Source: Youtube Channel skrizhali
Ninja Gaiden has always been one of my favorite games series from the NES days, despite how incredibly difficult they were and having only beat each one 1-2 times all the way through. I can’t really say “series” I suppose since I only owned the first and second when I was younger (as all the games I played were the ones my father played) and never played the 3rd one. I wondered for the longest time why my father never got the 3rd one if he liked the first two in the series. Fast forward to when I was in college, I came across the series once again during the time and found out that the 3rd iteration in the series had a very diabolical change in its continue system. In the first two Ninja Gaiden games, a player could restart at the last main checkpoint as many times as they wanted. In other words, there was an infinite amount of continues. Games back in the 8-bit days weren’t particularly long and so a lot of them were designed to be very difficult but possible to beat as they all followed a pattern. So a player would die over and over but would, or at least should, learn from their mistakes and try another method through the section they had trouble with. This would increase the gameplay time by a significant amount depending on how quickly the player learned all the patterns and tricks. So what happened in #3? After continuing about 3 times (I'm not sure anymore), the player faces a true game over and has to start from the very beginning of the game once again. You know how ludicrous that is?
Anyways, I finally found it in me to sit down and play the game just 2 weekends ago. The first few things I noticed different about the 3rd one was there was a voice over when Ryu Hayabusa does any actions, there were new sub-weapons, and the player can jump up over the ledge of the wall they’re on (which is a big deal). As I played, all the same aspects of the past Ninja Gaiden games came rushing back: fast-paced action and platforming, catchy tunes, beautifully detailed graphics, fluid gameplay, challenging passages, and the classic cut-scenes that adds to the story. I was really enjoying the game when I wasn’t stunned right into a bottomless pit or getting ravaged by 3-5 flying enemies on the screen. I have to admit that the boss battles were significantly easier compared to the first two other than the very last boss. I also found a significant problem in the last level that I couldn’t believe the developers overlooked. The last chapter is one huge level that spans 3-5 sections (I don’t even remember anymore since it was so difficult) and I didn’t hesitate to keep moving forward (meaning I didn’t wait around). At one point, I ran out of time. Either you have to move lightning speed or that has to be one of the biggest shenanigans I’ve run into in the Ninja Gaiden series because there was still a LOT more after where I had died. The check point I got sent back into was quite far and is actually the last check point you’ll get in the game. If you die at the final boss, you get sent back to that check point just like in the first game. The final boss wasn’t exactly difficult, just irritating. But it was easy when I found out what the pattern was. Then he reveals his “true” form where he doesn’t move but has a lot of projectiles. Again it was annoying but the pattern was actually pretty easy and I won after figuring it out. Then there’s a “final” form which takes up half of the screen. In the “final” form, the boss has a shield that you have to get through. Between that last check point and the final boss’s room, there was one health recovery. Between the 3 forms, the player doesn’t regenerate or recover any health at all. Getting sent back to that last checkpoint wasn’t fun at all. Still, I completed the game and got the typical ending that I wasn’t surprised about at all. I think the 3rd iteration had much simpler boss battles and so they weren’t very memorable. But with having a limited amount of continues, I’m glad it wasn’t “that” difficult or it would have been impossible beating the game. The new Ninja Gaiden 3 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 released today. I won’t wait 21 years later to play that one, but I have yet to even finish the new Ninja Gaiden 1 Sigma yet. Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom was fun and all, but I may or may not revisit the game again.
The game took me approximately 3 hours to finish.
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