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It's just like Ninja Gaiden, except with two players!

Ninja Gaiden is probably the most famous ninja game on the NES. It was fast and hard. Tecmo's ninjatastic game caused a lot of other companies to jump on the ninja bandwagon, giving rise to the Ninja Gaiden clone. While Shadow of the Ninja is a NG clone, it's a good one, and it does differentiate itself from NG is some ways. This no-nonsense action platformer was released on the NES in 1990; it was developed and published by Natsume.

The most obvious difference between this game and NG is that this one is two player. There's a blue ninja and a red one. The blue one is the dude (Lord Hayate) and the red one is the woman (Lady Kaede). The story is set in the future, and basically an evil terrorist wants to take over the USA, so the two ninjas rise up to defeat him. Pretty basic. If you're playing by yourself, you can choose which ninja to be, which is cool, although they both play identically.

As a ninja, you can attack, duck, jump, and latch onto any kind of overhang. What a shame you can't slide, but perhaps these ninjas are so amazing that they don't need to slide. Throughout each level, you can acquire special weapons such as shuriken, grenades, and the grappling hook. While the grappling hook is a permanent weapon, shuriken and grenades are limited, so use this wisely.

SotN has five big levels, broken up into several sections, even having mini-bosses in some of the sections. The levels are great. You'll fight your way through large, sprawling enemy compounds, packed with enemies and traps. Levels have lots of platforms and ladders to ascend, making the game more vertical in scope than Ninja Gaiden. Detail is also great, such as in the first level where you make your way to the end while it's raining.

The enemies are also very creative and vary in their attacks. Some will stand in place and shoot at you; some will run right at you and try to push you into a pit; some will wait for you to get close before attacking. While the enemies are good, some of them take too long to kill (honestly, ninjas should be able to kill anything with one hit). Some enemies are straight-up bizarre, such as the robot that splits in half after you hit it; its top half flies at you while the legs keep running.

The bosses are solid as well. They range from big (giant tank) to less big (tall Samurai warrior). Often the best strategy is to just wail on them as much as possible as the human-type bosses usually stand in place for a couple seconds before attacking. The final boss is awesome, but is also insanely difficult. For the longest time you can't even hurt him. But you have to attack him to destroy his shield (that's my guess). It's tough.

Which leads me to point out that SotN is a really hard game. It's ninja hard. You only have one life when you start; die and it's Game Over. Luckily, you have a few continues. To make things more challenging, the entire game moves at a fast pace, often too fast for you to react in time. You seriously need ninja reflexes here! Just one example of this would be the first mini-boss you fight: he runs and dives at you at a ridiculous speed. He'll run off-screen, then run back on-screen just as fast! So be prepared, Grasshopper!

One last thing: the music! SotN has great music. It's that classic NES chip-tune stuff, and it's done well. This helps to enhance this classic ninja game. Below is my favorite theme from the game, so check it out.

Final Verdict--4 Stars: Recommended

With creative levels and enemies, challenging gameplay, and co-op play, Shadow of the Ninja is a great NES game. It's not a long game; you can beat it in about 30 minutes (only if you're a ninja master). While it's challenging, it's not as brutally difficult as Ninja Gaiden, making it more accessible to players, plus it's two player, which means you have two good reasons to try it out. If you like action platformers from the good old days, you'll enjoy this classic, even if it's a little bit frustrating and challening. So it may be a NG clone, but it sure is a good one.

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.