i know it's difficult series, but is it punishingly so? i was thinking of getting the Master Collection prior to 4 being released. thought I'd try it out first and see if i can cope in part 4. is playing Ninja Gaiden Black the best to start with or Ninja Gaiden Sigma or neither?

To quote Maria Von Trapp, “Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

I’d start with the OG NES release of Ninja Gaiden from 1988.

The 8-bit graphics, parallax cinematics, the music, the levels, the gameplay.

Yeah, a very good place to start indeed.

thanks Goldberg, but how about the ones that are out and easily playable? i was thinking more in terms of today's incarnations like Sigma, Sigma 2, Black, etc...
Basically, the ones that will mirror NG 4 most likely.

That shit was hard as fuck when I was a kid, I can't imagine playing it as a geezer.

I only ever played the NES versions of the game. I've never attempted any of the ones beyond those three.

I'm right there with you... but man, those games were core gamer memories for me like playing Strider, Rygar, Bionic Commando, and the like. They don't make games like that (very much) any more.

I really haven’t played many games in this series, but I do like the PS Vita game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus.

I think I'm going with NG: Black. not sure why, but why not.

i started NG: Black and it's a hell of a good game. the graphics are amazing, and the combat is stellar. So much blood and guts, i love it!

I remember the Ninja Gaiden side scroller arcade game. I then read a few years ago that none of that data was saved properly (or some shit), which is why they had to re-do the game from scratch for the consoles. My favorite NG was part 2 "Dark Sword of Chaos" for NES. It was very Lovecraftian and "Robert Sturgeon" was a badass sidekick. The cut-scenes and transitions were awesome.

Agreed. One of the few games from that era that I never finished.

I did run through a level or two for nostalgia sake a few years ago, but didn't have the patience to see it through.

I played that as well. I think I beat it too. Very foggy though.

Anyway, this Black game is a hell of a lot of fun. I block and then use my fire to clean up an entire mob of ninja. It’s really quite cool for generally an amazing looking button masher.

I did go ahead and buy the arcade version, you know, for nostalgia sake.

Yep never beat it either but still one of my all time favorites. You should definitely check out some of the awesome covers that people are doing for the music.

Couldn't tell you. I remember the very first one on NES was infuriating.