Ninja Gaiden and God of War: Spike and Timmy.

Ninja Gaiden is not a game for the faint of heart. Ninja Gaiden will kill you three times over before you've landed on your back. Ninja Gaiden deaths typically involve making a single mistake that is punished for 3/4th your hp. Beating Ninja Gaiden on Hard requires a play performance that could be accurately described as 'Flawless.'

It is a game that Timmy might enjoy, but can't. It's just too damn hard.

If only he could. A popular misconception is that Timmy is an inexperienced player. That is not true. Timmy could be a very professional gamer. He could be quite impressive when he wants to be. But that is not Timmy's goal in the game. He wants to experience a great game. Being a Ninja and wreaking havoc on your foes is definitely a great experience to have. And it's not like Ninja Gaiden was a poorly done game that had the difficulty all of whack. So what happened?

The design of Ninja Gaiden is clean. It is well-thought out. The enemies are hard, but not impossible for a determined gamer. The game is fair. The game punishes repeated spamming of the same move. The game carefully adapts to your strategies. The game ensures that you do have the tools you need to survive and attempts at various stages to gently teach you what to learn to make it to the next level.

An example: On Level 2 of Ninja Gaiden, you face mostly samurai. They are fairly tough enemies when they get a hit across on you, but after that, they don't really have much in the way of attacks. It is true that they hit very hard, and they are fairly fast (for most games.) But all one requires is that one blocks when they are aggressive (read: all the time) and you can counterattack them easily.

...On level 3, however, the stealth commando enemies both fire bullets at you (You do remember how to block, right? If not, people shooting you is a clear-wake up call that if you got through level 2 without learning to block, you're definitely going to learn to do it now.) However, the enemies have now learned how to throw (a move that typically only lands when you are still and unmoving.. like say.. when you are blocking.) So now one has to learn when to block and when to strike.

So why can't so many people enjoy this game? It's all due to the same reason. It's too hard. They are unable to experience the game because to play the game requires such an intense focus on skill level that it frequently borders on impossible for most people. Would normal people really learn an entire new skill set in one level and master it in one sitting such to advance to the next level?

This is a game for Spike. More challenging? Awesome. Skill-intensive yet fair? Doubly awesome. World Renown for being difficult? Check. Bring it on. Beating the game is considered a badge of honor for hardcore gamers into the action adventure archetype. To say 'I beat Ninja Gaiden in a week' is a fairly impressive task that definitely sets one apart from the mainstream crowd.


God of War on the other hand, is a much more pleasant experience. Sure, that baddie looks impressive. It probably towers over you. Yet God of War wants to deliver the experience to you. It is very toned down and requires very little skill.

And yet it still delivers magnificently. Look at that. I'm wielding two swords that are ON FIRE against a freaking Giant. That is the experience that Timmy craves. How cool is that? And this is one of the tamer moments... For example...

On level 1 in God of War 2, you destroy an enormous cyclops, break both his arms in a windmill, and finally kill him with an epic sword that Zeus imbues with the fiery destruction that is your power of a God. LEVEL ONE. Can we talk about a bigger experience here?

And yet, God of War has been loudly decried as 'Button-mashing' for some critics and the Cinematic events that you have to press pre-set timed buttons have gotten a fair amount of negative criticism. Yet, if you were to ask the grand majority of people which game they would prefer to sit down and play through, I'm sure the grand majority would say that God of War is a cleaner, far better game experience.

Why exactly? Ninja Gaiden has a lot going for it. Ninja Gaiden is well designed. Ninja Gaiden is well balanced. Ninja Gaiden has you playing a freaking Ninja! Ninja Gaiden has once been described as 'Playing the most balanced fighting game against the most ridiculously hard computer in the world.'

Why would more people enjoy God of War to Ninja Gaiden?

1. Not all Spikes strive for self-improvement: Spikes want to win or accomplish it all but not all of them have the time to work that hard at it. Catching all the pokemon is a badge of honor and probably less frustrating than killing Atma in Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden requires a player to say to themselves 'No, I'm not good enough to beat this game right now' and still believe that 'Yes, I will be good enough to beat this game if I can afford to put more time in it.'

2. Timmy really wants to enjoy Ninja Gaiden, but he cannot because he just cannot beat the game. Thousands of people have cried out for an easier mode to Ninja Gaiden. This isn't because they don't feel like practicing for the content. It's because it never was their intention in the first place to become a Ninja Master. They wanted to play the game and experience the game. They wanted to have fun just experiencing the game.

3. God of War succeeds at pleasing it's core audience. If people want a 40 hour adventure with flare and excitement and really ridiculously damn cool fight scenes, God of War delivers just that. It is a commendable achievement. Anyone picking up God of War looking for a fun intense experience will get just that. It succeeds. Ninja Gaiden's finely tuned mechanics and intense challenge are aimed at a group of people that... well.. probably just don't have the time any more to commit to Ninja Gaiden.

Ninja Gaiden's appeal is severely hampered because it's a Spike game that not all Spikes can enjoy and the basic premise of it appeals to Timmy, but Timmy can't be bothered to achieve the inner perfection just to enjoy the experience of being a Ninja.

As a general rule, Timmies far outnumber Spikes in any given time. (Timmies are more casual gamers. Spikes are generally hardcore.)

Note that this trend has been going on for some time. Devil May Cry? Ridiculously hard. Lots of people want to enjoy it and get turned off by the uber difficulty. Prince of Persia? Life fountains everywhere... not to mention the literal ability to reverse time and mistakes. Guess which one is a Game of the Year title?

Make no mistake, I think both games are extremely well refined and polished. Personally, I think I could replay Ninja Gaiden over and over and over perfecting myself and how I play. Certainly the Hurricane Packs and Ninja Gaiden: Black packages are reinforcing this point (It's the same levels. With harder enemies. And new moves. ) whereas God of War would be played once and set down. But if I were to recommend a game to someone? Definitely God of War. They would definitely have more of a blast playing it through the first time...

... That said, if only there was an easy mode in Ninja Gaiden that wasn't as ridiculously humiliating as the current one (Ninja-Dog mode, an apparent unwillingness of the creator to let humble Timmies experience the glory of being a perfect Ninja.)