Here is how the game starts.

I was not that impressed at first with the topdown shooting bit. Since it pretty much plays out like many shooters i´ve tried before. After finishing the first level however i am greeted with some nice cutscenes

and as the game progresses an intresting story unfolds. Much like what made Ninja gaiden extra special.
Now it´s time to talk about the main reason i play this game.

Thats when Vice project doom really caught my attention. The graphics are simply great for a nes game..you can´t tell from the screenshot but the background is actually animated. Just so there is no confusion you play the guy in the brown jacket not the odd gimp crawling around there.
Now when it comes to disposing of odd bad guys you have three weapons. A basic melee attack wich is animated nicely..a gun wich proves to be very useful but has limited ammo and some hand grenades wich have even less ammo. The downside of all this weponary is that you must press select to switch weapons normally it isn´t a bother but in the heat of battle it can be a bit clumsy especially if you want to switch to melee from the gun then you have to press select twice else you just start wasting hand grenades on close enemies. But that´s just a minor annoyance and does not ruin the gameplay that much.
One nice feature is that you can hold down while running forward and that way you evade any shots coming at you i found that to a be a very useful addition since you can run up to a shooting bad guy and slash him withouht getting hit.
Now on to overall ratings in case you didn read all that
Graphics 8
most of that score goes to the backgrounds. I would have mentioned other aspects of the graphics but im just so impressed with the backgrounds.
Sound 7
the music is good but not Ninja gaiden good. Sound effects are good too.
Gameplay 9
aside from the topdown shooting bit the gameplay is simply awesome.