The game was a major commercial hit in the United States, where it sold a large number of copies. According to Tecmo USA's Dimitri Criona, high demand led to repeated orders for
Ninja Gaiden in increments of 60,000 cartridges per order.
Critical reception The game debuted at No. 3 on
Nintendo Powers Top 30 list for July–August 1989, behind
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and
Super Mario Bros. 2; it stayed at No. 3 in the September–October 1989 issue. The
Nintendo Power Awards '89 featured the game as one of the top games that year. It was nominated for Best Graphics and Sound, Best Challenge, Best Theme, Fun, Best Character (Ryu Hayabusa), Best Ending, and Best Overall; and it won for Best Challenge and Best Ending. In its preview of
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, the magazine said that "the colorful, detailed and dynamic cinema scenes of the original
Ninja Gaiden set a standard for action game narration that has since been widely emulated. These cinema scenes made
Ninja Gaiden play almost like a movie." Reflecting on his career as a game designer, Yoshizawa considered
Ninja Gaiden–along with
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile–his proudest accomplishment, explaining that the title enjoyed the best sales performance out of all of his projects. From July to October 1989, the game was listed at No. 1 on
Electronic Gaming Monthlys Top Ten Video Games list; it fell to No. 2 on the list behind
Mega Man 2 in the November issue. In their Best and Worst of 1989, it received awards for Best Game of the Year for the NES and Best Ending in a Video Game for all consoles. The staff said that
Ninja Gaiden "proved to be an instant winner" with its cinematic cutscenes and unique gameplay. They added the game's climax was better than some movies' climaxes at the time and that it established
continuity for a sequel, which would be released the following year. Later in June 1994, the magazine ranked it at No. 4 on a special list of Top Ten Most Difficult Games of all time for all consoles. The July 1990 pilot issue of UK magazine
Mean Machines featured
Ninja Gaiden on the cover; the magazine was distributed as part of the July 1990 issue of
Computer and Video Games. In its review,
Julian Rignall compared the game to its
beat 'em up arcade counterpart, which was titled
Shadow Warriors. He noted the game has great graphics that feature diverse backgrounds and character sprites; he especially praised its use of cartoon-like animation sequences between Acts where the game's plot unfolds. He enjoyed the game's difficulty especially with the bosses, but he noted the game will seem tough at first until players become accustomed to the controls. He criticized the game for its sound, which he said did not fit with the graphics and was "racy" but added "what's there is atmospheric and suits the action". He highly recommended the game to fans of the beat 'em up and combat genres. The game received some praise and criticism in the August 1991 issue of German magazine
Power Play. The review praised the game for its attention to detail and challenge and noted players need to master certain gameplay skills to move on. Criticisms included a "lack of variety" and dullness in gameplay which was compared to a "visit to the tax office". The PC Engine version was briefly mentioned in the December 1991 issue of
Electronic Gaming Monthly as part of a review of games that had been released outside the U.S. They noted the faithful translation from the NES version as well as the revamped and more detailed graphics, saying "PC Engine owners should not miss this one!" The perceived excessive difficulty frustrated
Total! reviewer Andy to the point of being a deal breaker. He additionally criticized the game's platform genre as unoriginal. The company planned to release the entire game throughout 2004 in a series of four installments—similar to what Upstart Games did when they ported the NES version of
Castlevania to mobile phones. The port featured the same visuals and soundtrack as the NES version. Each installment was to consist of several levels of gameplay at a time. The first installment, titled
Ninja Gaiden Episode I: Destiny, was released on July 15, 2004; it included only the first Act from the NES version but added two new levels. The second installment was planned to be released in North America and was previewed by
GameSpot in September 2004, but it—along with the third and fourth installments—was never released. The mobile phone port of
Ninja Gaiden was met with some praise and criticism.
IGNs Levi Buchanan and
GameSpots Damon Brown praised the port for its accurate translation from the NES to mobile phones, saying the gameplay, graphics, and cinematic cutscenes remain true to the NES version. They praised the game's controls, despite the omission of the ability to duck so that pressing "down" on the phone's directional pad could be used for secondary weapons; Brown said the port had better controls than most other mobile phone games at the time. They both criticized the port for its lack of sound quality, but Buchanan said this was not Tecmo's fault. In a preview of the port,
GameSpots Avery Score pointed to generally inferior American-made handsets as the reason for the sound's shortcomings.
Retro Gamer took a look back at
Ninja Gaiden in its March 2004 issue, when the Xbox reboot was released. They said the game broke the mold of conventional video game titles by including a plot with cinematic cutscenes added between gameplay segments, adding that the concept of adding cinematics for a game's introduction, plot, and ending was a new concept which "naturally impressed the gaming public". The article noted the game's high level of difficulty, saying the game "threw up an immense challenge even for the veteran gamer, and almost dared you to complete it mentally and physically intact". Some critics have bemoaned its gameplay for being too similar to
Castlevania; similarities include identical displays on the top of the screen, items contained in breakable lanterns, and a nearly identical "secondary weapons" feature. A
1UP.com review noted that the two games have different dynamics and that several actions possible in
Ninja Gaiden would be impossible in
Castlevania. Contemporary reviews have considered the game "groundbreaking" for its pioneering use of stylized cutscenes, high quality music, and dark atmosphere. One review said that the game makes up for its high difficulty level with good gameplay. A review by
1UP.com referred to the later levels as an "unfair display of intentional cheapness".
IGN said that the game was one of the most difficult video games of all time, setting the trend for the rest of the series; however, they pointed out that its difficulty and graphics are "defining characteristics [that] have carried over through the years into modern day [
Ninja]
Gaiden sequels". Over fifteen years after its creation,
Ninja Gaiden has maintained its position as one of the most popular games for the NES. A 2006
Joystiq reader poll, with over 12,000 votes, listed the game at No. 10 on a list of top NES games. Another reader poll from
GameSpot listed the game at No. 10 in its top 10 NES games list. It was No. 17 on
IGNs Top 100 NES Games list. In 2006
Electronic Gaming Monthly featured a follow-up to their The 200 Greatest Videogames of Their Time, where readers wrote in and discussed games they felt were ignored on the list; the game was listed at No. 16 of the top 25 games discussed. At the end of 2005,
Nintendo Power ran a serial feature titled The Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever. The list, which included games for all Nintendo systems, placed the game at No. 89. In August 2008, the same magazine ranked it the tenth best NES game of all time; they praised the gameplay and described the cinematic cutscenes as revolutionary for its time. The game's music received honorable mention on
IGNs list of Best
8-Bit Soundtracks.
IGN featured its introduction on its Top 100 Video Game Moments list at #53; it was also listed as the second best video game cutscene of all time in
Complex magazine.
Nintendo Power honored the game in its November 2010 issue, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the NES. The magazine listed its box art, which depicts a ninja with a burning city in the background, as one of its favorite designs in the NES library. The magazine's Editor-in-Chief Chris Slate was equally impressed by the game's box art. He also reminisced about the game's high level of difficulty with its re-spawning enemies and enemy birds that knocked players into pits, saying this game "may have taught me how to curse". He further praised gameplay features such as clinging on walls and using ninpo techniques, and he noted the game's cinematic cutscenes, including the ominous opening sequence that featured two ninjas who launch into the air at each other clashing their swords in the moonlight. He said that "
Ninja Gaiden was about as cool as an 8-bit game could be, especially for ninja-crazed kids of the '80s who, like me, had worn out their
VHS copies of
Enter the Ninja". In a July 2011 issue,
Retro Gamer listed the game's opening as one of the most popular at the time. The magazine noted how its use of cutscenes, animations, and overall presentation put the game above most other action titles at the time. While it lauded the controls and gameplay elements, as with other reviews, it criticized the difficulty, calling it "one of the most challenging games on the console". It noted how defeated enemies re-spawn in certain spots, how enemies are placed on the edges of platforms, and the structure of the final level. ==Notes==