Ninja Gaiden (arcade game)

Ninja Gaiden,[lower-alpha 1] later released in Europe as Shadow Warriors, is a 1988 side-scrolling beat-'em-up originally released by Tecmo as a coin-operated arcade video game.[1] It was first released in North America, and Europe in 1988 and in Japan in 1989. The Ninja Gaiden arcade game was produced and released almost simultaneously with its home console counterpart for the Nintendo Entertainment System, although they are different games with only a few similarities.[2] The designer of the arcade game is only credited as "Strong Shima", but Masato Kato, who worked on the NES version, identified him as one "Mr. Iijima".[3]

Ninja Gaiden
North American sales flyer
Developer(s)Tecmo
Publisher(s)
Director(s)H. Iijima
Artist(s)Shinobu Iwabayashi
Writer(s)H. Iijima
Composer(s)Mikio Saitou
Ichiro Nakagawa
Ryuichi Nitta
Tamotsu Ebisawa
SeriesNinja Gaiden
Platform(s)
Release
Genre(s)Beat 'em up
Mode(s)Two-player, co-op

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. The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is also included as a hidden bonus game in Ninja Gaiden Black for the Xbox in 2005.[4] The arcade game was published as a Virtual Console game for the Nintendo Wii in 2009, along with the Nintendo Switch on May 5, and later May 9 on PlayStation 4 of 2019 by Hamster Corporation.[5][6]

Gameplay
The game's first stage, with the advertising sign having been damaged

The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up where the player controls a ninja hired to defeat an evil cult led by Bladedamus, a descendant of Nostradamus who seeks to fulfill his end of the world prophecies and flooded the streets of the United States with criminals.[7][8] The first player controls a ninja dressed in blue, while the second player controls one dressed in orange. Like most beat-'em-ups, the player proceed through stages by defeating enemies scattered through each area.

The controls consist of an eight-way joystick with a button installed on top and two additional action buttons for attacking and jumping. The button on top of the joystick allows the player character to grab onto any overhead bar or tightrope and hang from there. There are five primary techniques performed by pressing the joystick and buttons individually or in combination with each other. These consists of the "Triple Blow Combination" (a series of punches and kicks that serve as the player's standard attack), the "Flying Neck Throw" (performed by attacking the enemy while jumping), the "Hang Kick" (performed by attacking the enemy while hanging from a bar), the "Tightrope Walk" (in which the player moves while hanging from or standing above a tightrope), and the "Phoenix Backflip" (a backflip performed after running into a wall), which becomes an attack if the player has a sword.

The player can destroy certain objects in the environment (such as telephone booths, signposts, dumpsters) by knocking or throwing enemies onto them. These will uncover hidden items that will award the player with bonus points, health recovery, time extensions and even an extra life. One particular item will temporarily arm the player with a sword that can be used up to ten times before reverting to his standard punches and kicks.

The game is mostly remembered for its morbid continue screen, where the player character is chained to a table, violently thrashing his head while a circular saw descends towards his body. If the player does not continue within the 10-second countdown, the screen fades to red(as if sprayed with blood), the ninja cries out in agony, and the words "GAME OVER" appears followed by dramatic music. Final Fight, released a year later, had a similar sequence, with the characters tied up next to a stick of dynamite.

The first five stages are based on actual American cities and landmarks such as Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Las Vegas, North Carolina, the Grand Canyon, and a transcontinental railroad. The sixth and final stage is set inside the enemy's hideout. The recurring bosses include a sumo wrestler, a pair of wrestlers resembling the tag team The Road Warriors, and a trio of claw-wielding masked acrobats. The final boss, Bladedamus, wields two swords and has a fire breath attack.

Critical reaction

The game was well received. In Japan, Game Machine listed Ninja Gaiden on their March 15, 1989 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade unit of the year.[14] Your Sinclair praised the colorful graphics and interactive backgrounds. Crash liked the animation, but had grown tired of the genre. Sinclair User summed it up with "There isn't really a speck of originality about Shadow Warriors. Nonetheless, it will be a stiff challenge." C+VG highlighted the music and sound effects.

Version differences

Regional differences

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

  • The Ninja Ryukenden version has a copyright date of 1989 instead of 1988, as befitting its later release. The Famicom version of Ninja Ryukenden was already released when the arcade game was distributed in Japan.
  • The background music for Stage 4 was replaced by another tune that resembles in some parts Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. And though the other background music tunes are the same as in the U.S. version, there are some minor additions to the tunes in the Japanese version.
  • The enemy characters cause normal damage during the final stage (a three-hit combo takes one square of player's life bar), unlike the U.S. version, where at the last stage, the standard enemies and the mid-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 and Hamster Corp. versions

This game has been ported to the Nintendo Wii as a downloadable Virtual Console Arcade game in Japan on July 28, 2009, in PAL regions on November 13, 2009 and in North America on December 21, 2009.[15] However, this contains the same changes found in Ninja Gaiden Black.

  • The boss music in Stages 2 and 5 has been omitted from this version (due to it being based on Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"); in turn, the regular background music keeps 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
  • Rygar, another Tecmo game referenced in background graffiti

Notes
  1. Later released in Japan as Ninja Ryūkenden (忍者龍剣伝, lit. Ninja Dragon Sword Legend)

References
  1. "Ninja Gaiden". The International Arcade Museum. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  2. Hardcore Gaming 101 editorial staff. "Ninja Gaiden at Hardcore Gaming 101 - Interview with Masato "RUNMAL" Kato". Kato: Both (the arcade and NES versions of Ninja Gaiden) were developed side by side on the same floor, at the same time. However, we only shared the same title, while each team developed their game as they pleased.
  3. "Signature Series: Ninja Gaiden". Retro Gamer. No. 92. Bournemouth: Imagine Publishing. July 2011. pp. 78–81. ISSN 1742-3155. OCLC 489477015.
  4. Brightman, James (February 10, 2004). "Ninja Gaiden Extras Confirmed...Again". GameDaily. Retrieved 2006-08-23.
  5. "Arcade Archives | HAMSTER Corporation". www.hamster.co.jp. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  6. https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0571-CUSA15609_00-HAMPRDC000000001?emcid=se-pi-194278
  7. Joe Yamada (February 1989). 紹介 - 忍者龍剣伝. Gamest (in Japanese). 29: 103. Archived from the original on 2012-07-04. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  8. Satoshi Tajiri (1989-01-06). ぼくたちゲーセン野郎. Family Computer Magazine (in Japanese). pp. 114–115. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  9. "Photographic image of game review" (JPG). Wos.meulie.net. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  10. "Photographic image of game review" (JPG). Wos.meulie.net. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  11. "Photographic image of game review" (JPG). Wos.meulie.net. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-02-15. Retrieved 2016-07-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displaypage.pl?issue=065&page=079&thumbstart=0&magazine=zzap&check=1
  14. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 352. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 March 1989. p. 21.
  15. "500th Downloadable Wii Game Makes for a Smashing Holiday Season". Nintendo of America. 21 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
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