LogFAQs > #949003537

Time to kick off my list too!

#100. Ninja Gaiden (NES, 1989)

There are a lot of NES games right around this level of the list for me. Games that aren't fantastic, but fall in the pretty good to really good range. Like many of these, Ninja Gaiden presents an level of challenge known as "NES Hard" that requires a mix of strong memorization and always ready reflexes. While there is a lot of trial and error to get that memorization down, these NES games eventually become something one can go back to and hopefully beat in a single evening. There's always some level of difficulty and frustration though, they don't just become easy games. The quick play time and ever-present challenge makes these games all have at least a base level of enjoyable for me.



Ninja Gaiden has a few things to set it one step above the rest of the pack, though. The cutscenes between levels were a neat thing for the NES days. The levels are all pretty memorable, without getting too heavy into gimmicks (which the sequel does a little too much). There's a some power ups and wall jumps to add a little variety to the levels. Ninja Gaiden doesn't get sloppy in the controls either, like many similar NES games do.

Ninja Gaiden also gave us a very memorable episode of Game Center CX (or Retro Game Master, as some might know the show) where Arino suffered at the hands of pretty much everything the game had to offer.

---

ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER.
Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...