Before there was the NES Ninja Gaiden that we all know and love, there was the original Ninja Gaiden for arcades, which was a beat 'em up game (and yes, this is the arcade game due to the platform choices), and unlike Ninja Gaiden on the NES, this hasn't really aged all that well. It is alright for a beat em up game, but for the start of the series, it doesn't really give that much to latch onto.

The story is simple, yet it gets you out and ready for action, the graphics are pretty good, the music is... music, the control is a little awkward to handle, but you can get used to it, and the gameplay itself is also a little awkward for a beat em up, but it is serviceable.

However, for me, I didn't finish the game because the game for me was too difficult, and I was using save states even. I managed to get up to the final stage, but for some reason, no matter what I did, I would always get hit despite all my efforts, and I would constantly get game overs and get sent back to the beginning of the stage. This is a problem that plagues through the entire game, and it is possible it was intentional because it was an arcade game, but either way, it didn't really settle well with me at all, as you can imagine.

Overall, while it isn't bad by any means, the original Ninja Gaiden has a lot of early beat em up problems and issues in general, and it is no wonder that as the series progressed, it would lean more towards platforming and hack and slashing as the alternative.

Game #25