Ninja Gaiden

"Average ninja action"

Ninja Gaidan is another one of the many 2-d action games on the Game Gear. Like most of the others, it doesn't enhance the series or make it better, but it is somewhat fun to play. It follows the story of Ryu, a ninja, through 4 different stages of action-packed excitement. There is a password system to save your progress between stages. There are many different types of projectile weapons, like ninja stars, three way orbs, upward stars, and such to pick up to use along with your sword.

The controls are a bit sloppy in this game. The two buttons make you attack with your sword and jump. The projectile weapons are used by pressing up and attack together. This makes the controls take a little time to get used to, and sometimes makes you accidentally waste some of your precious items. In addition to that, you may only carry one weapon at a time. I suppose that this is the best way to set it up on a two- button system, but I wished there were a easier way.

Graphics: 5/10
The graphics are okay. The hand-drawn way is usually crisp, but in this game it sometimes gets blurry. This doesn't really bother the playing, but it can get annoying. The bosses are way too simple. One of them just pops his head in and out of portholes on a ship! I think they should have been bigger, more defined, and more formidable looking.

Sound: 6/10
Again, this is just okay. The songs are a little catchy, and do nothing to bother you, but they also don't make the whole experience better. The sound effects are also just okay. There is nothing here that you haven't heard before.

Gameplay: 7/10
This is the part of the game that shines, but it is also the part with the most faults. The playing of the game itself is very satisfying, but the numerous faults make it frustrating. First off is you can accidentally throw away your projectiles quite easily with the odd control scheme. Another thing is on one level, you can continuously get juggled on a spike until you die. This is extremely frustrating because it is very hard to avoid. If these and other bugs were fixed, the score would definitely be higher.

Replayabilty/Lasting Appeal: 4/10
The game is way too short. You could easily beat it in one sitting. The difficulty is not very high so you should be able to get through it in one or two tries. The bland graphics and enemies make it so you don't really want to sit through the whole thing again and maybe just play one or two stages. Luckily the passwords are easy to remember so you can play your favorite stage again.

Overall: 6/10
The whole experience is rewarding, but when you really break it down into categories, you see that there is really not much there. If it were longer and had some way to make the controls better, it would be a worthy title. But as it stands, the only reason you should actually buy it is if it was on clearance.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99