Awesome posts, guys. This is a really fun topic, and I’m glad others are participating too.
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I’m playing through all ports of the NES Ninja Gaiden games. Interestingly, each game in the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy received exactly one port to a non-Nintendo system, and all three of the games were ported to the SNES in Ninja Gaiden Trilogy. So far, I’ve beaten the TG-16 port of Ninja Gaiden and the DOS port of Ninja Gaiden II, and I plan on beating the Lynx version of Ninja Gaiden III and Ninja Gaiden Trilogy. I would save all my thoughts for one post, but I want to get a few of them down while they’re still fresh.
The TG-16 port of Ninja Gaiden was ostensibly developed by Hudson, but it appears from the credits that development was actually farmed out to an anonymous Chinese development team. (The game also contains a Chinese language option, bolstering my conclusion that the game was actually developed outside of Japan.) Whoever actually developed it, however, did a pretty great job, and the game improves upon the NES original in a lot of ways. First, the game is much more colorful, and the cutscenes feature better animation. Moreover, the game’s great level design remains intact, and the TG-16 version controls almost identically to the NES original (which means that it plays wonderfully). Still, there are a few differences. The music isn’t as varied or as moody as the NES chip tunes. Moreover, the more colorful graphics sometimes detract from the original’s gritty atmosphere. The bosses are also way harder than in the NES original, and the last two bosses (i.e., Jaquio and the demon) are insanely hard. (The one exception is the fifth boss, who is a complete pushover in this version.) Finally, whoever developed this game didn’t really understand parallax scrolling, and objects in the background scroll faster than objects in the foreground, which is a bit off-putting. Otherwise, though, the game is fine, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of the NES original. (It’s included with the other Japanese games in the TG-16 mini, and if, on the title screen, you hold the I and II buttons and press the Select button on the title screen, you can change the game’s language setting to English.)
I cannot so heartily recommend the DOS port of Ninja Gaiden II. Developed in England by by Manley & Associates, the game mostly copies the NES original. It has the same great level design, features the same power-ups, and has the same great cinematics. Moreover, the graphics are more colorful, and the game looks really great when it’s paused. Unfortunately, however, the gameplay is pretty bad. First, the animation and scrolling are really, really choppy, making it hard to see anything or control your character. Moreover, the controls are really unpredictable, and Ryu Hayabusa may randomly refrain from clinging to a wall. He might also stop in mid-air, as if hitting an invisible barrier, and plummet to his doom. (He does this a lot.) The unpredictable controls make the platforming really frustrating and drag the game down further. There are also some other strange changes to the original game: Ryu wears orange, while his clones wear blue, the music is remixed via a MIDI synthesizer, and in stark contrast to the TG-16 port of Ninja Gaiden, all of the bosses are insanely easy. (You can beat Ashtar by simply pressing the attack button rapidly. You don’t even have to move!) The game’s best feature is its save feature, which lets you save anywhere, like a save state. This makes the platforming slightly less annoying, and it makes the game beatable without too much effort or frustration. Still, I have a tough time recommending this port to anyone as l9mg as the NES original exists.
Next up…the Atari Lynx port of Ninja Gaiden III and Ninja Gaiden Trilogy!