With the release of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound just ten days away, we're spending July looking back at Ryu Hayabusa's impact on both the critics and the industry. We've already looked at the classic 8-bit trilogy on the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the often-forgotten spin-offs on Game Boy, Game Gear and Master System. Today, we're digging into the ports of the 8-bit trilogy, including Ninja Ryukenden on the PC Engine, Ninja Gaiden III on the Lynx and, of course, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy on the Super NES. Those are all Ninja Gaiden games, but are any of them actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Nintendo Power, Computer & Video Games and more classic magazines that reviewed these games back when they first came out. Bring on the ports! Because that's all we're dealing with in this exciting episode of Ninja Gaiden Review Crew.


Chances are, you played the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy on the Nintendo Entertainment System. But did you know that Ryu's 8-bit adventures found their way to other consoles? A great example of this is a PC Engine port of the Japanese original, Ninja Ryukenden. It's a better looking and more colorful take that never made its way West, but was reviewed by several English-language magazines. Let's go ahead and see what they thought of this 1992 port.

With only three different magazines to pull reviews from, I want to start at the bottom and work our way up. This gives us a chance to introduce a new magazine to the Review Crew, the British publication Games-X. This is yet another magazine with a dumb scoring system, but we'll get there in a moment. Let's first see what they said about this game: “Yawn! Another version of Ninja Gaiden. Well, what can I say? The PC Engine version is pretty good, but as you'd expect, it doesn't break any new barriers in terms of originality or graphical excellence. Nevertheless, the control system works well and the presentation is OK, so if you're looking for a run-of-the-mill beat ‘em up on the Engine, you could do a lot worse than sample Ninja Gaiden.” Using their X-Rating system (yes, that is what they call it), this game earns a score of three exes out of five. Or triple ... well, you get the idea.

Even with a limited sample size, Games-X was definitely in the minority. Die Hard Game Fan gave this TurboGrafx import an average of 85%, while Computer & Video Games went even higher with a solid 89%. Frank O'Connor concluded that “the PC Engine has a whole load of fabby platform related beat ‘em ups, but this is sufficiently different to merit a further look. This is a truly abominable piece of programming, as the foreground smoothly slides by, the background judders and shakes its way past. The music is remarkably unspectacular for the otherwise funky Engine, but the chopsocky tunes suit the game well enough. The clever climbing abilities of your Ninja sprite are ruined a bit by the iffy control method, but it's not too bad. There's no doubt that this is playable. It's great fun and very, very difficult. The frustration builds, but it only makes you want another go. Buy it if you're after a Shinobi-style romp, but fans of the arcade game will be gravely disappointed.”

What I find interesting about these reviews is how they talk about everything BUT the deep story and lengthy cinemas. Those are exactly the things that separate this game from Shinobi, yet the critics seem a lot more annoyed that they aren't playing the far less memorable arcade game. With an overall average of 78%, the critics still recommended this version of Ninja Gaiden. But it sounds like it could have been a lot better.

When Ninja Gaiden first hit the Lynx back in 1991, it was a port of the arcade beat ‘em up, a completely different game from what NES owners were used to. This was followed-up two years later by ... a port of Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom? For reasons that I've never understood, despite the complete lack of the first two games on the system, Tecmo decided to bring the third and final chapter in the NES trilogy to the Lynx. To the game's credit, of the three games in the trilogy, this is the one with the most standalone story. Plus, the game really shines on the Lynx's color screen. Let's see if the critics were able to wrap their heads around this questionable port.

We're going to kick things off with Electronic Gaming Monthly, which also means that we're going to start at the very bottom of the barrel when it comes to review scores. Giving it an average score of 6.5 out of 10, EGM had some issues with this port. Al argued that “Ninja Gaiden is a game that the Atari Lynx has been longing for. Like its Nintendo counterpart, Ninja Gaiden has great gameplay that exceeds many of the other action games in this genre. The sound, although 8-bit, is OK and gets the player hyped. The problem I run into is the small characters. They are so small that you can't tell where you are sometimes. Anyone with a Lynx should pick this one up.” Ed liked it a bit more, giving it an 8 out of 10 and noting that “Ninja Gaiden plays a lot like the NES classic. The game plays especially well for the small screen. The blurring inherent to the system is pretty bad, particularly because your character is so small. The magic is really easy to use, and it helps out tremendously. Ninja Gaiden is a good title to pick up if you have a Lynx. If you can bear the blurring, you will be in for a real treat. Games like this don't come out often.”

With EGM pulling up the rear, the scores can only get better. Video Games & Computer Entertainment ended up giving the game a 7 out of 10, the exact same score they gave the NES version. GamePro went a bit higher, giving The Ancient Ship of Doom a score of 4 out of 5. “If you're an action gamer who doesn't like Ninja Gaiden, you belong in the video game nerd house. However, this version adds eyestrain and nerve-twinging challenge to wither the will of all but the most determined Gaiden followers. Oh please, don't let it end here!”

And here it ends. Well, sort of. For a while. Whether on the Lynx or the NES, Ninja Gaiden III is the weakest entry on either platform. That said, it's still worth playing. This handheld version isn't the way to go, but it's cool that it exists. Now let's quickly move onto Ninja Gaiden III on the Super NES.

After leaving the NES trilogy on a high note with The Ancient Ship of Doom, many Ninja Gaiden fans figured that Tecmo would reinvent the franchise on the 16-bit consoles. But that wasn't the case. The only Ninja Gaiden game to hit the Super NES was a compilation of the NES trilogy, appropriately called Ninja Gaiden Trilogy. Unlike Super Mario All-Stars, the three games were straight ports visually, though there were some minor changes made to each title. Before we go into the reviews, it's important to remember that this compilation was released in August of 1995, four years after the series wrapped up on the NES and just days before a looming 32-bit console war. Keep that in mind as we dig into these reviews.

Historically, Electronic Gaming Monthly was always a fan of Ninja Gaiden. This was especially true of the NES trilogy. The lowest score they gave that series was an 8 out of 10, only going lower when it was ported to the Lynx. But that was then, and this is now. With an average score of 6.9 out of 10, it's clear that most of the EGM editors are starting to turn on the Tecmo series. Dano summed up the frustration perfectly: “Three games in one cartridge? And there's no change to the graphics or music? Who thought this one up? Ninja Gaiden Trilogy is a unique idea, but Tecmo really should have enhanced the looks to improve it.” Ed, on the other hand, was the lone critic to recommend the game: “I must admit that I was wishing that Tecmo would have improved the graphics, but after a few trips down memory lane, I was hooked back on one of my favorite series. The action is just as intense as ever, and the music is sweet. The cinemas have been redrawn as well. The effect of the new graphics will make you drool. If only Tecmo worked on the rest of the game. Three games on one cart is a great deal. For those of you who missed out, try playing these classics.”

Before we climb up the scale, let's first check in with Nintendo Power, who gave Ninja Gaiden Trilogy a 3 out of 5. They liked the “great action and game design,” specifically noting the challenge and passwords. However, they complained that “the original controller setup seems a bit awkward on the Super NES controller. No new features, except for the passwords. And the graphics don't live up to the current Super NES standards.” I will point out that this is a compilation of classic games, not a remake, but I guess that distinction wasn't a thing back in 1995.

Going back over the Electronic Gaming Monthly divide, we find GamePro giving Ninja Gaiden Trilogy its highest marks – a 4.5 out of 5. “After firing up this game, one can only wonder why Tecmo chose not to do Gaiden in a 16-bit format. At least for now, Ryu wannabes can revive some ninja-fighting skills and take heart in rampant rumors of a Ninja Gaiden for the next-generation systems.”

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, GamePro, but those rampant rumors about Ninja Gaiden coming to the next generation are wrong. It's more like the next-next-generation. A full decade after this review. What did the critics think of the 3D reboot series? We'll answer that question next time on Ninja Gaiden Review Crew.