Ninja Gaiden Shadow

Ninja Gaiden Shadow

Game Boy - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Natsume Publisher Tecmo Published 1991-12-13 Platforms Game Boy Genres Action, Beat 'em up, Platformer Themes Action, Martial arts, Ninjas Series Ninja Gaiden Distribution Commercial

Ninja Gaiden Shadow is a scrolling platform hack-and-slash developed by Natsume and published by Tecmo for the Game Boy and released on 1991-12-13. It is the sixth game in the Ninja Gaiden series, and is meant to be a prequel to the first NES game.

In the story, Ryu is trying to defeat the evil Emperor Gulf, a servant of Jaquio.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2017-08-02.

I never played this game when it was popular. Instead, I saw it on a list of the best Game Boy games and played it in an emulator. It took me a couple tries, but I finally beat it.

Review

5	5	5	5	3

Best Version: Game Boy

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has decent graphics and sound for Game Boy.
• There is a good amount of variety among the enemies, bosses, and level design.
• In the brief time you have, the game presents a good challenge.

Bad

• The plot is pretty dull.
• With only 5 levels, and the first being fairly easy, the game is over before you know it.
• So much from the original game engine has been cut, it feels like a hollow game. You can't wall jump, there are no cut-scenes between levels, and Ryu has only a single ninja art (the manual justifies this by saying he hasn't yet learned the rest).

Ugly

• The North American release didn't even bother to create new box art, and European release even kept the same title as their NES release despite the games being entirely different. This no doubt tricked a lot of kids into thinking something they were getting the full NES game on Game Boy.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original Japanese box art shows a cartoon Ryu in an action pose with his katana among a city backdrop. It nicely conveys what to expect in the game.

• 

  The North American box art shamefully uses the same art as the NES game, only with the addition of the word "shadow".

• 

  The European box art is even worse, not even bothering to change the title to show its a different game than the NES release!

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

Maps

• 

  Stage 1.

• 

  Stage 2.

• 

  Stage 3.

• 

  Stage 4.

• 

  Stage 5.

Font

See Video game font collection.

Videos

Longplay.

Play Online

Game Boy (Japan), Game Boy (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Pass	The protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa, is Japanese.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Ninja Gaiden Shadow
Japanese	忍者龍剣伝GB 摩天楼決戦	Ninja Ryu Ken Den GB Matenro Kessen	Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword GB: Skyscraper Showdown

Links