Ninja Gaiden Trilogy

"Much room for improvement"

Ninja Gaiden was one of the best series of games on the NES. Ninja Gaidens 1, 2, and 3 beat the tar out of many of the other NES games with great music, gameplay, and some of the best graphics on the NES (like the various scrolling parts in the desert level of NG3 and the train level in NG2, the cut scenes also sported some nice, large faces that changed in expression as well). This is why I am so annoyed with Ninja Gaiden Trilogy: it's just the three Gaidens, and little more.
Just a note, yes I know all three games are good, but my reviews of ''all-star''-type games are based on the upgrades made and such.

Graphics: 4.0
Not much better then the NES. Yes, the amount of colors has increased, but that's it. For example, the coke signs in the first level of NG1 still have that black box around them like they did in the NES version (it's hard to describe to anyone that does not know a bit about the NES limitations). It makes little use of the SNES's abilities (it just uses one of the 4 background layers and the sprite layer), and in fact goes DOWNHILL in some parts (remember that dark level in NG2 that had flashes of lightning? The flashes are gone! Also the desert level in NG3? The background doesn't scroll! [unlike in the NES version where there was a lot of scrolling parts]). In fact, with the lack of graphical upgrades, this trilogy could have been done easily on the Genesis.

Sound:5.0
The sound has been ''upgraded'' as well. While some of the tunes are slightly better, many have been ruined by the way they were translated into SNES sound. Many of the sound effects are just annoying now (like that sword sound on the NG1 title screen).

Gameplay: 9.0
They managed to keep the kick-ass gameplay of NG in this. My only minor gripe is that I don't like using B to attack and A to jump (I like attacking with Y and jumping with B).

Replay Value: 10.0
It's got three games in one, and they're just as fun as they were back on the NES.

Presentation: 3.0
It just seems very slapped together, like some took the code of the NES games and put in on and SNES cart and that all they did beforehand was upgrade the colors and change the music to fit the SNES sound system.

Pros:
+ Three games in one
+ Those three games happen to kick ass too

Cons:
- Graphics and sound not much better than (or even worse than) in the NES versions.

Overall (not an average): 4.0
Some definite wasted potential. This doesn't mean I hate Ninja Gaidens, the games inside this cart are all totally sweet, but they could have made this much better.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/02, Updated 03/23/02