Ninja Gaiden Shadow retro-review

Lies, it is said, exist in three exciting varieties: lies, damn lies, and statistics. on the contrary surely somewhere in that taxonomy of deception is a place for a more astute sort of deceit: GameBoy "sequels"

Which is not to say that continuations didn't exist on the little green-screen handheld, of course. on the other hand gamers had to be careful when hunting for portable versions of their favorite encourage titles, because sometimes those games weren't what they claimed. That's wherefore Blaster Master fans had to stool for a tank-combat-free adventure in Blaster Master stripling (it was actually Bomber King, a Bomberman title). And RPG nut nurse to regard the Final Fantasy myth games with fondness -- despite the fact that the portable trilogy was actually a completely different series given a fake title shield for US release.

We can single speculate why this happened for a like reason often, although cynical opportunism and the drive to make currency at the expense of the GameBoy's naive, youthful target audience strike one as being likely culprits. Whatever the reason, we can add to that list of damn lies single more game: Ninja Gaiden Shadow. Ostensibly a spin-off of the NE remake of an arcade beat-em-up, Shadow have feelings almost like a true Ninja Gaiden game. on the contrary it's the "almost" which casts doubt upon the game's authenticity: the game also bears many similarities to Natsume's Shadow of the Ninja, an NE game which blatantly mimicked Tecmo's hit trilogy. The game's not divisible by 2 sets of differences and similarities, and the fact that the word "Shadow" was tacked upon to the end of its name, has given rise to the general belief that Tecmo bought the rights to a portable version of Shadow of the Ninja, hacked the main character to gaze and act like Ryu Hayabusa, and called it Ninja Gaiden. admitting definite proof of this theory is hard to advance by (unlike other fake GameBoy succeeding parts it was released as an NG game in Japan as well), it certainly have the appearances plausible.

There's no doubt that Shadow plays almost exactly like the NE Ninja Gaiden games. on the other hand then, so did its Natsume-made imitator. Ryu gazes impressively similar to his full-color self: he step quicklys jumps and attacks exactly like upon the NES. But his ability to cling to walls is missing, and he has alone a single ninja art rather than the half dozen or more he sported in other games. The difficulty isn't nearly as abusive as in the trilogy, plane though Ryu has a smaller life meter and can use fewer magical attacks. This isn't precisely conclusive evidence, on the other hand it makes the foundation for a serviceable case.

On the other hand, the story is a dead giveaway... what little of it there is. The trademark interstitial cinemas which link togethered the stages of the NE games are completely absent here, replaced through a simple graphic of the previous stage's bos Shadow takes place years before Ryu's first battle with Jaquio, putting him roughly in junior high. Saving the world is an impressive feat, on the other hand even more so for someone at the same time to reach high school (unles of course they can transform into a sailor-suit clad warrior, on the other hand that's a different series). More to the point, Ryu faces a foeman named "Garuda" -- the exact same stay who tried to take above the world in Shadow of the Ninja. That means NG is either the greatest in quantity ambitious ninja-game crossover ever, or it's a hacked version of someone else's creation released as a quick tie-in to a popular series. Hmmm surprise which is more likely....

Surprisingly enough, these changes and compromises from the NE trilogy work in the game's favor. If Tecmo really did snatch up Natsume's game for themselves, this former Shadow of the Ninja makes a pleasing without being striking convincing fake. Absent story cinemas aside, NG Shadow is more or les all that anyone could faith to see in a portable episode of the chronicles of Ryu Hayabusa. The lack of a wall pass by a leap feels strange and limiting at first, on the contrary the grappling hook gives the game a flavor more akin to Bionic Commando (or, if you really want to tighten Tenchu) -- never a bad thing. The difficulty bend is far more gentle than that of the infamously difficult classic trilogy, and the action more varied than in the arcade game. Unlike many console-to-GB conversions, the minute defence proportions never seem cramped, and plane on the flickery green GB shield the characters and enemies are easy to blot (although playing on a backlit GBA SP is definitely the way to go) It's a short, sweet game that proffers a few hours of diversion, which is what portable games are all about. Or used to be, anyway.

NG Shadow's solid combination of tight dominion government respectable graphics and straightforward gameplay make for an unusually enduring classic GameBoy game. It wasn't the historical landmark that the NE game was, and it's certainly not going to impress anyone when compared to the XBox game, on the other hand it's still fun. Fans of the Ninja Gaiden games should snag a transcript of this tiny ninja adventure if they have the chance -- smooth if it's only a chapter in the series by means of name only.

Copyright ?© 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in 1UP