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"Ninja Gaiden - Good and bad"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Ninja Gaiden'.
Sun 16/05/04 at 22:51
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Got it on Friday.

It's good because ninjas are good. It's innately cool to do ninja stuff, and unless your name is Sho Kosugi, it's unlikely you can actually do that stuff for real.
It's bad because, for all the excellent graphics, awesome speed etc, it relies on that creaking cliche of end-of-level bosses.
I mean really, in an age where you have soft-physics systems in Splinter Cell 2 and independant AI in Half-Life 2, must we still be forced to drudge through that ancient game-stretch technique of making you face multiple Bosses?

Throw yourself at it until you realise the weakspot.
*yawn*
I prefer games where, if your skillfull and observant enough, you can make it through and feel like you're participating and actually controlling what's happening.

Ninja Gaiden?
Checkpoint reach - FMV - Boss.
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Turn off and smoke several cigarettes to calm down and stop yourself from putting the controller through the tv
Return to game
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Defeat Boss
Continue

2004. Half-Life 2, Doom 3, mobile camera phones, internet, txt messaging.
Good things that have progressed since 1980 when video games were dull and bosses were prolific.
Ninja Gaiden - ninja excellence, cool weapons, awesome graphics.
End of Level Boss.
They're as cheesy cliche as ladder-death in FPS and bugs too small to shoot.
Why?
And whilst I'm fuming about bosses, the other thing that's boiled my blood about this game?

LET ME SAVE WHEN I'VE DONE AN IMPOSSIBLY HARD BIT
Don't give me set-save points that means when I die (and you will, continously), I don't have to redo huge portions of a level.
I'm thinking specifically about the first time you reach the Vigoor capital.
You have to fight large groups of black ninja (ridiculously hard), regular enemies and ever-oncoming foes.
With not a single save point. Not one. Anywhere.
A level that takes 10 mins once you know where to go and what to do.
And not one solitary point at which to save your game.

What kind of retarded level designed came up with that idea?
"Oooh oooh, I know! The first time the player encounters Black Ninjas with exploding stuff and impossibly fast attacks...let's not give them a save point anywhere!!!!"
"Cool! That'll frustrate them beyond bloodboiling!"
"Yeah! Let's have the player fight these new foes 3 times in a level with no saves! And only 2 health potions to collect!!!"
"nice one!!!!!"

It's a good game, but for me the lack of saving after I've done a really hard bit (of which there are many) makes it a tedious thing to plow through level sections again and again and again and again and again.

Feel free to preen like acne-stricken peacocks and brag about "Well I did it with no problems so it must be you then", it's nothing to boast about that your hand-to-glans combat skills enable you to have pointdexter levels of accuracy.
Mon 17/05/04 at 00:05
Regular
"ATAT Supremo"
Posts: 6,238
Its a good game and stuff, but it could have been so much better. Keep the human beheadings in, add a decent save system to the game, take that bloody difficulty down a notch so you don't wanna put your foot through the screen every 30 seconds and set it all in a decent time such as feudal Japan.

The first couple of levels are really cool, but the ones where all the soldiers and crap come into it, I just think its not as good. Oh and another thing, what is so bloody difficult about giving the player the ability to control the camera with the right analogue ?? I HATE getting blind sided and then getting my head kicked in.

Thing is, the difficulty just takes so much of the fun away. You just can't enjoy going over the same stuff again and again the way you have to in this game. The moves and weapons are excellent, you can't really get much more of a ninja feel to it all, but its so annoying when anything in the game can own you if you have even a slight lapse for a second. Plus lets emphasis this, you play a "ninja". Now, these guys are supposed to be REALLY fast and yet, as you try to run into some space to get a better position in a fight, the soldier pursuing you with his large gun and heavy armour, manages to not only keep up with you, but actually seems to run faster before wrapping that large gun round the back of your skull.

Some of the modern elements in the game can be cool as far as the setting goes, but I think it would have been so much better if it had stuck with an old Japan setting with the enemies to match. The zombie/undead thing is just getting done to death and the soldiers just get annoying. Mind you, I learned something from this game - I never thought a guy could launch an RPG at you at close range and not get affected by the blast himself.
Sun 16/05/04 at 23:14
Regular
"Teal'c"
Posts: 3,617
Yeah, I’ve just got up to the Vigoor capital level. A bit of a bore having to do the whole level again if you blunder, I'll admit. But the nunchakus Goatboy. Surely the nunchakus make up for any fault in any game ever.

So where are you up to at the moment anyway? I’m determined to beat at least one person to the end.
Sun 16/05/04 at 23:01
Regular
"gsybe you!"
Posts: 18,825
Nah, it's my dirty little Xbox in general.

Most games 'brrr...click....' at me and play fair. Other times they crash. NG just refuses to play after I've cut a few brown Ninjas to shreds. Lovely game so far though.
Sun 16/05/04 at 22:59
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
That's odd, mine did the same and I took it back to swap - this one works fine.
Sun 16/05/04 at 22:53
Regular
"gsybe you!"
Posts: 18,825
I weeple, for my Xbox doesn't like my Ninja Gaiden disc.

*brrr.....error*
Sun 16/05/04 at 22:51
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Got it on Friday.

It's good because ninjas are good. It's innately cool to do ninja stuff, and unless your name is Sho Kosugi, it's unlikely you can actually do that stuff for real.
It's bad because, for all the excellent graphics, awesome speed etc, it relies on that creaking cliche of end-of-level bosses.
I mean really, in an age where you have soft-physics systems in Splinter Cell 2 and independant AI in Half-Life 2, must we still be forced to drudge through that ancient game-stretch technique of making you face multiple Bosses?

Throw yourself at it until you realise the weakspot.
*yawn*
I prefer games where, if your skillfull and observant enough, you can make it through and feel like you're participating and actually controlling what's happening.

Ninja Gaiden?
Checkpoint reach - FMV - Boss.
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Turn off and smoke several cigarettes to calm down and stop yourself from putting the controller through the tv
Return to game
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Dead
Restart
SMASHPUNCHKICKSTAB
Defeat Boss
Continue

2004. Half-Life 2, Doom 3, mobile camera phones, internet, txt messaging.
Good things that have progressed since 1980 when video games were dull and bosses were prolific.
Ninja Gaiden - ninja excellence, cool weapons, awesome graphics.
End of Level Boss.
They're as cheesy cliche as ladder-death in FPS and bugs too small to shoot.
Why?
And whilst I'm fuming about bosses, the other thing that's boiled my blood about this game?

LET ME SAVE WHEN I'VE DONE AN IMPOSSIBLY HARD BIT
Don't give me set-save points that means when I die (and you will, continously), I don't have to redo huge portions of a level.
I'm thinking specifically about the first time you reach the Vigoor capital.
You have to fight large groups of black ninja (ridiculously hard), regular enemies and ever-oncoming foes.
With not a single save point. Not one. Anywhere.
A level that takes 10 mins once you know where to go and what to do.
And not one solitary point at which to save your game.

What kind of retarded level designed came up with that idea?
"Oooh oooh, I know! The first time the player encounters Black Ninjas with exploding stuff and impossibly fast attacks...let's not give them a save point anywhere!!!!"
"Cool! That'll frustrate them beyond bloodboiling!"
"Yeah! Let's have the player fight these new foes 3 times in a level with no saves! And only 2 health potions to collect!!!"
"nice one!!!!!"

It's a good game, but for me the lack of saving after I've done a really hard bit (of which there are many) makes it a tedious thing to plow through level sections again and again and again and again and again.

Feel free to preen like acne-stricken peacocks and brag about "Well I did it with no problems so it must be you then", it's nothing to boast about that your hand-to-glans combat skills enable you to have pointdexter levels of accuracy.

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