 The past three videos all had ninja in the title, so let's make it four with the ultimate ninja game, Ninja Gaiden. Let's jump right into it. When you think of Ninja Gaiden, only one thing comes to mind, the difficulty. When people talk about games being NES hard, they're directly referring to games like Ninja Gaiden. This has gotta be in the top five for hardest NES games. It's right there with Castlevania III, Street Fighter 2010, Ghosts and Goblins and the like. The thing is, a big part of what makes Ninja Gaiden so hard is that it's kind of, okay, it's really unfair. The way certain enemies respawn is downright ridiculous. The screen is so finicky, if you move over even a pixel too far, the enemy comes back. But hey, this can also work to your advantage too, like this ridiculous jump coming up here. Hey, cool, see ya. But then there's crap like this, which is the bane of my existence. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. How about if I just Rambo? Nope. Maybe if I trigger the bird for, nope. But you know what, you get unlimited continues, so there's no excuse but to keep going. Like I'm one to talk, I've never beaten this game. Anyway, I want to make sure to point out as well that make no mistake, a lot of the difficulty is by design and completely organic. I always have so much trouble with these damn birds and the sheer amount of pits everywhere is always tough to contend with. It's like Dracula from Castlevania Dracula X contracted the guy who designed these levels for his final dungeon. Ninja Gaiden though reminds me a bit of Super Ghouls and Ghosts and that you have to take advantage of your weapons. But unlike Super Ghouls and Ghosts, you get a very limited amount of them, and if you die, you don't keep the weapon. That's brutal. That about sums up the experience of playing this game, brutal. And don't get me started on the sequels, which are even more brutal. With wind, rain, ice, snow, darkness, screw that nonsense, I'll stick with the original, thanks. Ninja Gaiden is also notable for having a story complete with cutscenes, dialogue and everything, but beyond the novelty of an NES game with a story, the story is actually pretty interesting, and surprisingly long. I mean it's got three paragraphs on the Wikipedia page. Ryu Hayabusa wants revenge for his father, Ken's death. He comes to find that Ken and an archaeologist named Walter Smith were safekeepers of these two statues, Shadow and Light. When they're combined, they release a demon hell-bent on world destruction. Of course, one of the statues is taken and the story builds and builds, there's a couple twists here and there, and like I said, it's not just that there's a somewhat deep story in an NES game, it's that the story is actually good and keeps you guessing. The dialogue itself isn't anything to write home about, but the story serves as a great incentive to keep playing what is a really frustrating game. You just want to see what happens next. Of course, it helps that the cutscenes still to this day look fantastic, with sharp, bright, and colorful pixel art. The way the story is told in Ninja Gaiden is such a testament to the timeless appeal of this graphic style. For flaws with this game, I mean flaws other than the absurd enemy responding, the controls don't always feel responsive. Sometimes if I'm clinging to a wall, I'm just kind of stuck there for a couple seconds. The same thing happens when ducking or when I try and turn the other way. But yeah, anyway, Ninja Gaiden has so many good things going for it that it's easy not only to ignore its flaws, but embrace them. The story and its presentation, the music, the sound design, the frenetic action, the weapons, and yes, the difficulty. After finishing a level, you really feel like you've earned the right to see the next part of the story, and it doesn't disappoint. That's the everlasting appeal of this game.