31st May 2009, 10:09 PM
Oh yeah... now that was awesome. I didn't think I'd actually finish, I thought I'd give up right near the end like I did last week with the first game... but no, I stuck with it, and made it through! (me > 8-bit hard... :))
NES
--
Ninja Gaiden II - Dark Sword of Chaos -- (spoilers of course!) Awesome game, as I just said. It's pretty hard too, of course... this is a NES game, and a Ninja Gaiden game, after all! Still, this one may be a bit easier than the first game, because it doesn't make you RESTART THE ENTIRE LEVEL if you lose a life at the boss in the last two levels or so, it lets you start from the beginning of the second stage instead... of course it does not restore your health between bosses when there are several (the last level) or during in-level cinema scenes like the first one did, but on the other hand once you beat the first of the last three bosses, you don't have to fight him again; next time you get that far you'll be right at the second form, like in NES Batman. Very nice. Didn't help me beat that one, the Joker's impossible, but with some work, I got this one... though really, the first of the final three bosses was definitely the hardest. Once I got past him, the latter two didn't take nearly as many tries... and the first time I got there with the upward-angle fire magic and nearly 100 special weapon power, they went down without too much of a problem. I beat the last form on my first try (the head took the remaining 50 power, then the sword made quick work of the blinking core).
Oh, the graphics and sound are pretty good. Very similar to the first game, but good. The story is also very similar to the first game, and just as poor... there are a lot of cutscenes here, and I know that these games were groundbreaking in their use of cinematic cutscenes, but still, the story itself is so cliche and bland... they're not BAD or something, they're just very generic. Beat evil monster trying to take over/destroy world, rescue kidnapped girl, defeat legions of demons all on your own even though the government seems to know of the threat, etc...
It really gives me a better sense of why Astyanax has such long cutscenes to tell an equally cliche and generic rescue-the-girl-and-country story... its inspiration (storyline-wise, the gameplay in that game is completely different and much more like Legendary Axe or perhaps the first Rastan) was like that too. Eh, oh well... there is some nice imagery going on there and it was enough to keep me going and make me want to finish it, but somehow (;)) I think that was mostly because of the amazing gameplay more than anything. And given that this is a game, that's the most important thing... and they're really good games that definitely deserve the praise they get.
... now I need the third one... well, and play the first one again, but beyond that. I actually saw a copy of the third one several months ago, but didn't get it then... perhaps one is around. I know it's really hard thanks to the 5 continue limit, but still, I do need it. (Oh, on that note, did you know that in the original Japanese version not only does Ninja Gaiden III have infinite continues, it actually has PASSWORD SAVE like all three games have in the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy SNES collection? They removed that from the US version of course, it'd make it too possible... :( the game itself isn't so bad, it's just the continue limit of the US version that makes it really hard.)
NES
--
Ninja Gaiden II - Dark Sword of Chaos -- (spoilers of course!) Awesome game, as I just said. It's pretty hard too, of course... this is a NES game, and a Ninja Gaiden game, after all! Still, this one may be a bit easier than the first game, because it doesn't make you RESTART THE ENTIRE LEVEL if you lose a life at the boss in the last two levels or so, it lets you start from the beginning of the second stage instead... of course it does not restore your health between bosses when there are several (the last level) or during in-level cinema scenes like the first one did, but on the other hand once you beat the first of the last three bosses, you don't have to fight him again; next time you get that far you'll be right at the second form, like in NES Batman. Very nice. Didn't help me beat that one, the Joker's impossible, but with some work, I got this one... though really, the first of the final three bosses was definitely the hardest. Once I got past him, the latter two didn't take nearly as many tries... and the first time I got there with the upward-angle fire magic and nearly 100 special weapon power, they went down without too much of a problem. I beat the last form on my first try (the head took the remaining 50 power, then the sword made quick work of the blinking core).
Oh, the graphics and sound are pretty good. Very similar to the first game, but good. The story is also very similar to the first game, and just as poor... there are a lot of cutscenes here, and I know that these games were groundbreaking in their use of cinematic cutscenes, but still, the story itself is so cliche and bland... they're not BAD or something, they're just very generic. Beat evil monster trying to take over/destroy world, rescue kidnapped girl, defeat legions of demons all on your own even though the government seems to know of the threat, etc...
It really gives me a better sense of why Astyanax has such long cutscenes to tell an equally cliche and generic rescue-the-girl-and-country story... its inspiration (storyline-wise, the gameplay in that game is completely different and much more like Legendary Axe or perhaps the first Rastan) was like that too. Eh, oh well... there is some nice imagery going on there and it was enough to keep me going and make me want to finish it, but somehow (;)) I think that was mostly because of the amazing gameplay more than anything. And given that this is a game, that's the most important thing... and they're really good games that definitely deserve the praise they get.
... now I need the third one... well, and play the first one again, but beyond that. I actually saw a copy of the third one several months ago, but didn't get it then... perhaps one is around. I know it's really hard thanks to the 5 continue limit, but still, I do need it. (Oh, on that note, did you know that in the original Japanese version not only does Ninja Gaiden III have infinite continues, it actually has PASSWORD SAVE like all three games have in the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy SNES collection? They removed that from the US version of course, it'd make it too possible... :( the game itself isn't so bad, it's just the continue limit of the US version that makes it really hard.)
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