Retro Thunderdome – Ninja Gaiden (NES) vs Castlevania (NES)

This article originally appeared on skirmishfrogs.com. Both games have been replayed and re-evaluated for TWRM.
 
 
 “The following is a contributor post by the Thunder Mage.”
LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND MAGES OF ALL STYLES AND STRIPES!
At first glance, the participants in today’s struggle for digital dominance couldn’t be more different. In one corner, you have a Gothic-themed horror game and in other, a high flying ninja revenge quest. But a deep dive into these 8-bit classics reveal eerie similarities in design, control, and difficulty. How do these titles stack up in the crucible of Thunderdome examination? Let’s find out together in today’s battle of titans in the side-scrolling action genre.
And our combatants are:

In The Blue Corner
Hailing from the far off land of Transylvania, this NES platformer landed on American soil in 1987. Pulsing with spooky atmosphere and ghoulish creatures, this landmark title terrorized gamers with exhilarating play and thumb-numbing difficulty. As a parade of zombies, hunchbacks and Universal movie monsters accompany the whip snapping Simon Belmont to the arena, let’s welcome… CASTLEVANIA!
In The Red Corner
Designed by Tecmo for the NES in 1989, this sword swinging hack-and-slash classic invigorated an already saturated market with high flying action and epic storytelling techniques. With gameplay directly inspired by today’s opponent, this title hopes to leapfrog off the back of Castlevania into the Thunderdome winner’s circle. Welcome to the ring… NINJA GAIDEN!

Art Design

Both Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden have beautifully realized worlds. The setting of Dracula’s castle is dark and brooding while character designs like zombies, ax-tossing knights, and evil Medusa heads are pulled straight from a monster movie. Simon Belmont’s trudging walk animation is perfectly suited for the patient gameplay and projects confidence and bravery.
The only knock against the visual design is the restriction of the setting itself. Castlevania takes place in a castle, and as such, has inherent limitations. There are only so many variations of hallways, foyers, and bridges you can traverse before the effect grows stale and blends into the background.
Gaiden’s art style is more varied at the expense of making sense. Urban streets and jungles morph into surrealist nightmares. Enemy types range from sensible (gun-toting soldiers, and dive-bombing birds) to pumpkin headed ax throwers. Backgrounds are also a bit of a mess, with objects and projectiles often getting lost in the fray, a terrible oversight for a game reliant on split-second timing. This is further magnified in later levels as the scenery devolves from city streets and mountain ranges to demonic hellscapes.
While the consistent tone of Castlevania draws you deeper into the mood of traversing a castle of horrors, Gaiden’s descent into madness is visually striking and more varied. A battle of inches, the winner of this round is Ninja Gaiden!

Sound Design

Click here for the OST’s of both Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden to play along.
Similar in tone and feel, the soundtracks of these two combatants are remarkably similar. With the exception of Castlevania’s foreboding opening sting, the OST is filled with driving, upbeat, and heroic themes more akin to a standard action game than a castle crawler. Standout tracks include the bouncy adventure starter of the opening level and the Knight Rider synth of “Stalker”.
Ninja Gaiden takes similar queues from its big brother. Driving, determined themes escalate to near manic levels to match the quicker gameplay. Just listening to the opening level music filled me with anxiety and that energy continues throughout. Cut scene music is appropriately cinematic and lends gravitas to the already groundbreaking storytelling, but the in-game score feels more like spastic bleeps and bloops than cohesive melodies.
With the sound effects of both games being pretty much equal, Castlevania gets the nod in this category for being the most memorable and musical. Even though the cut scene music in Ninja Gaiden is unilaterally great, Castlevania proved to be more listenable both in game and out of it while moving the action forward equally well.

Gameplay

Did you know Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania are pretty much the same game? No? Let me count the ways:

• Both feature the obnoxious “get hit, jump back” mechanic.
• Both have unlimited continues.
• Both have sub-weapons you gain from slicing/whipping inanimate background objects.
• Both sub-weapons are activated by pressing Up and B.
• Can’t attack while climbing in Ninja Gaiden, can’t attack while walking on stairs in Castlevania.
• Both taunt your ineptitude by showing the boss’ life meter throughout the stage.
• Both feature a useless points system.

And on, and on, and on.
The major difference is in pacing and tackling obstacles/enemies. Castlevania requires a patient study of enemy attack patterns and movement along with expert knowledge of Mr. Blemont’s move set and range. With an extremely limited verb set (short horizontal slash, duck, and jump), the result is a game that feels more like a puzzle platformer than a traditional hack-and-slash. Planning your movement and learning through failure is required for trudging through Dracula’s castle.
Ninja Gaiden shares much of the same DNA, only with a quicker pace. While an encyclopedic knowledge of enemy tactics is still required, the upticked game speed requires twitch skills to go along with the pattern planning. Enemies re-spawn to insane levels and often fly into frame from the borders with no warning.

The main differentiation is how both games feel in your hands, Castlevania’s patient, deliberate controls feel mushy and sluggish during sections requiring tight timing. Ninja Gaiden, however, is more empowering through maneuverability. Even when the game gets unfair, I still felt equipped to face the challenges. In Castlevania, I found myself cursing my useless duck more than the actual obstacles.
Much of Ninja Gaiden’s control success lies in the wall jump. An iteration on the Castlevania formula, the jump is slick, fluid, and a must-learn mechanic. This new ability gives the game versatility and an increased range of motion that spices up gameplay and provides a sense of empowerment that Simon Belmont’s whip jump simply can’t match. Ninja Gaiden for the round win.

Challenge / Fairness Ratio

While the famous challenge of both Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania have been AVGN’ed to death, the frustrating nature of both titles is worth examining. Like the mechanics of gameplay, both games feature the same challenge gates. As stated before, they’re a series of timing puzzles that are impossible to decipher the first way through. The idea is to suffer through a mountain of game overs at the hands of cheap attacks, blow-back pitfalls, and swarms of re-spawning minions. At the risk of sounding like a Twitter pundit, they’re the Dark Souls of NES platformers.
But are they fair? From Software games, for all their maddening difficulty and refusal to do gamers a solid and toss in a difficulty slider (insert beaten to death argument here), are fair. With practice and persistence, skilled players can best the challenges and persevere. Castlevania is the same way. Yes, getting pummeled by a one-two punch of Medusa heads and hunchbacks is maddening, but the patterns can be learned with enough time. Unlimited continues, even if it requires annoying backtracking, help increase mastery for challenges ahead. It’s not great dying fifty times in a row to a room of knights, but victory is achievable for most who dedicate the time.
Ninja Gaiden, not so much. While the DNA of the challenge is the same as Castlevania, the fair factor is much lower. Gaiden’s frantic gameplay requires quicker reflexes which in turn, reduces a player’s time to plan, especially in the later stages. Failure in Ninja Gaiden feels less deserved and cheaper, like the game doesn’t give players the chance to succeed. Couple this with an inexcusable Level 6 switch-a-roo (dying brings you back to the beginning of the world, not the section), and a boss with three forms (with no health recharge) and the experience ends up on the border of mean spirited. Castlevania wins the round.

Storytelling

Sigh. While many may feel this shouldn’t be a category given Ninja Gaiden’s legacy, it’s not like Castlevania is without canon. In fact, the castle crawler does a solid job in how it presents its limited narrative. The iconic opening gate scene elegantly sets the mood, and through environments and action, you get a sense of progressing story, even it’s a simple “Simon Belmont is going to kill Dracula” setup.
But, everyone reading this is right. Ninja Gaiden is masterful in how it tells the story of Ryu Hayabusa’s bloody revenge and the descent into darkness his quest takes him. If it were a poor narrative, the groundbreaking cut scenes wouldn’t factor into the round, but the underlying story is cool, cohesive and, incredibly satisfying. It set a new standard for cinematic video games. Ninja Gaiden with the round and the victory.

 
Writer, gamer, and beer geek, The Thunder Mage conjures words from the ether for a number of sites and publications. He currently serves as Lead Blogger and Music Writer for https://www.theaustinot.com (Austin culture) and has written for Texas Highways magazine, the Entertainment Weekly blogging community, and various film review sites. When he’s not mixing literary alchemy, he enjoys chasing his three-year-old around and advocating for video game accessibility on Twitter to the git gud sect.
 
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