Thursday, November 4, 2010

Flashback - 001 - Ninja Gaiden 2



After recently watching the Angry Video Game Nerd Castlevania retrospective and hearing his final statement about those games, both the good and bad, being like a photograph of moments he'll never forget, then thinking about Chad Concelmo's excellent Memory Card articles over at Destructoid, I felt it was time that I wax nostalgicly about games that were important in my life. Anyone else out there that's reading this, either comment on it or feel free to join in the movement, because as long as Superman 64 had some sort of significance in your life, it's always good to hear about it and why it left such an impact. The first entry in this series for me? Ninja Gaiden 2.

After FINALLY completing the game, I was debating on writing an actual review in my head. I felt this would be much more appropriate, considering how important this game was in my life as a gamer, instead of critically analyzing every aspect of it. Ninja Gaiden 2 is one of the earliest video game memories for me, along with Super Mario Bros., Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and Contra. I'm not sure why, but I have distinct memories of being 4 years old and holding the controller in my hands, knowing that as long as I had the controller, I was a badass ninja, running across rooftops and slashing enemies out of existence. While the first game gets the credit for starting the franchise and pioneering that cinematic storytelling technique via cutscenes, the incredible graphics of this sequel actually made me feel like I was Ryu Hayabusa. And that's just the beginning.

It seemed like all the kids I knew at the time (including myself) were really into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since the first TMNT game was pretty not good, something about this captured what I really wanted my ninja to be. Ninja Turtles had the advantage of selecting 4 different turtles. NG2? Although it's just one dude against hordes of strange enemies, who could possibly forget all the amazing power ups? By slashing any of the floating orbs in the game, items would then drop out, ranging from scrolls that could restore your life or magic, to the invincibility-granting firewheel, all the way to the amazing shadow ninjas that would follow you around and help you take down enemies without actually taking damage. Speaking of them, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person in the world that somehow convinced myself that there was some sort of secret code to make the game into a 3 player game by getting one of those ninja and having a friend enter some elusive code on the controller.



Another major advantage of this game to that other ninja franchise is that the storyline in NG2 was definitely more gritty. After reaching and taking down the first boss, you stumble across a strange man that gives you pointers on where to go in your quest. All of a sudden, the guy pulls a gun out and fires at you - or does he? Turns out, that monster you just killed wasn't all the way dead and he totally just saved you. After finishing that amazing city level and seeing that jaw dropping cutscene for the first time, you're...on a train? Until about 10 minutes from the time that I'm writing this (3 AM on November 3, 2010), I never realized that the boss of the first level just so happens to be -gasp- in a train yard. Anyway, after boarding the train and fighting your way to the front of it, you're in one most memorable NES stages I've had the pleasure of enjoying. Most platformers have their ice and lava levels. This game places you on a mountain (which I'm assuming comes from the mountains on the background on the preceding stage). As a result of the elevation, there happens to be snow. This snow isn't coating the ground, so at least you can hold your footing and don't have to worry about slipping and sliding around like you do on so many similar stages. Oh no. Instead, you watch the snows direction. When it's falling straight down, there's nothing to worry about. When it's moving left or right, it pushes you in that direction, meaning if you're fighting the elements, you're going to be going a lot slower than normal and incapable of making what would have previously been the most simple jumps. If you work with it, you'll be going twice as fast and fly twice as far through the air, Since the game wasn't satisfied with difficult jumps on its own, this levels nasty trick is that sometimes the snow just stops going in a direction, or pushes back in mid jump, causing you to fall to your death.

In many games, that would be infuriating. In NG2, it came across as being incredibly innovative and gave you one more thing to master. After working your way through this level, the 3rd stage is a battle across a treacherous path leading to a castle. Unfortunately, this is the last highly innovative level that I can think of. Instead of it just being a bunch of perilous blocks and platforms strewn about, with a constant threat of enemies, there are certain parts of the level that are too dark to see any of the terrain, forcing you to wait until lightning strikes, then carefully move towards your goal. Keep in mind that you could technically do this entire area if you had the layout memorized, but realistically, you won't, so it's just one more amazing element that makes this game such an impressive feat in the world of 8 bit platformers. The rest of the game has you using your platforming skills to eventually fight the end boss, which has 2 forms, since that's what every end boss ever has to do.



The last thing that really stands out for me aside from the awesome level design, amazing cutscenes, and gorgeous graphics was the fantastic soundtrack. Since this was towards the end NES life cycle, but the SNES hadn't hit American shores just yet, developers had managed to crank out some beautiful sounds coming from the consoles sound chip. While it's no Streets of Rage 2 by any means, every single sound fits the enviroments you're in. The main melody on the snowy mountain stage is something that will probably forever be etched into my memory, probably thanks to how long it took me to clear the level. Something about the song used in the first level always feels like it's ramping me up for what's almost always going to be a long adventure until the end of the game.

All in all, while I can't say Ninja Gaiden 2 is the best game of all time, it definitely sticks out in my memory, and it's nice that it's one of the games that I feel holds up incredibly well to this day. When people ask what games they should use to get a friend into gaming, instead of going with a game like Modern Warfare because of graphics, or Flower because of the innovative control scheme, there's something that's really simple about having 4 directions on ONE d-pad and 2 buttons to perform any of the possible in game actions.

Hope you enjoyed this first feature of what will hopefully turn into a either daily or at least weekly series, as long as I can keep writing. For anyone wondering, this isn't going to follow any sort of chronological or top 10 order, it's just going to be games that have meant a lot to me over the years for whatever reason, from the 2600 to the PS3 and everything in between. Hell, I might even include some pinball tables if I feel like it!

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