The best in an excellent series.
When I saw screenshots of Ninja Gaiden in various magazines and game guides, they looked messy and it was hard to distinguish the characters from the backgrounds. The screenshots definitely didn’t do the graphics justice. The backgrounds are actually full of detail and the characters have quite a bit of animation to them. The cut scenes are done very well to convey a cinematic feel. The only thing that surpasses the graphics quality is the music. It is very dramatic, but not cheesy dramatic. It does a very good job adding to the emotion in the cut scenes and the action in the levels. Ninja Gaiden is absolutely in the same league as Mega Man and Castlevania in terms of music quality.
Ninja Gaiden’s control is very crisp and responsive. The controls allow you to show off your skill by skillfully navigating through the levels. I would impress people by how quickly I could clear a level and not register a hit. It felt like it was an art to be good at this game. Ninja Gaiden is infamously known for being very difficult. It is a difficult game, but a majority of the difficulty is in the last few levels. Most of the game is challenging, but once you get to the last few stages, the difficulty goes up exponentially. I would have cleared the game in a day if it weren’t for that last level. The levels are designed with speed and accuracy in mind. You have to be quick and precise to get through.
All the Ninja Gaiden games are excellent and worthy additions to any NES library. Out of all of them, the original Ninja Gaiden is my favorite. It seemed to have a smoother control scheme than the others. It is also the first Ninja Gaiden I played all the way through, so it does have sentimental value. I can go a long time not playing Ninja Gaiden, but when I do play through it is like I never stopped playing.