Iga Ninden Gaou

~ IGA NINDEN GAOU ~

Nichibutsu

Super CD-ROM

1993

I love hack-and-slash games, and this one looked decent enough in pics. Internet reviewer consensus is that it's merely average, but as long as an action-platformer is reasonably playable, I can usually forgive it for being lackluster and get some enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately, Iga isn't just below average; it actually borders on being flat-out horrible.

The crappy controls are the main issue I have with it. The hero is slow and very stiff: simply turning around in the heat of battle can be a chore for him. Jumping also feels awful, as he can leap for great height but barely any distance at all. His repertoire of techniques is very limited, confined to the usual slashes and projectile tosses along with a little bit of "ninja magic." It's not that I demand lots of moves and whatnot in an action title, but I expect more from a 16-bit game of this type; the same era brought us Shinobi III and Kaze Kiri, after all.

Not that you'll need any special attacks or anything to get through the simple, boring stages. They demand little but straightforward hacking along with some basic platforming involving small pits here and moving platforms there. Not a shred of ingenuity came into play during the design of these stages; in fact, I myself didn't actually have to think at any point in the adventure. The bosses are jokes, and most of them don't even look cool, while the regular enemies are an uninspired lot: many take after old Castlevania creatures such as the medusa heads and fishmen, with a few Ninja Spirit rejects thrown in for good measure.

While not very challenging, the levels do look fairly nice at times (due to smart choices in color, not good drawing or cool concepts and effects). Unfortunately, most of them drag on for so long and are so repetitive that even the nice background shades can't prevent the player from getting sick of them. To break up the monotony, there are quite a few "break scenes," which I'm reluctant to call "cinemas" because they don't look impressive at all and a third of the screen is usually occupied by text, as voice acting was clearly too much to ask for.

The music is quiet and forgettable, though I could see it holding greater appeal if placed in a stronger context. It certainly can't compare to Kaze Kiri's; in fact, any comparisons between this game and Kaze are jokes. The only thing Iga can boast of in such a matchup is level design that isn't completely flat. Kaze dominates it in most other areas: controls, techniques, bosses, music, cinemas. At its best, Iga is an uninspired, repetitive, easy platformer; at its worst, it's actually quite painful to play.