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Best Ninja Games
- Thread starter Pinko Marx
- Start date
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Shinobi PS2 and Kunoichi prove the "flipping out and killing everybody" ninja has a place as well.
Augemitbutter
Member
i finished a replay of Shadow Dancer on Mega Drive a few weeks ago. you can only do hat if you are a ninja. so go and try it.
JinjoUnchained
Member
There's ninja games, and then there's Wrath of the Black Manta on NES.
Boom, /thread
Boom, /thread
Dangansona
Member
Just kidding. Fun gamebut definitely not the best thing. I think the best ones got covered already.
That's the one I was asking about lol.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
Tntnico
Member
This is the only right answer.
Yeah that's true. But I would like to fight actual ninjas in a Japanese-looking setting using exclusively ninja weapons.
ManUnkindH
Member
I like you, wanna be my friend?
Doomshroom
Member
The last ninja 1, 2 and 3.
It's not a character action game but...
]
was just about to post this.
Fredrik
Member
Do you mean Commodore 64?
The original The Last Ninja never came to the Amiga, we got Ninja Remix instead which was a remaster (a great one) of C64 The Last Ninja, then we got the crappy Last Ninja 2 port by Activision and finally a proper System 3 Amiga game, Last Ninja 3, which imo was still worse than the previous C64 games.
I agree with your closing, System 3 was Naughty Dog of the C64 era, everything they touched turned to gold. The Last Ninja on C64 was amazing for it's time, it's a bit clunky but I still play it from time to time and enjoy it a lot.
OP, Shinobi 3 is my favorite ninja game. Ninja Gaiden is awesome too. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, great game, not a ninja game in appearance but you feel like a ninja playing it.
A Black Falcon
Member
There are a ridiculous number of ninja games out there, so this is really hard... note though, I'm not going to count Ninja Turtles games because they really are a different thing.
Ninja Princess (aka Sega Ninja) - Arcade
Ninja Gaiden (1 and 2) - NES
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi - Genesis
Tenchu (the PS1 and PS2/Xbox ones, but the original game in particular)
Goemon's Great Adventure - N64
Some honorable mentions: the Dead or Alive series if you count it (particularly DoAs 2 and 4), The Ninja (Sega Master System), Shinobi (Arcade/Sega Master System), Ninja Gaiden 3 (NES), Mystical Ninja starring Goemon (N64), lots of other Goemon games (particularly the four SNES/SFC titles), Nightshade (PS2), The Ninja Warriors [Again] (SNES), I-Ninja (GC/Xbox/PS2), etc etc (Izuna 1 and 2? Shinobido? Shadow of the Ninja? And more.)
The Naruto: Clash of Ninja series for Gamecube and Wii is also good, surprisingly enough. They have a distinctive style and are the best Naruto games I've seen.
(I didn't mention the modern Ninja Gaiden series because I'm not a fan of them.)
Ninja Princess (aka Sega Ninja) - Arcade
Ninja Gaiden (1 and 2) - NES
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi - Genesis
Tenchu (the PS1 and PS2/Xbox ones, but the original game in particular)
Goemon's Great Adventure - N64
Some honorable mentions: the Dead or Alive series if you count it (particularly DoAs 2 and 4), The Ninja (Sega Master System), Shinobi (Arcade/Sega Master System), Ninja Gaiden 3 (NES), Mystical Ninja starring Goemon (N64), lots of other Goemon games (particularly the four SNES/SFC titles), Nightshade (PS2), The Ninja Warriors [Again] (SNES), I-Ninja (GC/Xbox/PS2), etc etc (Izuna 1 and 2? Shinobido? Shadow of the Ninja? And more.)
The Naruto: Clash of Ninja series for Gamecube and Wii is also good, surprisingly enough. They have a distinctive style and are the best Naruto games I've seen.
(I didn't mention the modern Ninja Gaiden series because I'm not a fan of them.)
Laurel_McFang
Member
Shadow Dancer on Genesis and Ninja Gaiden Arcade are favorites. If Warframe counts you might consider it.
Bob Coffee
Member
ninja gaiden 1 and 2 for the nes. good story, good ninja platforming. awesome soundtrack.
JimiNutz
Banned
Came to say this as I don't see it mentioned enough when people talk about Ninja games.
Demoskinos
Member
First post and we're done here.
Ninja Gaiden Black (XB)
The lack of that costume makes me hate sigma, lol >.<
Hesemonni
Banned
Lol no.
Messofanego
Banned
Like 8-10 hours? Big levels. I played it on PC, too bad to hear about the port. It's a stealth game, so it's slow and I don't see the frame rate to be such a deal breaker.Wow, first time hearing about this and game looks fantastic! What's the length of the game?
Edit: Reading on Amazon that the PS4 port is not good with bad frame rate and other tech issues
Sir Ilpalazzo
Member
Gotta say Ninja Gaiden II (360), Ninja Gaiden Black, SNES The Ninja Warriors (Japanese version, US version is kind of iffy), and Ninja Five-O.
Unreal Champ
Banned
Your list failed when you put the garbage Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 and 2 on that God Tier list. More like sewer garbage tier.
Still better than the shitfest that is Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Just kidding. Fun gamebut definitely not the best thing. I think the best ones got covered already.
I worked on that for a bit.
Fun fact: Was produced by a guy who went on to help start Rocksteady Games and make the Batman Arkham games.
ShinobiDo is my favorite Ninja Game.
It's a ps2 game made by the (good) Tenchu people (Acquire), and it's a spiritual successor to that series.
It suffers from an evidently limited budget, so it's not as expansive and as epic as Tenchu 2 was, but it makes up for that with a much much better gameplay, and a cool story, with plenty of humor.
To add to this, it's one of the few games where you can actually stealth kill some of the bosses, and its got a level editor, though not as cool as the Tenchu 2 one.
The game basically uses the template of Tenchu, in that you're dropped in an open ended arena, and you have to more around stealthily, going on rooftops, going through secret doors, use ninja gadgets, perform stealth kills with the little animation, all that stuff, but the game controls much more fluidly and it's much faster; you can zip out of a corner, take out two guys, and grapple hook mid air your way out of sight, before they touch the ground.
Like Tenchu it has two playable characters (Goh and Kinu, with a third one unlockable), and three major leaders, that you freely work for, deciding to ally yourself with one, or play all three, changing allegiance at any point.
The leaders gain or lose power with your influence, too: Say you sabotage the shipment of food of one leader, their troops in the following missions will be famished and weaker, so playing missions against them will become easier.
Conversely, getting the rifle blue prints for the leader you like, will assure their snipers will sport powerful rifles instead of bows (which in turn means, if you ever want to change side, you'll have to work harder).
It fulfills the fantasy of being a ninja like no other game, and it's criminally underrated.
It's a ps2 game made by the (good) Tenchu people (Acquire), and it's a spiritual successor to that series.
It suffers from an evidently limited budget, so it's not as expansive and as epic as Tenchu 2 was, but it makes up for that with a much much better gameplay, and a cool story, with plenty of humor.
To add to this, it's one of the few games where you can actually stealth kill some of the bosses, and its got a level editor, though not as cool as the Tenchu 2 one.
The game basically uses the template of Tenchu, in that you're dropped in an open ended arena, and you have to more around stealthily, going on rooftops, going through secret doors, use ninja gadgets, perform stealth kills with the little animation, all that stuff, but the game controls much more fluidly and it's much faster; you can zip out of a corner, take out two guys, and grapple hook mid air your way out of sight, before they touch the ground.
Like Tenchu it has two playable characters (Goh and Kinu, with a third one unlockable), and three major leaders, that you freely work for, deciding to ally yourself with one, or play all three, changing allegiance at any point.
The leaders gain or lose power with your influence, too: Say you sabotage the shipment of food of one leader, their troops in the following missions will be famished and weaker, so playing missions against them will become easier.
Conversely, getting the rifle blue prints for the leader you like, will assure their snipers will sport powerful rifles instead of bows (which in turn means, if you ever want to change side, you'll have to work harder).
It fulfills the fantasy of being a ninja like no other game, and it's criminally underrated.
Black_Stride
do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
And not a Ninja in sight.
Its a damn good game, but its not Ninja.
Anyway all the good games have already been mentioned so ill mention something that hasnt been mentioned yet.
That, and too many reused assets, it's the low budget i was talking about (though i like the main characters' models).
And we're done.
This
User123456
Member
Long post incoming. Yes, I'm a total sucker for ninja games.
Games I've personally beaten and consider to be amazing:
Strider (Arcade, PS1. Genesis version is just not as good. This is one of my all-time favorite games.)
Strider 2 (Arcade, PS1. Even better than the first, if you can believe that.)
Strider (PC, Xbox One, PS4. Against all odds, an incredible sequel to the originals mixing elements of Strider arcade, Strider NES and Strider 2 arcade. Brilliant game and one of my favorites this generation)
Shinobi (Arcade Ver. The OG, and still just as good as the first day)
Shinobi 3 (MegaDrive. One of the best games of the SNES/MD generation. You'd be hard pressed to find a better action game.)
Ninja Gaiden (NES. The OG Ninja Gaiden and one of the finest examples of 2D action)
Ninja Gaiden Black / Sigma (Xbox, PS3, I personally prefer Sigma but Black seems to have more supporters)
Ninja Gaiden 2 / Sigma (Xbox 360, PS3, again I personally prefer Sigma but people seem to like vanilla NG2 better)
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (Wii U version has heavy frame drops, 360 has the best framerate but has more screen tearing, I find the PS3 version to be nicely balanced)
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven (PS2, Xbox. Stealth-based. Never played it on Xbox though)
Shinobido (PS2, Stealth-based, probably the best stealth ninja game to date)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PC, Xbox 360, PS3. This game is fucking nuts. I love it, and you should too. One of the finest 3D action games ever made)
Ragnarok Online (PC. Combination of stealth and action. Play the Ninja / Kagerou/ Oboro class, my favorite MMO ninja class by far)
Games I've played briefly and enjoyed but haven't gotten to play extensively yet:
Ni-Oh (PS4, by far the best game in this subcategory. Played the last beta extensively and loved it but I don't have the full game yet)
Shinobi (PS2)
Final Fantasy 14 ARR (PC, Ninja class. Feels a bit less ninja-like to me, but I need to play more)
Ninja Gaiden (Master System. Pretty good, didn't grab me as much as Ninja Gaiden NES but I liked what I played better than either of the NES sequels)
The Ninjawarriors (SNES. I really love the gameplay and especially the kunoichi character, but I haven't played it too much. Really need to, though.)
Hagane (SNES. Mix of Shinobi's ranged focus and Ninja Gaiden's melee focus. I really liked it, but I need to dive deeper into it)
Games I've played, didn't really like but are generally acclaimed:
Revenge of Shinobi (MegaDrive)
Ninja Gaiden 2 (NES)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (NES)
Tenchu (PS1. Liked it back in the day but holy shit has it aged poorly. The controls are just shit)
Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins (PS1. See above)
Mark of the Ninja (PC, Xbox 360. Feels too much like a puzzle minigame collection than either an action or stealth game. Instead of using the game's core mechanics to sneak around, there's too much emphasis on finding the correct solution or item for each specific set-piece)
Games I've never played but might be good:
Nightshade (PS2)
Shinobido 2 (PS Vita)
Games I've played and didn't like:
Ninja Blade (PC, 360)
Ninja Five-O (GBA)
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Wii, PSP. Way too linear. Mechanics just feel weird and you're pretty much railroaded the whole way through)
Shinobido (PSP version, feels too haphazardly designed. Almost like a collection of bonus, minigame-like levels)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES, enemy placement, attack patterns and overall physics are just weird IMO)
Games I liked but others generally don't:
Strider (NES, quite possibly the jankiest game I've ever loved. Collision detection is a mess but damn if I don't love it for some reason.)
Tenchu Z (Xbox 360. Stealth-based. Fair warning: It feels more like a PS2-gen game
than a 360/PS3-gen game)
Tenchu: Time of the Assassins (PSP. View distance is atrocious but I found it to have really good graphics and gameplay mechanics. Memorization, careful progression and the Ki detector mitigate the view distance issue.
Games I've personally beaten and consider to be amazing:
Strider (Arcade, PS1. Genesis version is just not as good. This is one of my all-time favorite games.)
Strider 2 (Arcade, PS1. Even better than the first, if you can believe that.)
Strider (PC, Xbox One, PS4. Against all odds, an incredible sequel to the originals mixing elements of Strider arcade, Strider NES and Strider 2 arcade. Brilliant game and one of my favorites this generation)
Shinobi (Arcade Ver. The OG, and still just as good as the first day)
Shinobi 3 (MegaDrive. One of the best games of the SNES/MD generation. You'd be hard pressed to find a better action game.)
Ninja Gaiden (NES. The OG Ninja Gaiden and one of the finest examples of 2D action)
Ninja Gaiden Black / Sigma (Xbox, PS3, I personally prefer Sigma but Black seems to have more supporters)
Ninja Gaiden 2 / Sigma (Xbox 360, PS3, again I personally prefer Sigma but people seem to like vanilla NG2 better)
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (Wii U version has heavy frame drops, 360 has the best framerate but has more screen tearing, I find the PS3 version to be nicely balanced)
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven (PS2, Xbox. Stealth-based. Never played it on Xbox though)
Shinobido (PS2, Stealth-based, probably the best stealth ninja game to date)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PC, Xbox 360, PS3. This game is fucking nuts. I love it, and you should too. One of the finest 3D action games ever made)
Ragnarok Online (PC. Combination of stealth and action. Play the Ninja / Kagerou/ Oboro class, my favorite MMO ninja class by far)
Games I've played briefly and enjoyed but haven't gotten to play extensively yet:
Ni-Oh (PS4, by far the best game in this subcategory. Played the last beta extensively and loved it but I don't have the full game yet)
Shinobi (PS2)
Final Fantasy 14 ARR (PC, Ninja class. Feels a bit less ninja-like to me, but I need to play more)
Ninja Gaiden (Master System. Pretty good, didn't grab me as much as Ninja Gaiden NES but I liked what I played better than either of the NES sequels)
The Ninjawarriors (SNES. I really love the gameplay and especially the kunoichi character, but I haven't played it too much. Really need to, though.)
Hagane (SNES. Mix of Shinobi's ranged focus and Ninja Gaiden's melee focus. I really liked it, but I need to dive deeper into it)
Games I've played, didn't really like but are generally acclaimed:
Revenge of Shinobi (MegaDrive)
Ninja Gaiden 2 (NES)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (NES)
Tenchu (PS1. Liked it back in the day but holy shit has it aged poorly. The controls are just shit)
Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins (PS1. See above)
Mark of the Ninja (PC, Xbox 360. Feels too much like a puzzle minigame collection than either an action or stealth game. Instead of using the game's core mechanics to sneak around, there's too much emphasis on finding the correct solution or item for each specific set-piece)
Games I've never played but might be good:
Nightshade (PS2)
Shinobido 2 (PS Vita)
Games I've played and didn't like:
Ninja Blade (PC, 360)
Ninja Five-O (GBA)
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Wii, PSP. Way too linear. Mechanics just feel weird and you're pretty much railroaded the whole way through)
Shinobido (PSP version, feels too haphazardly designed. Almost like a collection of bonus, minigame-like levels)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES, enemy placement, attack patterns and overall physics are just weird IMO)
Games I liked but others generally don't:
Strider (NES, quite possibly the jankiest game I've ever loved. Collision detection is a mess but damn if I don't love it for some reason.)
Tenchu Z (Xbox 360. Stealth-based. Fair warning: It feels more like a PS2-gen game
than a 360/PS3-gen game)
Tenchu: Time of the Assassins (PSP. View distance is atrocious but I found it to have really good graphics and gameplay mechanics. Memorization, careful progression and the Ki detector mitigate the view distance issue.
Spieler Eins
Member
Actual Ninja game: Mark of the Ninja.
Action game with protag in a ninja costume: Ninja Gaiden 2(S) or Shinobi 3.
Action game with protag in a ninja costume: Ninja Gaiden 2(S) or Shinobi 3.
hans_castorp
Member
Mark of the ninja is amazing
PleaseDontBanMe
Banned
NG Black + II are obvious, anyone into action games should have played these. Mark of the Ninja is on the other end of the spectrum, but also really good.
Yeah this surprised me as well. I loved the controls in this: very tight, responsive and fast. You can just flash through the screens and that's how I played it: paid little attention to secrets and extras and just blazed through everything. Playing this game as fast as possible is very satisfying.
For a short and empowering ninja experience, Strider '14 is pretty damn great.
Yeah this surprised me as well. I loved the controls in this: very tight, responsive and fast. You can just flash through the screens and that's how I played it: paid little attention to secrets and extras and just blazed through everything. Playing this game as fast as possible is very satisfying.
For a short and empowering ninja experience, Strider '14 is pretty damn great.
LCKellow1994
Neo Member
Tenchu Z on the Xbox 360. The best damn Ninja game to ever exist.