A playthrough of Natsume's 1990 action platforming game for the NES, Shadow of the Ninja.
Shadow of the Ninja is among the many fantastic games that Natsume developed for the NES, and like most of their NES games, despite its positive critical reception, it really never saw much popularity.
It starts out with a cinematic inteo that vaguely details how in 2029 America has come under the control of some evil emperor that floats in the skies over New York. Apparently dropping a nuke over New York City isn't considered an acceptable option, so what's plan B? Ninjas.
Yup. Ninjas. Saving America from a dictator.... What?
But no matter how patently absurd the set up is (because, really, how many NES game plots actually made sense?), Shadow of the Ninja nails the game play, and does it with a whole lot of style.
It looks and feels a bit like Ninja Gaiden (and its Game Boy sequel was actually licensed by Tecmo and summarily turned into Ninja Gaiden Shadow), but there are some important differences. First of all, it features a simultaneous two-player mode! This type of play is a fair rarity on the NES, but given that Shadow of the Ninja doesn't generally throw many enemies on the screen at once, instances of slowdown and flicker are surprisingly rare. If you play it alone, you get your choice of Hayate (the purple ninja) or Kaede (Hayate's orangey-pink doppelganger) - they play exactly the same as each other.
You don't get the full bevy of powers like you would in Ninja Gaiden, but you get your choice of two standard weapons - a sword or a sickle (well, technically it's actually called a kusarigama) that can be upgraded to extend the reach. You also get a couple of throwing weapons (ninja stars and grenades) at a number of points. The setups lends itself nicely to the fast paced game play, and it comes with a few cool moves. Hayate and Kaede have the ability to hang from ledges and to flip between floors as they dodge and attack, which lends the game a better sense of fluidity than most NES platformers.
The graphics and sounds are really well done. The first level starts out with a dramatic storm going on, stage four features a burning cityscape in the background, and even the more mundane industrial-looking areas have a lot of detail to flesh them out. The soundtrack is classic Natsume all the way - even without Hiroyuki Iwatsuki on composing duty, Shadow of the Ninja's soundtrack is top-shelf all the way through.
It does go for fairly steep prices, but I'd say that if you can get the cart for $50, snap it up. I enjoy this one far more than many of the $60 games out there for the current generation of systems. and it's easy to play this one again and again without ever getting bored. In terms of quality, it's on even footing with Shatterhand, SCAT, and Dragon Fighter. And if you've ever played any of those, you'll know exactly how strong of a recommendation that is.
This is a brand new playthrough to replace the original 240p video in my NES playlist.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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