era it came from, the sound is nice. The sound track that is played in The Cave (5-1), the Place of Red Execution (5-4), and the Final Showdown (6-5) has good display of opera-themed battle music. The other music fit their stages perfectly.

Replayability 10/10
If you have beaten the game one, then you know you are itching for more because it was fun beating it once, now it's time to hit the reset button or reset it if you got it on Virtual Console and play it again.

Final Recommendation
This game I give a 9/10. It caught my eye the first time I tried it and it got me hooked on the gameplay. Through all frustration, I managed to persevere and beat the game. You too, will feel the same way once you play it.