Ninja Gaiden II Comes to Console Archives, and I’m Torn About It

Recently, Nintendo held their Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase for February 5th, 2026, and one announcement in particular caught my eye:

My initial reaction to this (besides “Wait, what about the first game?”) was “great!” In particular, I love Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, and used to own it (until I didn’t). A challenging game, to be sure, but one I have very fond memories of.

But as time has passed and discussions have been had about it, my opinion on this has lowered somewhat. That is to say, now I’m actually kind of torn, maybe even a bit frustrated about this release.

Now, to be clear, I support the Hamster Arcade Archives and Console Archives on the whole. I think it’s a great way to preserve and continue to make available a number of great games that would otherwise fall by the wayside. Games that, for whatever reason, the publishers don’t have any interest in doing anything with. This includes a number of Nintendo’s own classic arcade titles, like Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Punch-Out!!, each of which sport numerous differences from their home console counterparts. Why they have never shown any interest in releasing these over the last 45 years (give or take) is anyone’s guess, but at least they’re here now, thanks to Hamster.

I don’t necessarily think that is where they should have wound up, but Nintendo’s gonna Nintendo, and hey, at least you can buy them, unlike Nintendo’s NSO offerings for classic platforms.

All of which is to say, while I think it’s a great thing for some games for whatever reasons… I don’t think Ninja Gaiden II belongs here. Or Ninja Gaiden III. Or the OG Ninja Gaiden.

Not only is the Ninja Gaiden brand still fairly prominent today, with the modern series as rebooted by Team Ninja receiving two new entries last year alone, but the classic games were — are — legends of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

These are games which are essentially must-owns for the console, held up to the same standard as the likes of the Super Mario Bros. trilogy, the Legend of Zelda duology, the Castlevania trilogy, the first three Mega Man games, and other champions of classic gaming.

Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the contents page of the NES Game Atlas:

(And in case you were wondering about its omission, among others, the NES Game Atlas was published in early 1991, before Ninja Gaiden III had been released.)

It was even featured in The Wizard!

Fun fact: That second clip is how I learned the proper way to pronounce “gaiden”.

Now, you might be thinking “If it’s such a great game/series, then surely it deserves to be preserved!” And yes, I agree.

But not like this. I believe it deserves better.

Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen a lot of classic games get re-releases, but we’ve also seen a lot of great franchises get great collections. The Disney Afternoon Collection, the Contra Anniversary Collection, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection, the series of Castlevania collections, the entire Mega Man Legacy Collection line all come to mind, and that’s just to name a few! Oh, and they just announced a Super Bomberman collection, too — in the same showcase!

Suffice to say, while some could use improvements here and there, I’m generally happy with the collection treatment that a lot of these previous classic series have gotten. Mega Man, for instance — I would hate to see those offered through Console Archives instead of the collections we’ve gotten. Maybe some of the oddities, like Rockman & Forte for WonderSwan, I guess. But nothing mainline.

There’s quite a bit here you could put into a collection, too, believe it or not.

For starters, there are the three original games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, of course. Then there are the Japanese Famicom versions — these would be a must, particularly in the case of Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, which was released during that time when game publishers were jumping scared at the western video game rental market and ratcheting up the difficulty so that kids couldn’t beat them in a weekend. The Ninja Gaiden series is already a harsh mistress when it comes to challenge; it’s downright infamous for it. Just ask someone who was there about the birds and watch them wince like they were just jabbed in the ribs with a soup spoon.

But these guys at Tecmo thought “harder!” And so they limited your continues, cut out the password system entirely, and made various other changes which The Cutting Room Floor has been kind enough to detail here. It remains the one game in the original trilogy I’ve played, but never beaten. So the Japanese version is a must. (Or just apply the English localization to the Japanese version; I’d be even happier with that, to be quite honest.)

Then there’s Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for the Super NES. These were, by most accounts, low-effort ports of the NES games for the Super NES that didn’t really do much to utilize the hardware, reportedly even going so far as to remove some of the more impressive effects of the originals, like parallax scrolling in some levels. It has passwords and the Japanese version of Ancient Ship of Doom, but really serves more as a curio and for completion than anything else.

We’re not through yet! There was also a Game Boy release, Ninja Gaiden Shadow, which was originally a Shadow of the Ninja port that acts as a prequel to the NES trilogy. However, it was licensed from Natsume, so that could provide an obstacle toward its inclusion. But these days, anything is possible.

To that same end, there were also distinct releases by SEGA for the Game Gear and Master System, a (rather bad) port of the first NES game by Hudson Soft to the TurboGrafx-16. If the licensing could be worked out favorably, these — particularly the SEGA games — would be fantastic additions. If not, well, guess what? There’s still more we can do here.

Specifically, there’s the original arcade game! Granted, this one is up there with Konami’s arcade Castlevania game Haunted Castle in terms of playability, and only slightly more fun (seeing the game over screen for the first time is something, anyway). But hey, can you imagine? M2 managed to turn Konami’s coin-op train wreck into an enjoyable time in Castlevania Dominus Collection, so if they were the ones tasked with handling this hypothetical collection, maybe they could do the same for Tecmo’s quarter-munching calamity.

So, those are the potential games that could go into a collection like this. But of course, there’s other stuff, too. You know the drill: Box art, manuals, advertisements, development documents, those little cookies your mother likes, and so on. Perhaps something could be done with the Worlds of Power book or the Nintendo Power strategy guide for the second game?

Oh, and maybe, if it’s not too much trouble… the OVA?

Yeah, that’s right, there was an animated feature based on the original Ninja Gaiden games released in Japan in 1991. It acts as a sequel to those games with Ryu, Irene, and even Robert! And for my money, I rather liked it. If the Mega Man X Legacy Collection could feature “Day of Σ” in both volumes (among other instances of Capcom including such things on occasion in their various collections), then hopefully this wouldn’t be out of the question.

As you can probably tell, I see a lot of potential for what could be included in this — more than I expect we would ever get from a Console Archives release. As it is, I’m not even sure what — if anything — this release really brings. The only features I’ve been able to find after searching have been “customizable button layouts and screen settings, as well as the ability to save and load at any point”.

Which is nice, but there could be so much more.

And I say that with all due respect: I think for more obscure titles, like maybe Rockin’ Cats or Panic Restaurant, Console Archives is a fantastic thing. But for a proven franchise that remains relevant to this day like Ninja Gaiden? That’s clearly another story.

With that said, I think there could be room for both. SEGA released their 3D Classics line on Nintendo 3DS as individual digital downloads, as well as in collections. And if Tecmo were to do something of their own in conjunction with this? I’ll be perfectly satisfied.

However, such a case tends to be the outlier in this situation. And that is why I’ve become worried after seeing Hamster’s announcement of this release.

But in the meantime… any chance we can get this on Xbox? Please?

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