Ninja Gaiden (NES video game)

Ninja Gaiden features a ninja named Ryu Hayabusa who seeks revenge for the death of his father and gradually finds himself involved in a sinister plot that threatens the entire world.[2] The story opens with Ryu's father Ken seemingly killed in a duel by an unknown assailant. After the duel, Ryu finds a letter written by Ken which tells him to find an archeologist named Walter Smith in America.[3] Before Ryu can find Walter, he is shot and kidnapped by a mysterious young woman; she hands him a demonic-looking statue before releasing him.[4] Ryu then finds Walter who tells him of the demon statues he and Ken had found in the Amazon ruins. Walter tells Ryu of an evil demon named Jashin, that "SHINOBI" defeated, whose power was confined into "Light" and "Shadow" demon statues.[5][6] Ryu shows Walter the "Shadow" demon statue given to him by the woman, but during their conversation, a masked figure, named Basaquer,[7] suddenly breaks into the cabin and steals the Shadow statue. Ryu gives chase, defeats the masked figure, and retrieves the statue; but when he returns he finds that Walter is dying, and the Light statue is missing. Right after Walter dies, three armed men confront Ryu and tell him to come with them.[4]

Ryu is taken to an interrogation room, where he meets Foster, head of the Special Auxiliary Unit of the Central Intelligence Agency. Foster tells him about a more-than-2000-year-old temple Walter discovered in the Amazon. He explains that Walter mysteriously sealed the ruins, and nobody has since ventured near them.[8] Foster mentions they have been monitoring the activity of someone named Guardia de Mieux, also known as "the Jaquio", who recently moved into the temple where the body of the demon was confined.[9] Using the statues, the Jaquio plans to awaken Jashin and use it to destroy the world.[10] Foster asks Ryu to go to the temple and eliminate him.[11] At the temple, Ryu discovers the Jaquio has captured the girl who handed him the "Shadow" statue earlier. He orders Ryu to give up the demon statue after threatening the girl's life, then drops Ryu through a trapdoor and into a catacomb.[12]

After fighting his way back to the top of the temple, Ryu encounters Bloody Malth, whom he defeats. As he is dying, Malth reveals that he was the one who dueled with Ryu's father, that his father is still alive, and Ryu will meet him as he presses onward.[13] When he reaches the temple's inner chambers, he discovers his father was possessed by an evil figure.[14] He destroys the evil figure and releases Ken from its hold. An enraged Jaquio shows himself and tries to kill Ryu with a fiery projectile, but Ken throws himself in front of Ryu and takes the hit. Ryu subsequently kills Jaquio, but then a lunar eclipse causes the demon statues to transform into Jashin.[15] After Ryu defeats the demon, a dying Ken tells Ryu to leave him behind in the temple while it collapses, and to take the young woman with him.[16] Afterwards, Foster, communicating via satellite, orders the girl to kill Ryu and steal the demon statues;[17] she chooses to be with Ryu instead of carrying out the order. The two kiss, and the girl tells Ryu her name, Irene Lew; they watch as the sun rises.

Gameplay in which the player-character Ryu Hayabusa is about to destroy an enemy bird with his current secondary weapon—a shuriken

Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling platform game in which the player takes control of the player character, Ryu Hayabusa, and guides him through six "Acts" that comprise 20 levels.[18] A life meter represents Ryu's physical strength, which decreases when he is hit by an enemy or projectile. A "life" is lost when the life meter is depleted entirely, when Ryu falls off the screen, or when the timer runs out. A game over screen appears when all lives are lost;[19] however, the player may restart the level where this occurred by continuing.[20] At the end of every Act, the player fights a boss; bosses have life meters depleted by player attacks. When its life meter is depleted entirely, a boss is defeated.[19] Each boss is one of the "Malice Four"—evil underlings of the Jaquio, the game's main antagonist. The Malice Four consist of Barbarian, Bomberhead, Basaquer, and their leader Bloody Malth.[7][21]

Players attack enemies by thrusting at them with Ryu's Dragon Sword—a katana-like sword passed down by the Hayabusa clan for generations.[22] They can also use secondary weapons that consume Ryu's "spiritual strength". These include throwing stars, "windmill throwing stars", which cut through enemies and return like boomerangs, a series of twirling fireballs named "the art of the fire wheel", and a mid-air slashing technique called the "jump & slash".[21][23] When Ryu's spiritual strength meter is too low, the player cannot use secondary weapons. Players can replenish Ryu's spiritual strength by collecting red and blue "spiritual strength" items found in lamps and lanterns. Other items found along the way include hourglasses that freeze all enemies and projectiles for five seconds, bonus point containers, potions that restore six units of physical strength, "invincible fire wheels" that make Ryu temporarily invincible to attacks and 1-ups.[23]

Ryu can jump on and off ladders and walls, and by using the directional pad, he can climb up or down ladders. Ryu can spring off walls by holding the directional pad in the opposite direction he is facing and pressing the jump button. He cannot attack while on walls or ladders. Players can use this technique to get Ryu to climb up spaces between walls and columns by holding down the jump button and alternating between left and right on the directional pad. He can also climb a single wall vertically by springing off it and then quickly pressing the directional pad back towards the wall.[4][22]

Tecmo first announced the Famicom version of the game in the January 15, 1988, issue of Family Computer Magazine under the title Ninja Gaiden (which would later be used for the game's American version).[24] The game was released in Japan on December 9, 1988, under its final title Ninja Ryūkenden,[25][26] which roughly translates to Legend of the Dragon Sword.[27][lower-alpha 3] It was developed and released around the same time as the beat 'em up arcade version of the same name; neither of the games were ports of each other but were parallel projects developed by different teams.[28] According to developer Masato Kato (listed as "Runmaru" in the game's credits), the term "ninja" was gaining popularity in North America, prompting Tecmo to develop a ninja-related game for the NES at the same time the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden was being developed.[29] Hideo Yoshizawa (listed as "Sakurazaki") developed and directed the NES version.[29] Ninja Gaiden was Masato Kato's first full-time project as a video game designer, and he contributed the game's graphics, animations and instruction manual illustrations.[28]

Drawing inspiration from the Mario series,[29] Yoshizawa kept the same title but changed everything else; it became a platform game as opposed to a beat 'em up such as Double Dragon;[26] the gameplay was modeled after Konami's Castlevania,[30] with Ryu being equipped with a katana-like Dragon Sword, shurikens, and ninpo techniques such as fire wheels.[26] In designing the protagonist Ryu Hayabusa, the development team wanted him to be unique from other ninjas. They designed him with a ninja vest to place emphasis on his muscles, and they furnished him with a cowl that arched outward. They originally wanted to equip Ryu with sensors and a helmet with an inside monitor to check his surroundings, but that idea was scrapped. According to Kato, they used specific locations and environments to justify the need for having a ninja for a main character.[29] A further concern, according to Yoshizawa, was to appeal to the gameplay-oriented expectations of Ninja Gaiden's target audience, mainly represented by experienced players who appreciated challenging game design. He recalled that during development, Tecmo adhered to "the philosophy that the user would throw a game away if it wasn't hard enough". As a result, Yoshizawa decided to give the game an overall high level of difficulty.[31]

Yoshizawa placed greater emphasis on the story, unlike the arcade version,[29] and wrote and designed a plot that included over 20 minutes of cinematic cutscenes—the first time an NES game contained such sequences.[26] Yoshizawa stated that the adoption of this presentational style came from his earlier aspiration for a career in commercial filmmaking, which led him to seek an opportunity "to put in a movie somehow".[31] His idea was to reverse the then-prevailing trend wherein the narrative aspects of contemporary NES games were undervalued by consumers with the inclusion of an interesting plot that could engage those players.[31] Tecmo called the cutscene system "Tecmo Theater" where the game reveals the storyline between Acts through the use of animated sequences. They are used at the beginning of each Act to introduce new characters such as Irene Lew, Walter Smith, and the Jaquio.[21] This feature uses techniques such as close-ups, alternate camera angles, differing background music, and sound effects to make the game more enjoyable for players.[32] Unlike earlier titles such as Final Fantasy, the cutscenes consisted of large anime art on the top half of the screen with dialogue on the bottom half. This made the artistic style more reminiscent of other manga titles such as Lupin III and Golgo 13. Dimitri Criona, Tecmo USA's director of sales and marketing, said that console games had an advantage over arcade games in that they allowed the creation of a longer game and the inclusion of cutscenes, which Tecmo trademarked as "cinema screens". He noted console games required a different reward structure than arcade games.[30] The game contains a feature that was originally a glitch but was left in the final game intentionally, according to Masato Kato; having lost to any of the game's last three bosses, the player is sent back to the beginning of the sixth act.[28]

When the game's text was translated from Japanese to English, the game needed to be reprogrammed to accomplish this; different companies handled this process in different ways. Tecmo's Japanese writers wrote rough translations in English and then faxed them to the American division. According to Criona, the American division would "edit it and put it back together, telling the story in a context that an American English speaker would understand. This would go back and forth several times". Moreover, the game's text was stored in picture files instead of raw computer text. Because of the NES's hardware limitations, the English text needed to be very clear and concise to fall within those limitations; many times, different words with the same meaning but with fewer characters had to be used. All symbols and objects were scrutinized by Nintendo of America, who had specific rules on what could be included for North American releases; for instance, any Satanic, Christian, or any other religious, sexual, or drug-related references were not allowed.[33]

Since the game's title was deemed too difficult for English audiences to read, it was renamed when it was released in Western markets.[26] In early 1988 advertisements from Nintendo Fun Club News, Tecmo used Ninja Dragon as a tentative title for the U.S. release.[34] They decided to use the title Ninja Gaiden (its original working title) when the game was released in the U.S. in March 1989.[35] The title literally means "Ninja Side-Story", but the game was not intended as a spin-off of any prior work.[26] According to an interview with developer Masato Kato, when deciding how to translate "Ryukenden" into English, the staff chose Ninja Gaiden "because it sounded cool".[28] In Europe, the game was scheduled to be released in September 1990, but was delayed until September 1991. It was retitled as Shadow Warriors—just as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was renamed Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles—as ninjas were considered a taboo subject in Europe.[21][36] It was one of many ninja-related video games around the time, such as The Legend of Kage, Ninja Warriors, and Shinobi.[29]

Upon Ninja Gaiden's North American release, Nintendo of America, whose play-testers liked the game and gave it high ratings, decided to help with its marketing. Nintendo's house organ Nintendo Power featured it prominently. According to Criona, it did not take a lot of effort to market the game through the magazine, nor did Tecmo or Nintendo do much else to promote it. Ninja Gaiden received strong publicity in Nintendo Power in 1989 and 1990. Ninja Gaiden received preview coverage in the January–February 1989 issue of Nintendo Power in its "Pak Watch" section. It "got the highest marks of any title ... [the magazine's staff had] seen in a long time". It was expected to be No. 1 on their "Player's Poll" quickly. The preview compared Ryu's ability to climb and spring off walls to the gameplay in Metroid.[37] It was featured on the cover of the magazine's March–April 1989 issue and was referenced in the following issue in a Howard and Nester comic strip.[38][39] It was one of the featured games in both March–April and May–June 1989 issues of the magazine; both issues included a walkthrough up to the fifth Act, a review, and a plot overview.[4][12] Underlining the game's difficulty, it appeared in several issues in the magazine's "Counselor's Corner"[40] and "Classified Information" help sections.[41][42][43]

The game was unveiled at the 1989 International Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Its display featured a demo of the game and a live person dressed as a ninja.[44] Tecmo predicted that the game would be the top-selling, third-party title for the NES.[45]

Demand for the game eventually exceeded its supply. While Tecmo anticipated the game would be a hit, according to Kohler they did not realize at the time the impact it would have on the video game industry "with its groundbreaking use of cinematics".[33] Yoshizawa would go on to direct the sequel Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990) and remained as an executive producer for Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991), while Masato Kato took over directing the game design.[28]

Seth Godin ("F. X. Nine") published the novelization of Ninja Gaiden as part of the Worlds of Power series of NES-related books.

In July 1990 Scholastic Corporation published a novelization of Ninja Gaiden under the Worlds of Power series of NES game adaptations, created and packaged by Seth Godin under the pseudonym F. X. Nine. Godin and Peter Lerangis, under the pseudonym A. L. Singer, wrote the novelization.[55] As with the other Worlds of Power books, the amount of violence present in the video game was toned down in the novelization, because Godin and Scholastic were concerned that some of the material in the video game was inappropriate for a young audience. The novel did not adhere strictly to the game's storyline; for instance, the ending was changed so that Ryu's father survived.[56] Godin believed the revised ending was consistent with the Worlds of Power character. As real-life fathers Godin and Lerangis were reluctant to leave Ryu fatherless.[57] On the book's cover, otherwise a copy of the North American box art, the kunai held in Ryu's front hand was airbrushed out, leaving him prodding the air with an empty fist.[56]

Pony Canyon released a soundtrack CD, Ninja Ryukenden: Tecmo GSM-1, in February 1989. The first half of the CD starts with an arranged medley of the game's music. It continues with enhanced versions of the game's music which used stereophonic sound and additional PCM channels. The rest of the CD features music from the arcade version.[58] In 2017, Brave Wave Productions released a vinyl box set, Ninja Gaiden- the Definitive Soundtrack, mastered by original composer Keiji Yamagishi.[59]

• Ninja Gaiden series

• Ninja Gaiden at MobyGames
• Ninja Gaiden title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database