Team Ninja "pwned" Sega (Ninja Gaiden vs Shinobi)
I was looking up some Ninja Gaiden Black photos to accent this page a little bit; looks like I'll need to do some editing to get what I want.
Anyway, I came across this old forum discussion. The topic is Shinobi vs Ninja Gaiden. The posters lean toward Shinobi. I wonder what the hell videos they saw, because the difference was night and day when both games were released. However, keeping in mind that this was 4 years ago helps their opinions become less surprising.
Shinobi on PS2 most likely disappointed the above-mentioned gamers. It was succeeded by a better-playing quasi-sequel called Nightshade. Both games, however, really never held a candle to Ninja Gaiden on Xbox. Ninja Gaiden is still an Xbox flagship title, whereas Shinobi and NightShade were easily forgotten.
One doesn't have to delve far into Shinobi and NightShade to find that they are extremely repetitive. Both have boring combos, moves that are mockingly absurd, unmemorable weapons, and the controls leave much to be desired. The levels are more like "stages" and have a straight-forward path. Within those levels, it's difficult to judge distances, leaving the difficulty to be labeled as "annoying" rather than "hard" or "easy".
On the contrary, Ninja Gaiden offers multiple weapons, each with dozens of combos that can be chained together. The battle system takes a bit of time to adjust to, but once the player can effectively pull off even a simple combo, he/she feels like a badass. The animations/moves are excuted very well, and seem almost natural when exploring the "open" levels. The game can be extremely difficult, although Ninja Gaiden Black lightened the load with "Ninja Dog Mode" (aka easy).
1up.com gives Ninja Gaiden Black a 10, Shinobi a 7.2, and NightShade a 6.0.
Personally, I think the 7.2 for Shinobi was extremely generous, and should have switched with NightShade's rating. But Shinobi did come out first. Check out the links to the 1up reviews for more info if you've never played these games before.
If anybody actually thought Shinobi or NightShade was superior to Ninja Gaiden (or Ninja Gaiden Black), I'd love to hear your comments. Personally, I think Ninja Gaiden is better compared to Devil May Cry or God of War.
posted by SuicideNinja at 11:47 AM
4 Comments:
I don't think Ninja Gaiden is better than Devil May Cry. To tell you the truth, when I was playing Ninja Gaiden, all I could think off was "and why did *this* come out 3 years after DMC?".
Gameplay aside, I like vampires, demons and style more than ninjas and stealth. The atmosphere in DMC is so much darker than NG (understandably).
I know you like action and RPG games, so you should try Kingdom Hearts 2. It's so much better than the first one (which rocked).
b o o t s
I have Devil May Cry 2 and 3. I don't personally care for either, but Jessica (SqueakyNinja) likes them, so they are for her. I've played the original, but I could never get into it.
Understandable on the underlying themes between the games. I'm the opposite; I am tired of vampires and trenchcoat-sporting "heroes". Demons are in both games, but I'll agree that DMC has a "darker" feel to it...except DMC3...that one is just silly; "I never go for a girl that shoots me in the face!"
I do have to say that I don't think any Ninja Gaiden game has been about stealth. The NES games had you running through slicing enemies; a test of timing and accuracy. The arcade had you running through and beating up enemies. Ninja Gaiden Black had you doing both in 3D with more movies, harder ememies, and "open" levels.
Actually, the only ninja-game I recall playing that is about stealth is Tenchu. That's okay; Splinter Cell has all the stealth I need anyway. ;)
I've thought about trying KH. I'll probably give it a run when it can be had for under $20. I'm in no rush there.
A matter of likes then. I only have Devil May Cry, I didn't buy DMC2 because most reviews, including some of gamers I personally know, say it sucked. Since DMC3: Special Edition is out and I don't have an original, I want to try it out.
On Ninja Gaiden, I did feel it was kind of frustrating. I had to constantly run and hide unless I wanted to spend all my potions and magic on mindless rocket launchers and ninja bomb throwers. I haven't finished the game (because I've been busy with others).
Kingdom Hearts 1 is a really great game... I hate that people disregard it just because it has disney characters. In fact, the storyline is pretty swell, but even better is that it all improves in KH2. You should seriously consider it. Don't take too seriously the comments of the difficulty being "too easy"; you can adjust it (in KH2) to "Proud Mode", and I've been supposedly playing the game for 25 hours now, but trust me, it is probably a lot more than that. On proud mode, it can get as frustrating as Ninja Gaiden, except with more RPG elements. As of now, I've enjoyed it a lot more than the first one.
Hell, you should end up loving it, if only for the final fantasy cameos, including Sephiroth. Play KH1 first if you haven't.
Isaac / b o o t s
If you liked the first DMC, then you'd probably like the 3rd one. The 2nd one is really...blah. It has no personality as a game, and it just seems like you are going through the motions, but not necessarily enjoying it.
Ninja Gaiden is a hard game. I think a big reason that people have a hard time with it is that button-mashing doesn't work. You have to be "on it", kind of like Halo 2 multiplayer (level 30+).
Actually, the FF characters in KH are quite an allure. I'm not so big on the classic Disney characters, but some of the later characters are cool.
Too many games, too little time. ;)
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