Ninja Gaiden III, Phantasy Star II

The game: Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
Its cost: 500 Points

The Ninja Gaiden series was a pioneer in the realm of storytelling through the video game medium, but since most were there for the gameplay, a lot of people missed the third and final act in the trilogy since it was released so late in the NES’s lifespan. Many had moved on to the SNES by then and didn’t look back. Ninja Gaiden III is both the best and worst in the trilogy. First of all, the presentation is just plain amazing. You now are given the ability to see what power-ups are contained in the floating orbs before you slash them, eliminating the frustration of picking up the wrong power-up at the wrong time. The controls are tighter, hectic sections of the game have less sprite flicker, the music is fantastic, Ryu has some very brief voice clips, and the art direction is phenomenal (for 8-bit) with even more animation in the cut-scenes and some awesome use of color and parallax scrolling. While the presentation is probably among the NES’s peak achievements, the gameplay took some hits. In many ways, it felt like Tecmo’s developers knew the series wouldn’t be continuing on 16-bit platforms, so they tried to cram too many ideas into the third (and last) installment and lost focus as a result. The level design is inconsistent with some stellar and stinker levels scattered around. Generally, none of the levels feel connected. The difficulty level is also frustrating by mortal standards, and the limit of five continues intensifies this fact. There are more difficult games in the NES library, but it can’t be understated that this game is hard. It should be noted that the Japanese version relieves some of the frustration by offering unlimited continues. So as you can see, from a technical standpoint this is the best in the trilogy, while from a design standpoint there are some flaws. People’s opinion slide either way when comparing Ninja Gaiden III to its predecessors, but one thing is for sure–regardless of its flaws, Ninja Gaiden III is most definitely deserving of your time and 500 points.

Graphics and presentation quality push the NES to and past its limits; Control is perfect and gameplay smooth as silk; Ability to see power-up icons before grabbing them alleviates frustrations from the first two games

Difficulty level is beyond frustrating and marginally ridiculous; Quality of level design is inconsistent with too many ideas cramping each other

Sega Genesis

The game: Phantasy Star II
Its cost: 800 Points

Once again we getting a series out of order, but that’s understandable this time. Phantasy Star started on the Master System and that system isn’t available on the Virtual Console (just yet). Thus, we start with the first Genesis title, and that’s a perfectly fine place to begin. The Phantasy Star franchise was a cut away from the rest of the RPG pack back in the day thanks to its unique Sci-Fi theme, and was the preferred series of Sonic the Hedgehog lead programmer Yuji Naka. The gameplay is your typical turn-based RPG system. You choose commands for the four characters in your party (from a selection of eight). Each of the fighters in your party has different sets of armor, techniques, and weapons tailored to their specific job. You travel from town to town, leveling up and meeting new characters who join your party. You’ve got your old-school turn-based fights with few frills, but the battle system feels quite satisfying as long as the “classic” RPG fundamentals such as random encounters with enemies don’t get on your nerves. There are some bothersome issues such as how some weapons and pieces of armor often come with no explanation whatsoever leaving you to figure out what you’re supposed to do. While some aspects of the game are frustrating and you’ll occasionally come to a point where it is easy to get lost, the epic storyline (which I won’t spoil) is more than enough to get the attention of any RPG fan. Phantasy Star II was among the earliest Genesis titles released, so obviously the visuals aren’t the most stunning sight, but this isn’t much of an issue for an RPG and the art direction more than makes up for the deficiency. While the musical score might have benefited from something other than the Genesis’s FM synth, you’ll still find the classical sci-fi vibe quite satisfying. Phantasy Star II brought to light many console RPG staples used today. There were far more interesting characters to meet and interact with than just about anything else available, and that overdose of personality is what gives the game such character today. The Genesis never received many Eastern RPG titles and almost no third party love in that department, but it was thanks to games like Phantasy Star II that Genesis owners really didn’t feel all that cheated.

Around 40 hours of gameplay; Brilliantly written and presented storyline with an undeniably epic and unique feel

Simple visuals; Being a tedious old-school RPG so don’t expect any modern refinements the genre has enjoyed aside from the save system

Some images courtesy of vgmuseum.com