Something You Learned Today

[famifan]

falling off a moped brings a bit more pain on the next day of falling 

[80sFREAK]

falling off a moped brings a bit more pain on the next day of falling 

Welcome to the club

[Epic_Lotus]

I have a hole in one of my favorite shirts 

[Nightstar699]

That apparently Sega (much like myself) like  Rockin' Kats. Compare.

Rockin' Kats, 1991:


Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 1992:


I know there's such a thing as coincidence, but man there are a lot of similarities there.

[manuel]

That's really a nice "coincidence".  

[Nightstar699]

Tell me about it. It's a shame that I've actually heard people claiming that stage of Rockin' Kats to be a Sonic 2 ripoff, even though it was released earlier. Sigh.

[Nightstar699]

In Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3, you have a spin attack which is activated by holding the B-button, and releasing. I honestly had no clue until today.

[UglyJoe]

I learned that a site called Magweasel exists, is awesome, and is apparently updating again!

[P]

And from the link UglyJoe posted I just learned that red and white was not chosen for the Famicom because they where the cheapest plastic (which they weren't) but because Mr. Yamauchi liked the dark red colour.

[Nightstar699]

That some people actually consider Shadow of the Ninja/Kage to be a Ninja Gaiden clone, which is absolutely absurd. I seriously can't even think of a single similarity between the games, other than the obvious fact that you play as a sword-wielding ninja in both of them. So are they implying that Tecmo invented ninjas? Hmm...

[L___E___T]

They both have similar running animations, sword powerups and the way you climb up to higher levels.  But yeah, to say they're a clone is daft.  Ninjas were everywhere in the 80s.  Kids born after may not realise just how much that was true.

It's probably because the development team later made NG games for Gameboy and SMS using a similar 'engine'.

[Nightstar699]

They both have a climbing mechanic, yes, but they're entirely different. Ninja Gaiden has wall bouncing, Shadow of the Ninja's wall climbing/hanging is utilized in a completely different way. Which Ninja Gaiden game featured sword powerups? I think the powerup system is vastly different between the games because in Ninja Gaiden (the installments I've played, anyway) you only get one main weapon, but a plethora of sub-weapons you can acquire. While in Shadow of the Ninja, there are two completely different main weapons, one which can be powered up many times (the sword), and less focus on subweapons, which aren't all that useful in Shadow of the Ninja. But I do see why someone might be reminded of Ninja Gaiden because of Shadow of the Ninja, but calling it a clone? I'd hardly even consider them to be similar. Two entirely different games with entirely different styles, particularly in the way that pitfalls are the number one hazard in NG, while pitfalls (and being knocked back by enemies in general) is hardly even an issue in most parts of SoTN, I'd say the main challenge in that game is fighting the enemies, and keeping your ninja powered up.

[P]

Ninja Gaiden 3 has a sword power up that is very similar to the Shadow of the Ninja one. Also the game boy game Ninja Gaiden Shadow had a similar ceiling climbing feature. But still they are very different games that are both simply based on a Ninja theme. Sure they have similar animations and stuff but what kind of ninja game would it be if it didn't have a walking animation with that particular ninja way of running (with minimal movement of the upper body), or if the ninja couldn't even climb walls. Or throw shuriken and use ninjutsu.

People saying this and that is a rip off of that other game and so on, are just being ridiculous. Listening to them is a waste of time and energy.

[Nightstar699]

That's true, but Ninja Gaiden III was released a year after Shadow of the Ninja. And Ninja Gaiden Shadow for the Game Boy was originally developed as a Shadow of the Ninja sequel, but Tecmo bought the rights, and released it as a Ninja Gaiden game.

I'd say that Ninja Hattori Kun is perhaps the most un-ninja ninja game of all time. Not that I'm an expert or anything.

[L___E___T]

If NG 3 was released after, that gives you the first two games quite a bit before,  so NG was pretty established by then.  I don't think Kage is a clone at all, but if it was they'd both be a clone of Shinobi in my view.  The game was the first massively popular ninja game from what I remember.  The Last Ninja series was popular as well but with a different crowd again and is a very different game.
There were tons of Ninja games, no-one seems to think these were a clone of Ninja Spirit though - I think it's just people pretending to know more than they do based on NG's popularity.