Last year, I spent a good chunk of my free time playing the first Ninja Gaiden (1988) for the Famicom system. It's known as one of the hardest games ever made. When I first beat it, I jumped and screamed and punched like I had won the superbowl (without the exercise). I celebrated countless weekends by giving it a play through, eventually beating the entire game without dying. It has a sort of a soft spot in my heart. But, for some strange reason, I never bought the other two games in the trilogy until a few weeks ago. Now that I've played through the entire saga (almost - the third one is nigh impossible), I can safely say it's one of the best man-made adventures you can embark on. So why is it so awesome?
1) You're fighting against evil. There are far too many games where you kill enemies just because they're between you and the end of the level, or because you want to see some blood. In Ninja Gaiden, you never forget that you're fighting to save the world from an eternity of darkness and demons. There's no mistaking what's good, what's evil or which side you're on.
There is one problem, to this regard, however. There tends to be a view of evil as simply being evil in-and-of-itself. It's not that a certain type of action, or character, or idea is evil, but that evil is a seperate entity, whose essence is purely evil (sort of platonic, in a way). You get bad guys saying things like, "We'll find out whether light or darkness is more powerfull," but we don't have much of a reason to root for light other than ... well you don't want to root for darkness, do you? This has been a common error since the advent of story telling, and it's one of the most dangerous plot devices ever conceived. It simplifies, trivializes and cartoonizes evil, allowing people to fall prey to brain washing (especially in the form of religion) and traits that are truly evil, since nobody jumped out and explicitly called it "darkness." No Nazi ever said, "Good can never stand up to our powers of evil!" They thought they were fighting for the good, which happened to be gaining power for the Aryan race in their view.
2) Other than spider-like demons and a sword made out of dragon bone, the main antagonist is the sly, deceiving and coercive government. I don't really think I need to say more here.
3) The controlls are smoother than a baby's bottom. You may throw your controller across the room because a bat spawned as you were jumping, or the same eagle reappeard five times, but you'll never get angry because the controls didn't do what you expected them to, or were delayed. You can be precise as a surgeon, pulling off pixel-close moves just as you wanted them to unfold. For people who don't play many video games (especially of the old school variety), this is a big deal. It's like drinking a bottle of premium aged bourbon that goes down smooth and has a full bodied, earthy finish every time you load it up.
Why Ninja Gaiden is Awful
1) Demon dogs, jackals, eagles (including all colors and robo-eagles) and bats will be the first to taste hot lead when I finally snap.
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