Modern Ninja Gaiden - where to jump in?

[noiseredux]

Dead Or Alive 5.

[dunpeal2064]

Itagaki would be ashamed!

DoA 5 is probably the best game the team has made without him though

[Segata]

Absolutely love Ninja Gaiden.

All 3 original NES games are good, but 1 is the best, so it should be where you start there. 2 is easier, but if you are looking for ease, Ninja Gaiden is not the place to go anyways.

The SNES compilation of these games is garbage, just play the NES ones. Its worth noting that, if you get into 3, there are some pretty extreme difficulty changes between regions (The US version being far more brutal)

As for the Modern games, I think Ninja Gaiden Black (xbox, works on a 360) is the best version of the first game. The Sigma release is fine though.

Ninja Gaiden 2, on the other hand, needs to be played in its original form. The Sigma release is absolute garbage, which is a shame since this is not only the best Ninja Gaiden game, but possibly the best action game ever made.

All versions of Ninja Gaiden 3 are subpar compared to the first two, and only worth playing as a curiosity once you have experienced the finer points of the series.

tldr; Play Ninja Gaiden (NES), Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox), Ninja Gaiden 2 (360)

What is wrong with Sigma 2? It was the first way I was able to play these games. Sigma 2 was bloody as can be dismemberments,combat was great. Ran fine. Played on PS3.

[Sarge]

Sigma 2 tones down the bloodiness significantly. Lots less dismemberments and purple blood in most spots. That's not a deal-breaker for me, but it might be for some. There were also some other alterations, like less enemies on screen but with bigger health bars or something like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Gai ... en_Sigma_2

[dunpeal2064]

Ninja Gaiden 2 has about 4000 enemies through its runtime. Sigma 2 has about 1300.

They stripped it down in many ways, without redesigning the game to suit those changes. This was all done after Itagaki left too, so they were basically changing a game they didn't even make.

[Segata]

I don't remember purple blood tbh. I dismembered a lot of enemies.

[Sarge]

I don't remember purple blood tbh. I dismembered a lot of enemies.

Maybe they patched something in, dunno. I just know you're gonna see a lot more dismembered enemies in NG2.

Still, the overall takeaway is that regardless of the sequels, it's the first game that you really want to play.

[Exhuminator]

I just watched comparison videos, Sigma 2 is far less violent, bloody, and gory than Gaiden 2. Sigma 2 still has blood-like effects, and occasional beheadings, but it's nothing like Gaiden 2's routine slaughterhouse battles.

Let me tell you stinkers something. There's two oft-forgotten Ninja Gaiden games that everyone should care about:

Solid games, both.

Now I have a question... is Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z worth buying?

[Sarge]

I haven't played it, but survey says no.

The SMS version is surprisingly decent. I don't really recommend the Game Gear game, though. There's also a Lynx port of the arcade game, which I wouldn't recommend just because you'd rather just play the actual arcade game, and there was also a port of NGIII to that system as well, because why not?

Also, TG-16 version of NG, which has some really funky parallax scrolling. Stick with the original NES game.

Dirty little (not so) secret about NG Shadow: it's basically Shadow of the Ninja. Which makes it awesome.

[Xeogred]

You will absolutely want to get Black. The ultimate version to an otherwise already perfect game, one of the best action games of all time. Black had additional weapons and some other little things that make it the complete best version.

Sigma on the PS3 is garbage. It seemed insanely lazy. Included is:
- Excessive screen tearing
- Dozens of additional loading "stops" when the camera angles transitions sometimes. "Stopping" quick loading segments that were nowhere in the original.
- Worse framerate.
- Forced new sections with playable Rachel, that are REQUIRED to get through. So you get a badass fast ninja to play as with one of the most intricate combat systems out there and at a few points in the game are suddenly forced to play as this slow as molasses Rachel with her giant hammer. Better get used to it. Made me rage quit. This alone is a deal breaker... beyond the fact that this "newer" version of the game was a downgrade across the field on a technical level.

Black is perfection.

Sarge already cleared this up but I'll just back him on NG2 vs Sigma 2, I beat Sigma 2 last year and had a blast. But I took a deep dive into reading about the differences and they basically sound like two densely different games on a behind the scenes mechanical level, so I bought NG2 to check out someday.

I had more fun with Razor's Edge over Sigma 2, which changed up things a tad on its emphasis on finishers. It was insanely satisfying.

Both sequels have sections with other characters forced, though again I think Sigma 2 has a lot more than vanilla NG2, but either way these sections were actually pretty fun since the characters were better and these sections were kind of easier than Ryu's. Frankly, I think Ayane was my favorite character to play as in Razor's Edge. She was completely insane.

Now I have a question... is Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z worth buying?

Fuck no. Worst $7 (shipping included in on that) I've ever spent in my life. Team Ninja had nothing to do with it.