Crowned as one of the hardest games for the original Nintendo, Ninja Gaiden brings back a lot of fond memories for me. Growing up in a house where video games and computers were the norm, my Dad introduced me to most of the games on the NES. He usually picked them up from yard sales around the area during the early 90’s. Ninja Gaiden was one of them. Being intrigued by ninjas at a young age, with Ninja

Turtles and the like, I was determined to beat this game. At the time, I certainly realized how frustrating it was learning all the patterns, getting skilled with using the various weapons you could throw. I’m pretty sure I flung out my first string of curse words at this game.

My mother would yell at me for cursing, but I didn’t care, it became commonplace for me to express my frustration that way. In the beginning of trying to conquer this impossible game, I got so excited when I reached the end of the second stage. Watching the anime-style cutscene go by rewarded me for my arduous efforts. I soon reached the third stage, fourth, each time progressing with hidden skills. I learned how to climb back up a wall when I accidentally missed a jump, by flicking the D-Pad quickly left and right. I learned how to throw a boomerang star and time each of the jumps in the stage so that it would swirl around me, creating a maelstrom of destruction as I quickly ran through each level. I found out that with the boss with the spinning sickle, I could get hit and bounce up higher on the wall so that he freaks out, spins the other way, and I could jump over him and take him out easier.

Memorizing each level, as a teenager still playing the NES, I could make it up to Jacquio without continuing. As a young adult, I started doing speed runs, even though I don’t have half the patience for making any records or anything. Playing it and then dropping it for years in between, I could still pick it up and do just as well as I used to. Remembering all the levels of Ninja Gaiden was almost like riding a bike. Sometimes when I get bored, I’ll “play” the first level of it in my head, having fully memorized the level and enemy placement (I do the same thing with Super Mario Brothers).

The main thing that is missing from games today is that certain level of unchangeable difficulty. Unfortunately, developers today want you to finish a storyline instead of feel accomplishment for progressing further and further into a game. I think Megaman 9 changed that, though. It showed that level memorization and stark difficulty can still make a successful video game. Hopefully developers will realize that there are still old-school gamers out there who love a challenge, who revel in defeating the menacing difficulty of games like I Wanna Be The Guy.

Technology may be constantly moving forward, and thus the same thing happens for video games, but sometimes we as a gamer culture need to look back and remember our roots.