RETRO REBOOT | Ninja Gaiden (TurboGrafx-16)

Even though I have always played a ton of Ninja Gaiden, the recent release of Team Ninja's fourth venture into ultra-violent hack-n-slashing (along with the somber passing of Tomonobu Itagaki, the prominent face in the revival of the series) always gears me towards revisiting the NES games. I can beat the first one and the second one. The third game has a nearly impossible skill ceiling. They're solid games that tested the reflexes of kids and challenged the mettle of older gaming enthusiasts, defining an era of 8-bit gaming. Little did I know that there was a port on the TurboGrafx-16.

Ah, the PC Engine. A system that I only dabbled with throughout my youth, it was sandwiched between the Sega and Nintendo battle of the 80's and 90's. While quiet and unassuming, it actually had a very solid library of software that stands out from the competition. When Konami released the TG-16 Mini, I naturally indulged, and stumbled upon this version of Ryu Hayabusa's battle with Jaquio and his minions. It's certainly amusing, and is playable. But has some very notable shortcomings that hamper the experience.

It's probably not fair to base my opinion of Ninja Gaiden on this anthology collection of ROM games, as a good number of the software on the TG-16 Mini has noticeable input lag. I'll put that into consideration, but this review may be a little imprecise. Owning a PC Engine is still a bit of a white whale for me, so I may revisit this in due time.

Developed and released in 1992, this was a Japan exclusive. There is a lot that's very familiar with Ninja Ryukenden. Most of the core gameplay remains intact, and nothing is different about the story or characters. There is some varied enemy placement that caught me off guard, and a few changes to the weapons. The latter is like taking the good news with the bad; the Spin Slash, for instance, isn't as strong as it was in the NES game. This makes speedrunning and plowing through some of the more annoying enemies tougher. On the plus side, The Art Of The Fire Wheel, the temporary invincibility, no longer negates the previous weapon you acquired.

I also don't care much for the nondescript life bar, switching to one solid meter is certainly a choice. I prefered the individual tabs, it made it considerably easier to read how much damage you've taken and how many hits away from death you are. Especially later in the game, when the enemies get much stronger. I remember it being roughly four hit total, but when I eyeball that red bar, I lose track.

The controls, again, are quite familiar. There is a degree of change in the hitboxes, it's just imprecise to lead to some unnecessary damage I take, as well as trying to land a hit. How much of this I can attribute to this offbeat port of the game, I am not sure, but it's agonizing to just see NOTHING happen while striking. Hayabusa also has a habit of just sticking to the wall when trying to rapid jump back and forth. Not gonna call it Ninja: Shadow of Darkness annoying with the lack of agility, but it disrupts my flow.

PCE Gaiden's sound effects are solid enough, but the music also has an overhaul to it, and I think it's as sharp a downgrade as you can get. The PC Engine is capable of some good tunes, yet these arrangements just don't connect at all. The boss theme has no punch to it, and the notable stage scores, like the 4-2 Mines are completely gone. It sounds like a Sega Master System was thrown down the stairs, then submerged in a bathtub.

The visuals are the most striking change. On one hand, there is more detail sported in this version, which does look nice. The sprite work looks cleaner than the SNES Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, and the colors pop more. There's also more detail in the story cut sequences, so they look much nicer. That's a cool touch. The downside is, there's zero gradients, contrasts, or attempts at shading, so you lose the artistic, surreal atmosphere the NES port establishes. Everything oddly stands out, because the environment, enemies, and Hayabusa are flat colors. Vibrant, sure, but not expressive.

Then there's the parallax scrolling. It's absolutely horrendous. The background track poorly, leading to this stuttering strobe effect that makes me nauseous. There's only a handful of games that I had to take long breaks from playing because the visuals are reeking havoc on my vision, and I already have terrible eyes. This is barely passable on a Game Gear, not a 16-bit console.

Overall, this isn't a bad version of Ninja Gaiden. The challenge is still retained in a lot of ways, the visuals have some appeal to them, and it plays adequately enough. I would still prefer to play this over the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, almost exclusively because of the novelty of a version being on the PC Engine tickles my fancy.

It's just mind boggling that the same console that has visually striking games like Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and The Legendary Axe comes up so short with the in-game graphics on one of the more progressive games in Ninja Gaiden. If you don't mind some of the more imprecise hit detection and the strobe effects that might make you lose your lunch, you can totally have fun with the TG-16 port of Hayabusa's journey.