JoeTheDestroyer's Ninja Gaiden review

I liked the theme of this review, where you start out by talking about how the list of NES games you would recommend to others has fallen dramatically over the years and then showed just why that happens with your review of this game -- one that I remember fondly through those "25-30 years ago rose-colored glasses".

How the game gets utterly sadistic at the very end is probably the main issue with those old NES games and why they haven't aged well. Can't count how many fun games I've played on that system that get marred a bit in my mind because at the end, the challenge level goes from "tough, but doable" to "WHATTHEFUCKISTHIS!!!!!!"

And this one is no different in that regards. Added degrees of difficulty PLUS changing the game-long method of where you respawn after death to make you have to go back a couple levels is just evil. Reminds me of Ironsword, where after reaching a certain point in the game, you suddenly stop being allowed to continue after death and have to use the last password to clear a good amount of terrain again. At times it feels like designers were of the mindset that since the game costs $50 or so and they are fairly short, they might as well make them near-impossible to complete.

The thing is, NG is hard, but fair, and it's got unlimited continues, and the blueprint is out on how to get through it. It's aged remarkably well, I'd say. I replayed it maybe two months ago and flew through to the last level. And then that bullshit at the end rears its head.

Save states for the win, I guess.

Ninja Gaiden is as brutal as it is amazing. No matter how many times you pull your hair at its brutal difficulty you come back to play once more. It is quite a guilty pleasure of mine.