Ninja Gaiden (1991)
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 Ryu Hayabusa is back on the Game Gear.
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Ninja Gaiden (忍者外伝) is an action video game released for the Game Gear in 1991 by Sega with license from Tecmo. It stars Ryu Hayabusa and is part of the Ninja Gaiden series, although it features a plot not connected to any of the other Ninja Gaiden games.
Plot
At the start of the game, Ryu Hayabusa is responding to an attack in his village as he rushes to a shrine where the leader of the attack was holed up in. Defeating him, the leader reveals that he was hired by a man named Totenkopf who was a smuggler who sells weapons to a variety of clients. Attempting to find out why someone would steal the Dragon Sword, Ryu infiltrates the boat and kills Totenkopf, revealing a man named Mr. Tsin who he was selling weapons to in Hong Kong. Ryu defeats Mr. Tsin but not without being captured and brought to India where the person who wants the Dragonsword to start World War III reveals himself to be Shiragane, a demon capable of mind control and with the power of the Dragon Sword, can effectively have almost unlimited power in dominating over the minds of others. Ryu kills him and brings an end to another threat of the world.
Good Qualities
- While not as good as the Master System version, the graphics look pretty good for Game Gear's 1991 standards, they are very colorful and detailed for a Game Gear game released in 1991.
- Even if it's not as good as the Master System or NES version, the controls are decent and are still easy to pick up as it's simple to learn them.
- The cutscenes are very good for a Game Gear game, and they tell the story quite well. The cutscenes before the final boss are the best examples, since they're very well made and epic, especially for a Game Gear game, altrough there's nowhere near as good as the NES games.
- Decent soundtrack, though not great like the NES game, this could include the first level music, the boss fight theme and the final boss theme that sound quite good.
- Fun boss fights, altrough they are pretty easy for the most parts and are lauchable.
- The third level is a great level due to having good scrolling when you're climbing on the wall, and that's what made the level great, even if it could be said that it's a rip-off of Spider-Man climbing.
- The gameplay is still fun like the NES game, but plays a lot differently.
- The special effects are great for Game Gear standards.
- Good level design that teaches you how to play the game without needing a tutorial.
Bad Qualities
- The final boss can be a pain to beat since he has three phases and the timer can run out very easily, especially since it won't reset when you're in the final battle.
- While the soundtrack is decent, it can be bland for some people, and some of them sound familiar to Mega Man II on Game Boy.
- There's not that much speedy gameplay compared to the NES game.
- There's no continues when you run out of lives, which means that you will have to restart from the beginning, kind of like Mega Man on Game Gear.
- The game is extremely short, lasting only 20 minutes, and after that, there's little reason to go back and play the game again.
- Very easy difficulty, compared to the other games in the series, even more than Ninja Gaiden Shadow on Game Boy.
- There's no invincibility when you get hit, which means that you can die very quickly. This problem would have been occurring in the last level.