 The 80s and 90s are littered with 2D action platformers featuring ninjas. Everything from Ninja Gaiden 1, 2, and 3, Higane, the Shinobi games, Ninja Shadow of Darkness, Ninja 5-0, the Ninja Turtles games, on and on and on. And so what makes Shadow of the Ninja for NES stand out from those games? Or is that Che now of the Ninja? C'mon, that's clearly a lowercase N. Well, all of your traditional ninja stuff is here. You have a sword that you can upgrade, there's special weapons like Ninja Stars which come in limited quantities. You can even use them by holding up or down and pressing B just like you'd expect in games like this. You're swinging from platforms, you're fighting other ninjas, I mean you're just doing ninja stuff and moving around like a ninja, it's what you'd expect, right? I have to point out though that you can only hold one weapon at a time, there's no switching between weapons, so you're better off sticking with just one, like the sword. You can make it stronger by finding other swords in these boxes, but you'll lose it if you pick up something else, so yeah, you gotta skip over the other weapons you find. Shadow of the Ninja doesn't let you bulldoze your way through though, because with some enemies, it really does help to have a projectile, like this dude who blocks and then immediately fires two shots. Unless you have the ninja stars or something like that, you're gonna take a bunch of damage here. And that brings me to the main thing that sets Shadow of the Ninja apart. This game is shockingly, incredibly forgiving when it comes to damage. You have a life bar that allows you to take like 10 or 12 hits before you die. And not only that, there's actual life restoration you can pick up sometimes, imagine that. Now, forgiving is not to be confused with easy, if Shadow of the Ninja is not easy, but it's not in the same universe of difficulty as stuff like Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. It is still really tough though, for example, these guys that try and shove you off ledges, ugh, that's annoying. But instead of instant death, you respawn, only losing a couple of bars of life. It's tough, but forgiving. Bear in mind though that you only get 5 continues, and when you die you start from the beginning of the stage. But yeah, the lack of instant deaths from falling into a pit is really nice. But let's get to the real reason this game stands out on NES and why it's worth playing today. It's two player co-op, and there's very little lag or fragmenting, the flickering that seemingly every NES game has isn't too distracting here, seriously, this along with Jackal are two of the best NES co-op games that don't get talked about enough. It's all you need right here, just two player co-op, it makes all the difference. So yeah, despite any of the other flaws I mentioned, like only one weapon at a time, or some frustrating enemies, here and there, this game is always going to be worth playing because it's two players, you can't beat that. But in addition to some smooth gameplay, good level design, and fantastic music, make Shadow of the Ninja one of the better NES games you'll find. Of course the cartridge is pretty expensive at $40, but it's worth playing today any way you can.