Ninja Gaiden (arcade)

Ninja Gaiden
Sales flyer for the arcade game.
Developer(s)	Tecmo Blue Sky Software Ocean Software Teque Software
Publisher(s)	JP/NA/PAL Tecmo NA Atari NA Hi-Tech Expressions EU Ocean Software
Composer(s)	Mikio Saito Ryuichi Nitta
Series	Ninja Gaiden
Platform(s)	Arcade Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Atari Lynx, Commodore 64, DOS, IBM PC, Wii Virtual Console, ZX Spectrum
Release date(s)	October 1988 Arcade NA October 1988 EU 1988 JP February 1989 DOS NA 1990 NA February 15, 1991 (re-release) Commodore 64 NA 1990 EU 1990 Amiga EU 1990 Amstrad CPC EU 1990 Atari ST EU 1990 ZX Spectrum EU 1990 Atari Lynx NA 1991 IBM PC NA 19?? Wii Virtual Console JP July 28, 2009 PAL November 13, 2009 NA December 21, 2009[1]
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Two-player, co-op

Ninja Gaiden, later released in Japan as Ninja Ryūkenden (忍者龍剣伝, lit. "Ninja Dragon Sword Legend") and in Europe as Shadow Warriors, is a 1988 side-scrolling beat-'em-up originally released by Tecmo as a coin-operated arcade video game.^[2] It was first released in North America, and Europe in 1988 and in Japan in 1989.^[3] The Ninja Gaiden arcade game was produced and released almost simultaneously with its home console counterpart for the NES, although they are different games with only a few similarities.^[4] The designer of the game is only credited as "Strong Shima", but Masato Kato, who worked on the NES Ninja Gaiden, identified him as one Mr. Iijima.^[5]

Home versions of the Ninja Gaiden arcade game were released in Europe under the Shadow Warriors title in 1990 by Ocean Software for five different computer platforms (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC) and in North America for IBM PC by Hi-Tech Expressions. An Atari Lynx version was also released. The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is also included as a hidden bonus game in Ninja Gaiden Black for the Xbox in 2005.^[6] The arcade game was published as a Virtual Console game for the Wii in 2009.

Gameplay

The game's first stage. It bears a strong resemblance to the first stage of the NES version.

The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is a "belt-scrolling" beat-'em-up. The player controls a ninja whose mission to defeat an evil cult led by Bladedamus, a descendant of Nostradamus who seeks to fulfill his end of the world prophecies.^[7] Upon starting the game, the player is greeted by the phrase "NINJA IN USA". Up to two players can play simultaneously (Player 1 controls the blue-suited ninja, while Player 2 controls an orange-suited ninja).

The controls of the game consists of an eight-way joystick and three action buttons: Grab, Attack, and Jump. The Grab button is located on top of the joystick itself. The player character has five main techniques: The "Triple Blow Combination" is the player's primary attack, performed by pressing the attack button repeatedly while the player is standing on the ground. While jumping towards an adversary, the player can do a "Flying Neck Throw"; throwing an enemy into a background object (such as trash cans, phone booths, or signs) will cause different power-ups to appear, such as health restoring pills or a sword that can be wielded for a limited time. While standing near overhead signs or bars, the player can hang unto them by pressing the Grab button and perform a "Hang Kick". While overhanging on a bar, the player can also move by performing a "Tightrope Walk". The last of the five techniques is the "Phoenix Backflip", in which the player runs towards the wall and performs a backflip.

The game features a morbid continue screen, where the player character is tied to a table thrashing his head violently while a giant circular saw is being lowered towards him and what appears to be a crowd of enemies is watching in excitement in the background. If the player does not continue within the 10 second countdown, the screen fades to red, the ninja cries out in agony, and the words "GAME OVER" appears followed by dramatic music.

The first five rounds (stages) are based on actual American cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and a Transcontinental Railroad. The sixth and final stage set inside the main villain's hideout. The recurring bosses includes a sumo wrestler; a pair of wrestlers resembling the Road Warriors tag team; and a trio of claw-wielding acrobats. The final boss is Bladedamus, who wields two swords. Among other accolades of the game it is remembered as an extremely difficult arcade game.

Version differences

Regional differences

Ninja Ryukenden, being the later version of the game, has the following differences from the other versions:

• The background music for Stage 4 was replaced. There are also some differences between the same music numbers of the different versions.
• The enemy characters cause normal damage during the final stage, unlike the U.S. version, where at the last stage the standart enemies and the bosses just need to hit the player once to take off one or two life squares, and the last boss can kill the player's character with just one attack.
• A digitized voice shouts the game's title on the "stage clear" screen.

Virtual Console

This game has been ported to the Wii as a downloadable Virtual Console Arcade game. However this contains several differences.

• The boss music in Stages 2 and 5 has been omitted from this version (due to the similarity to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"), in turn the regular background music will remain playing even after the bosses appear (which would normally prompt the quick music switch)
• The use of the Star of David in the game's imagery (such as the rug at the end of Stage 4) was edited out.

See also

• Ninja Gaiden series

References