This time we have another big production from the Nerd, this time on a very well known game that happens to be one I personally had as a kid (I actually still have my original copy) and have strong memories with — Ninja Gaiden for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The Episode starts off, incidentally enough, with the whole issue of the name – addressing how many thought, and still think, it’s pronounced “gay-den” rather than “guy-den,” and comparing this phenomena to some naming issues with Street Fighter characters. He then goes into a very brief mentioning of the games arcade origins, what made it unique in these early NES days, and the story.
Then comes some commentary on the sequels, and the raw difficulty of the games in general. Beyond the initial mentioning of the sequels in describing the series difficulty, James keeps his focus on the first game for this episode.
Difficulty really is the name of the game here. It’s similar to Castlevania in that much of the time you’re near a pit and enemies hitting you will cause you to fall to your death. You do have a health meter but it’s rare an enemy hitting you will kill you — it’s usually an issue of getting knocked back.
It’s quite frustrating, and the Nerd reaches his limit quickly. In this moment of defeat he sees a poster for the game on his walls, and seems to come up with an idea — to be a ninja in the game, he must become a ninja in reality.
Enter the Ninja character, played by Kevin Finn. The Nerd meets up with the Ninja asking for help in completing the game. Initially reluctant, the Ninja agrees to help the Nerd.
So, we go back to the Nerd room, with the Nerd playing Ninja Gaiden and the Ninja providing advice in the form of cryptic quotes. The crazy thing is, some of them ring quite true. The Nerd still has incredible difficulty with the game. It’s honestly a pretty cool montage that’s pretty funny, and if you’ve played the game, relatable.
When the Nerd gives up yet again, the Ninja asks to see his thumbs, realizing he’s too slow to be able to play the game well. We now get a short pair of scenes based around Ninja training before frustration sets in again and the Nerd tosses the game away. The Ninja catches it, throws it back in the NES, and then plays till the final level, to the amazement of the Nerd.
With belief that he can complete the game, the Nerd begins to train again, and this time we get a training montage set to music from the game. It goes from “typical” stuff to some hilarious strength training with NES controllers and thumb wrestling on the power pad. It’s one of those “you know this show doesn’t take itself too seriously” kind of things.
His training paying off, the Nerd makes it to the final boss chamber to face his destiny – the 3 final boss forms for Ninja Gaiden. These bosses don’t play around, and if you fail here you wind up back at stage 6-1, the beginning of the final level as opposed to the area right before the boss. This includes an area that’s incredibly difficult – considered the hardest single part of the game – before you finally get a chance to fight the final battle.
In the end, even with unlimited continues, not even the Ninja can complete the game. It’s just that difficult.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
I’ve got mixed feelings on this one. The editing is amazing, to say the least — especially the Ninja playing the game segment, and how all the sound was edited in to match gameplay which was sped up. The use of the games music in the episode works out especially well, too, and really makes this episode shine.
However, I do think it didn’t feel quite right. Something was missing that I can’t quite explain. I consider this a “dark” episode, as not only is most of what you see in the video dark colors but it seems to end on a more sad kind of frustration than typical Nerd episodes. Maybe it’s because I know firsthand how hard this game is, or maybe it’s something else about the episode, but in any case this one kind of leaves me unsatisfied.
Still, I think it’s got its own merits, certainly, but the mood is just quite different here. Again it’s hard to explain.
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