Ninja spirits

Just rediscovered this absolute masterpiece! Haven't played it since one of my rich friends at school had it on the turbo grafx. Love it, but it's damn hard.

I freakin love this game. I bought the Hu-Card recently after playing it for years on MAME, the VC, etc.

It's a key component of my HuCard collection and I'm proud to say that it's one of the best games on that platform. Lots of action, good design and great sprites make it a classic. Glad that you're enjoying it man!

It's awesome, loving the sound track too.. Was it ever released separately? I play around with music writing software and would love to get hold of a few clean samples. Anyways, back to the game, do you guys both have it on the pc engine then? How different is it from the arcade version? Just playing it on mame at the moment, for financial reasons, and it's been so long since I played the other version, I really can't remember it too well. Took me ages to remember the name.

mr aize said:

It's awesome, loving the sound track too.. Was it ever released separately? I play around with music writing software and would love to get hold of a few clean samples. Anyways, back to the game, do you guys both have it on the pc engine then? How different is it from the arcade version? Just playing it on mame at the moment, for financial reasons, and it's been so long since I played the other version, I really can't remember it too well. Took me ages to remember the name.

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I'm sure Neorebel can chime in on this too, but I know that the PCE version allows you to get hit 5 times before death while the orginal arcade version is a one hit kill. However, the PCE version allows you to choose the Arcade mode. Otherwise, that's all I know.

Agreed, the soundtrack is awesome and very fitting for each stage. Any favorites for you thusfar?

Like Splatterhouse, Ninja Spirit had a good PCE port, but I don't see why you'd play it in 2013 when the arcade version is MAMEable.

Boredom said:

Like Splatterhouse, Ninja Spirit had a good PCE port, but I don't see why you'd play it in 2013 when the arcade version is MAMEable.

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But in thinking like that, why would you buy any game that is emulated?

@ bored Mars people-Arcade revs are sometimes wack compared to ports. See:

-Phelios

-Bionic Commando

But Ninja Spirit and Splatterhouse's arcade versions aren't? They're better in every way.

Boredom said:

Like Splatterhouse, Ninja Spirit had a good PCE port, but I don't see why you'd play it in 2013 when the arcade version is MAMEable.

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I still enjoy the PCE ports. They're inferior to the arcade versions but I like the charm they have about them.

The game plays great on the PC Engine. It's like owning the record compared to playing the mp3. Of course if I had a huge basement full of dedicated cabs that would be the best.

WoodyXP said:

I still enjoy the PCE ports. They're inferior to the arcade versions but I like the charm they have about them.

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Agreed.

I'll put it this way - which version of Ninja Spirit would you rather have played in 1990, even in a non-ideal emulated form?

Boredom said:

I'll put it this way - which version of Ninja Spirit would you rather have played in 1990, even in a non-ideal emulated form?

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PCE. Hands down.

This was one of my first TG-16 games, and I played it a lot when I was dicking around with RGB-modding my system. Good memories. Fun game, too.

Boredom said:

Like Splatterhouse, Ninja Spirit had a good PCE port, but I don't see why you'd play it in 2013 when the arcade version is MAMEable.

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Some of us prefer og hardware to romz. Not a whole lot of thought needs to be put into it...2013 or not, there's a helluva huge difference between emulation and the real thing.

This game is too awesome! Love me some Ninja Spirit.

For me this is one of the all-time great side scrollers. It's up there with Strider, Osman, and Ghouls'n Ghosts.

whisper2053 said:

Some of us prefer og hardware to romz. Not a whole lot of thought needs to be put into it...2013 or not, there's a helluva huge difference between emulation and the real thing.

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Always is, always will be. Nevertheless, a top class game! Agree with jepjep too, it's one of the all time greats.

By the way guys, since it's develped by Irem, I have the inclination that some of the early folks from Nazca (makers of Metal Slug) may have had a hand on the development of Ninja Spirit too. Can anybody confirm this?

wataru330 said:

@ bored Mars people-Arcade revs are sometimes wack compared to ports. See:
-Phelios

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mmm that for sure...

also, btw, pce ver of NS is butta smooth..

I think everyone here is missing the point 'cause they're too busy hugging they're god damn PCE and the point made about the arcade rom didn't come across quite right. The port is nice and a lot of fun but the arcade original is the best, there's just no room of doubt on that at less you haven't played it or you're just too weak to play arcade mode on the PCE and are content with the 5 hit PCE mode, either way you're entitled to your opinion and all but the facts are all there plain to see. This is not a debate about emulation vs the real thing, this is about arcade vs console port.

I play both back and forth countless times 'cause I love them both and in a lot of ways they are both extremely close gameplay wise but the music, the atmosphere, the colors and the full weapon display found in the original make it a much better experience for me. I have one of them GP32s and I play PCE, NES, SNES, Genesis and a bunch of other stuff, I play the PCE port on this regularly 'cause the MAME 4 ALL emulator is not up to par to play it quite right, so with that in mind I'm content with the port, but would I like playing the Arcade rom on the damn thing? You bet your ass I do!

Ninja Spirit is one of my favorite games of all time, it's a damn shame there wasn't any sequels or at least games of the sort that expanded upon the formula. Off topic and all, BATMAN "Sunsoft City" plays a lot like it, love the game! Love it!

Now, to spin things a bit further; Arcade doesn't always mean better than console, we know that. Konami plays a good example with games like Contra, Life Force, just like Capcom has its shares of better console ports like Bionic Commando, Strider (JK) and so on. So yeah there are some games that are better in their console environment but as time went on and the consoles became more powerful yet not quite as powerful as the arcade technology of the time, it seemed as though ports suffered, which is probably why most of us got in this god damn forsaken hobby to begin with.

OK, now with said, we should have a little Ninja Spirit run for score, tables for all 3 formats and all that jazz...du it!

Absolute PCE gem, i need to get back to this one when my duo's fixed. really wish id've played this one in the day as well.

WoodyXP said:

I still enjoy the PCE ports. They're inferior to the arcade versions but I like the charm they have about them.

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yeah, i'm posting from ignorance here (never knew there was an arcade version) but i don't see that as a reason to not play what's here.

I agree with Boredom...

No port can ever be better than the original, for any reason, EVER! Its in the very definition of the term...

"Porting is also the term used when a video game designed to run on one platform, be it an arcade, video game console, or personal computer, is converted to run on a different platform."

Conversions, black and white no grey area at all! Now understand, I owned a TG16 back in the day... I had Splatterhouse, R-Type and Ninja Spirit. They are some fantastic, amazingly faithful ports without a single doubt. This can not negate the fact they are all based on original work. Even if no single difference existed whatsoever (however differences do exist in all these above mentioned games) they would still be at best clones. Again, no clone... Even a 1:1 copy, can ever be anything more than a copy/clone, by its very definition.