Jade Rambles: Tiger LCD Games

[JadePharaoh]

I now have the Ninja Gaiden one and have been playing it for a bit. I'm still trying to figure out some nuances of the game. So far though, heres what I got. Playing as Ryu Hayabusa, you run from left to right through a barrage of various enemies. You attack with your sword, and you collect different types of power-ups to assist you along the way, just as in the original game. The main stage enemies consist of Barbarian, the stage 1 boss from the original game, and Basaquer, the stage 3 boss. Barbarian shuffles along the ground, occasionally throwing shuriken, while Basaquer hops around like a loon. Stage 2 introduces everyone's favorite enemy from Ninja Gaiden... BIRDS!!!

Again, Ryu runs from left to right, with the ability to strike forward or backward with his sword. He can collect one of three sub-weapons that seem to be used automatically; shurikens, the spin slash, and the fire wheel (represented by the shuriken and spin slash icons laid on top of each other). They are collected through picking up boxes throughout the levels; just like in Megaman 3, there is a button for picking up items rather than doing so automatically when touching them. There are also boxes for restoring health and on rare occasions a 1-Up (yes, you have more than one life in this one!). Unique to this game is a red LED light that comes on in the corner when there is a health-restoring item on the screen you're on. A useful feature, since like the two Megaman games, Ryu cannot backtrack.

You may fight a boss at the end of a stage. The bosses consist of a knife-throwing ninja and a ball-throwing monk. Unlike the stage enemies, which were bosses in the original game, these guys look like normal mooks from the original. They appear in the upper right corner of the screen which seems to make them impossible to hit without the shuriken or fire wheel, yet they still disappear after a few seconds and reappear after running right a bit more, so I'm not too clear yet on how to deal with them reliably. And as of 5-1 they start appearing as normal enemies.

As I mentioned before, you do get more than one life; three to be exact, and it looks like it's possible to pick up extras. Though health loss looks to be somewhat inconsistent. I've lost health from what looks to be nothing hitting me and I've dropped dead with absolutely nothing on-screen. I wonder if health gradually decreases over time like in Gauntlet. As was the case with Gauntlet, I haven't made it far enough to tell if there's a final boss or end to the game, or if the goal is to just get a high score and make it as far as possible.