Ninja Gaiden (Nintendo Entertainment System) - Development

Development

Ninja Gaiden was developed by Tecmo, who also developed the Tecmo Bowl and Rygar series. It was one of the first two games, alongside Tecmo Bowl, to be released by the company for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The game was released in December 1988 in Japan under the title Ninja Ryukenden, whose literal translation was Legend of the Dragon Sword. It was developed and released the same time as the beat 'em up arcade version of the same name; neither of the two games were ports of each other but were parallel projects developed by different teams. According to developer Masato Kato, the term "ninja" was gaining popularity in North America, prompting Tecmo to develop a ninja-related game for the NES at the same time the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden was being developed. The NES version was directed was developed and directed by Hideo Yoshizawa (listed as "Sakurazaki" in the game's credits), who led the development teams of both this game and its arcade counterpart.

Drawing inspiration from the Mario series, Yoshizawa kept the same title but changed everything else; it became a platformer as opposed to a beat 'em up as featured in Double Dragon; the gameplay was modeled after Konami's Castlevania, which Ryu was equipped with a katana-like Dragon Sword, shurikens, and ninpo techniques such as fire wheels. In designing the protagonist Ryu Hayabusa, the development team wanted him to be unique from other ninjas. They designed him with a ninja vest in order to place emphasis on his muscles, and they furnished him with a cowl that arched outward. They originally wanted to equip Ryu with sensors and a helmet with an inside monitor to check his surroundings, but that idea was scrapped. They utilized specific locations and environment to justify the need for having a ninja for a main character. In charge of designing the graphics, Kato used the NES' technical limitations to his advantage by placing the background and objects together. The game's difficulty was set at a high level due to Tecmo's policy on increasing the challenge for Western gamers.

Yoshizawa placed greater emphasis story as opposed to the arcade version, and he wrote and designed the plot that included over 20 minutes of cinematic cutscenes – the first time an NES game contained such sequences. Tecmo called the cutscene system "Tecmo Theater", in which the game reveals the storyline between Acts through the usage of animated sequences. These sequences are used at the beginning of each Act to introduce new characters such as Irene Lew, Walter Smith, and the Jaquio. This feature uses techniques such as close-ups, alternate camera angles, differing background music, and sound effects. It was used to make the game more enjoyable for players. Unlike earlier titles such as Final Fantasy, the cutscenes consisted of large anime art on the top half of the screen with dialogue on the bottom half. This made the artistic style more reminiscent of other manga titles such as Lupin III and Golgo 13. Dimitri Criona, Tecmo USA's director of sales and marketing, said that the advantages of console games over arcade games allowed the creation of a longer game and the inclusion of cutscenes, which Tecmo trademarked as "cinema screens"; he noted the lack of motivation to drop quarters that has allowed this on home consoles, which required a different reward structure than in arcade games.

When the game's text was translated from Japanese to English, the game needed to be reprogrammed in order to accomplish this; different companies handled this process in different ways. Tecmo's Japanese writers wrote rough translations in English, and they would then fax them to the American division. According to Criona, the American division would "edit it and put it back together, telling the story in a context that an American English speaker would understand. This would go back and forth several times." Moreover, the game's text was stored in picture files instead of raw computer text, and because of the NES' hardware limitations, the English text need to be very clear and concise to fall within those limitations; many times, different words with the same meaning but with less characters had to be used. All symbols and objects were scrutinized by Nintendo of America, who had specific rules on what could be included for North American releases; for instance, any Satanic, Christian, or any other religious, sexual, or drug-related references were not allowed.