Cheap Ninja Gaiden Shadow (Video Games) (Game Boy) Price

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Customer Reviews of Ninja Gaiden Shadow

3.5 stars - A severely underrated game
The Ninja Gaiden games on the NES were among the best games on that entire system. They took several elements of the Castlevania experience, and did it one notch better in many areas. Three games in the series were released in the series on the NES, but what many gets tend to overlook is that there was, actually, a Game Boy Ninja Gaiden game! Read on for my review of Ninja Gaiden Shadow.

PROS:
-FOR BEING AN EARLY GAME BOY GAME, THE GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION ARE VERY GOOD. The animation isn't too choppy (which is more than I can say for a lot of Game Boy games, including new ones), and as a whole, the graphics look very good.
-YOU HAVE A SPECIAL ITEM YOU DIDN'T HAVE ON THE NES - THE GRAPPLING HOOK. The Grappling Hook is an awesome item you can use to grip the ceiling, and often sail out of harm's way. Now, why didn't they incorporate this into any of the NES games? It's a cool feature!
-IT'S A PREQUEL TO THE NES SERIES. This game is cool because it happens before the events of the NES games - so you get to see what Ryu did before he fought against Jaquio.

CONS:
-IT JUST DOESN'T FEEL LIKE A NINJA GAIDEN GAME. You can't grip walls, there is only one secondary weapon (the ability to throw fire), and the atmosphere is NOTHING like that of the NES games - most of the stages are industrial-styled areas. And when Ryu bites the dust, he doesn't just fall over dead like he does on the NES - He explodes like Mega Man! The death sound even resembles Mega Man!
-NO STILL CUT SCENES. These are one of the aspects that made me love the NES games so much, so their absence here was a real downer.
-NO WAY TO SAVE PROGRESS. The NES games had the same problem, so it didn't really surprise me that Tecmo didn't fix it here.
-STORYLINE IS CONFUSING. Basically, this game is supposed to take place three years before the resurrection of Jaquio (which happens in the original NES game), and you're up against a tyrant bent on world domination. That's about all there is to the story. The "prequel" nature makes it all the more confusing.

OVERALL:
Overall this is an excellent classic Game Boy game that I feel is a severely underrated one. If you can come across this one at your local used games shop and you've got a Game Boy, and you like old-school, side-scrolling platformers, this game is for you.