Game:

Shadow of the Ninja (1990)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 30:35

2,093 views

34

17:05 - MY BOMBS! NO! (T_T)

Playlist with all my retro games playthroughs:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM547j96LR9SWnHDc309Ay6-5D56wlxNl

I finally did it. I beat this game. And I wouldn't say it is hard. It is just... tricky to play in some places, especially at the end. Every time some sh... bad thing happened. So I became tilted and couldn't finish it. Actually, this time is not an exception: you can see it by my playing on the latest stages. Likely, the pattern of the last boss is simple, so he can be beaten without problems, if the player has full HP.

The story of the game is one of the simplest: a cruel dictator rules in alternative New York, and two ninjas are sent to assassinate him. Those ninjas are Hayate and Kaede. And nothing can be said about them: they appeared from shadows, they tracked the target, they assassinated that target, they disappeared in shadows... What else did you expect from ninjas?

Control and mechanics. It is unusual for a NES game, but there is no extra lives, only continues. Every character has 16 HP, which can be restored by healing items, plus finishing a stage restores 8 HP to all players. If the character dies, they can start from a checkpoint which is usually a start of a sub-stage, but in 2 players co-op, after using a continue, the player appears on the same place the other player is.

Control:
B - attack
A - jump
Hold B - ninjutsu (costs 8 HP, deals 8 damage to all enemies on-screen)

Weapons:
There are two main weapons and two throwing weapons. At the same time one ninja can carry only one main weapon and only one throwing weapon, and that ninja can't use their main weapon until all the charges of the throwing weapon are run out. Main weapons can be upgraded by picking the same type of weapon (up to level 3), but if you take the other weapon, your weapon level will reset to 1. Throwing weapons inherit the levels of the main weapons. The level of the weapon decreases by 1 for each 4 HP lost.

Main weapons:

Shinobigatana (it is probably a katana, but I HATE that hogwash about ninjas used katanas: if you close your eyes to extremely rare exceptions, they never did that):
level 1 - a short melee attack
levels 2-3 increases the range of its attacks

Kusarigama:
level 1 - mid-range weapon that can attack in 5 directions (left, right, up, up-left, and up-right), but inconvenient in close combat
level 2 increases its attack speed
level 3 provides a level 2 shinobigatana attack with every attack of the kusarigama, fixing its main problem with vulnerability in close combat

Throwing weapons:

Surikens (20 charges):
level 1 - straight projectile
level 2 - piercing projectile
level 3 - homing projectile

Bombs (5 charges)
level 1 - throw a bomb under own feets which deals immersive AoE damage
level 2-3 allows to throw it forward

I didn't have this game when I had a console, but I played it once somewhere... I don't remember where. I remembered it as "2 players Ninja Gaiden", although it is far from being as good, to be honest... I would even dare to say that this game is quite mediocre. It is not bad, but... I shouldn't compare games this way, but seriously: Ninja Gaiden has much better thoughtful story, its gameplay is better, cleaner, and faster, it has more variety of ninjutsu, and it has much better music and much better acrobatic. Comparing with all this, I can't rate this game otherwise than "mediocre".

Still, Shadow of the Ninja has two huge advantages over Ninja Gaiden. First is 2 player coop. In fact, this game is designed to play as two, and it is much more interesting to play as two. The game provides two main weapons, two throwing weapons, and two players are able to carry all of them at the same time. It makes the game a kind of ARPG, where the first player takes shinobigatana and surikens for example, and the second one takes kusarigama and bombs, and since all the weapons have their flaws, the players should cover each other. That actually can be awesome. When it comes to the second advantage... Well, it is "huge" only for me: there is a playable girl in this game, that's why I play this instead of Ninja Gaiden.

Even in the case of such cooperative console like NES, I wouldn't say that it has many good 2 players games, and if you consider Shadow of the Ninja as a 2 players game, then it is surely a good one. Not to mention... Well, let's be objective for a moment: the graphic of this game is quite good for a NES game: it has animated backgrounds and smooth animation of the movement of characters. And even if I said that music here is not as good as in Ninja Gaiden, it is not bad either. Listen to the credits track - 29:06 - it is freaking awesome!

Timecodes:
Intro - 0:00
Stage 1-1 - 1:06
Stage 1-2 - 2:10
Stage 1-3 - 3:00
Stage 1-4 - 3:50
Stage 2-1 - 4:32
Stage 2-2 - 7:00
Stage 2-3 - 7:30
Stage 3 - 7:56
Stage 3 Boss - 10:40
Stage 4-1 - 11:48
Stage 4-2 - 13:49
Stage 4-3 - 17:42
Stage 5-1 - 19:20
Stage 5-2 - 23:13
Final boss - 25:15
Ending - 27:54

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