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Play it on: PC Engine (or play the NES version if you want the real thing)
Current goal: Kick Jaquio’s ass
Reviewing the Analogue Duo, a modern-day replacement for NEC’s classic 1980s PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 consoles, was a great chance to revisit a host of lovely games from a time when video games were simpler, smaller affairs, more bite-sized entertainments than gargantuan undertakings.
And also some mediocre ones. One I unexpectedly glommed onto was Ninja Ryuukenden, which is the PC Engine’s 1992 Japan-only port of the 1988 NES action classic Ninja Gaiden. Gaiden is an all-timer, a symphony of tightly timed, unforgiving action that became one of the NES’ most memorable games. I’ve played it so much over the years its patterns settled into my hands. I adore it.
Then there’s this 1992 PC Engine remake, ported by Hudson. It is not a classic. It does, in fact, break the super-tuned action timings of the NES game to deliver something altogether less compulsively playable and striking. The redone graphics are often less stylish, and the new soundtrack is a huge downgrade from the moody, compelling original’s. (On the bright side, it has a cheat code to play in English.)
But I dunno, the basic outline of Ninja Gaiden is still there, and I keep finding myself mindlessly playing the first two or three stages before quitting to go back to whatever I’m doing. The different (objectively less fun!) rhythms are starting to settle into muscle memory, so I imagine I’m making myself actively worse at the original every minute I spend playing this questionable remake.
Yet I’m feeling a pull. I keep noticing differences…usually for the worse, but it’s fascinating. This last session I took the legendary jump-and-slash subweapon to the first boss, and rather than instantly shredding him like it would on NES, I got hurt and bounced right off. What the heck! Who said you could fix that? Who said you should fix that?
I’m starting to see that I need to just sit down and play this semi-cursed thing through to the end, something I haven’t done in the 20 or so years I’ve owned a copy. Ninja Gaiden’s bugged, super-difficult endgame is infamous among NES players. It’s probably easier here, but who can say what fresh hell awaits? It’s finally time to see. — Alexandra Hall
And that wraps our picks for the week! What games are you playing this weekend?
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