Play Ninja Gaiden Shadow (GB) - Reviews | Game Boy

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Ninja Gaiden Shadow Reviews

Overall 8.9 Graphics 7 Sound 10 Addictive 5 Story 3 Depth 2 Difficulty 3

7.5

Perhaps the best Ninja Gaiden game. . . and for all the wrong reasons. ARedLetterDay
Ninja Gaiden is an interesting series. It started in the arcades, under the name Ninja Ryukenden, the Japanese title for the rest of the games in the series. The original game was a beat-em-up in the vein of Double Dragon, and was quite good. Not the best game by any means, but it was sure to suck up your quarters regardless. Only a couple months later, the NES version was released, and the arcade game faded into obscurity. Well, kind of. The NES version was a side-scrolling action game, with many similarities to Castlevania, in more than just difficulty. The control scheme was very similar, although it was much easier to aim your jumps in the game, which was very important for nearly every stage. The health bar for both the player and the boss was much like the one in Castlevania. . . it might as well have been a Castlevania game with ninja. Oh, and cutscenes, which were technically impressive for the time.

None of this, however, translates over to the Gameboy title, Ninja Gaiden Shadow, as it was originally planned to be a Shadow of the Ninja game, but got reskinned due to the popularity of the series at the time. Instead of being developed by Tecmo, the original developers of the series, it was developed by Natsume, the creators of Shadow of the Ninja, and ended up sharing many things with it's predecessor, a lot more in any case than its namesake. Let's get into it.

Graphics: 7 / 10.

Although it's on a marginally smaller screen, Ninja Gaiden Shadow does have very nice graphics, at least in that you can tell what everything's supposed to be. The sprites are nicely designed, and the backgrounds are beautiful, particularly in the first level, where you can see New York City's skyline off in the distance. Lights on the buildings twinkle, and the moon hangs over the rest of it, a constant reminder that you're fighting for the safety of thousands of people. The sea is there, too, waves crashing on the shore, and you can almost swear you smell the ocean. . .

All in all, they're great, if not repetitive, as once you get past the first stage, the backgrounds get a little dull, but redeem themselves with Stages 4 and 5, both which have some excellent scrolling technology behind them. 4 is set in the docks, and the first part of the level takes place in an underwater facility, complete with windows to the ocean. The water moves, and you can even see sunken ships if you look hard enough. Great detail, but otherwise the levels themselves are cookie cutter platforming design.

Sounds: 10 / 10.

Ninja Gaiden games always have excellent sound design, particularly in the music department. Ninja Gaiden Shadow is no exception, and Natsume (who themselves always have quality soundtracks in their games) excel in making the game feel like a proper entry into the Ninja Gaiden franchise rather than just an adaptation of another game. Stage 3 has a remix of Ryu's Great Determination, or Stage 4-1 from the original Ninja Gaiden for those who don't know the name. The intro cinematic (the only cinematic in the game outside of the ones in between stages and after a boss) has a remix of the intro from Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos, and the final stage in the game, stage 5, has a remix of a certain song that I can't quite remember at this moment, unfortunately. Outside of those select songs, the soundtrack is completely original and completely awesome.

As mentioned earlier, the sound design for this game is great. There's a slight Wssh! when you swing your sword that is quite satisfying, if only because it's usually followed by a Wuahh! and Bkashhh when you kill an enemy. Getting items sounds like. . . well, getting items would, I suppose, and that makes it even better. To make getting an item sound like something you'd hear if you picked up a health restore in real life, now that's talent. Or maybe I'm just giving Natsume too much credit. . . . nah.

Addictiveness: 5 / 10.

Unfortunately this is where the game begins to fall flat. While it's a jolly good time for a first playthrough, there's not much in the way of RNG (Random Number Generator, which basically determines what items you get / where enemies spawn ) to grant anything massively different from your first playthrough. The game remains the same in subsequent playthroughs, and it makes the game suffer because of it. Each item pickup is the same, and there might be an instance where an enemy moves to a place you don't want him to move to for a split second, but outside of that, there is no variety. It's a shame, too, because a little more RNG would make this game a lot better for following playthroughs.

Story: 3/10.

Ninja Gaiden stories have always been generic sci-fi / fantasy ninja romps through various locales until you get the bad guy, and Ninja Gaiden Shadow is no exception. The game is set three years before the first game, which completely defeats the purpose of everything ever, as it wasn't until the first game the protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa, received the Dragon Sword and went after the dark lord Jaquio, but in this game, Ryu's already a battle-hardened ninja wielding the Dragon Sword with all the gusto of a brash shounen protagonist. Other than that, however, the story's actually pretty interesting. Garuda, a servant of Jaquio, the aforementioned antagonist of the NES trilogy, rises from the dark and takes over New York City. Ryu Hayabusa steps from the darkness and vows to take Garuda down. Simple stuff, but unlike the NES trilogy, Ninja Gaiden Shadow does not have cinematics in between levels to save its incredibly generic tale of good VS. evil.

Depth & Difficulty: 2 / 10, 3/10

There is nothing in this game. That may sound a little harsh, and, well, you'd be right. There's five stages, all of which take about 5 - 10 minutes to beat. There aren't any different Ninja Arts you can use like in the NES trilogy, there is only the Fire Wheel, which is really only useful for the bosses, but the game is so easy you won't even both to think twice about whether or not you have enough Ninpo to cast it. The stages barely have any challenging enemy placement, and the enemies themselves are either static or move from left to right. Much like how there is no variety in the RNG, there is no variety in enemies. Total, there are only about 10 unique enemies in this game, including the bosses, and that's a bit disappointing considering how huge of a variety the NES trilogy had.

But for all of that, the lack of difficulty and enemy variety, it's what causes Ninja Gaiden Shadow to be the perfect Ninja Gaiden game. The NES trilogy were notoriously difficult, but it comes from artificial difficulty, I.E random enemy placements that cause you to drop to your doom in bottomless pits, constantly respawning enemies if you take one or two pixel steps back, enemies doing stupid amounts of damage starting with the second stage. . . all of which is noticeably removed in Ninja Gaiden Shadow. As mentioned previously, there are no challenging enemy placements, so the chances of you falling to your death are nil, all the enemies do one square of damage, even the bosses, so the chances of you getting ramrodded by constantly respawning enemies until your health is drain is nil. . .

For all of these reasons, Ninja Gaiden Shadow is actually fun, and enjoyable, even if you can't be bothered to play it for a second time, as opposed to the NES trilogy, which were excellent games outside of the crushing, grueling and unfair difficulty. If you've never played a Ninja Gaiden game before, look no further, Ninja Gaiden Shadow is the perfect choice for you.

Graphics 7 Sound 10 Addictive 5 Story 3 Depth 2 Difficulty 3
Review Rating: 3/5 Submitted: 08-01-14 Review Replies: 1

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Comments for Ninja Gaiden Shadow

deepspace5d 08-31-13 - 02:23 AM
really fun, but about 100x less challenging than the nes versions

orionfoxgibson 01-15-13 - 04:30 PM
Not Bad For GameBoy

WanderingHero 06-07-12 - 07:33 AM
I don't think this game deserves a 9.1, but it is definately an above average platformer. And its much easier than the other Ninja Gaiden Games (because its really a Shadow The Ninja game in disguise), which isn't a bad thing.

Jordanv78 12-20-10 - 01:20 PM
I totally forgot how cool this game was.

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