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Ninja Gaiden Master Collection brings together three games which I haven’t played before, but on the plus side, it moves along at a fair lick.
On the downside, this remastered compilation doesn’t seem to be in the slightest bit remastered.
In fact, it was rather odd that there was no option to change the graphics settings. I generally go for 1080p, but I now have a beefier PC and have tried it with 4K and got some good results. However, whatever this is stuck on, it’s not telling me (apparently, the options are 720p, 1080p and 4K). Then again, it probably doesn’t matter because compared to some gameplay I saw of the original, nothing has changed.
In addition, the game is not quite fullscreen. There’s part of a PC Window bar the top of the screen… not a whole one, just part, as if I’ve got some overscan issue on my TV, even though I haven’t.
Clicking on the top of the screen with the mouse (even though there’s no keyboard options for controlling the game – you need a joypad) DID get the game fullscreen proper. Were Quality Control on holiday?
Even more odd, I can’t quit out! When I go to the menu, it suggests pressing the left-arrow button on my Xbox controller and either pushing down on the right thumbstick or pushing it up, or doing both at the same time… it wasn’t clear. However, none of these combinations do anything.
Also, with Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, trying the old Alt-F4 doesn’t quit out… right-clicking on the game icon in the taskbar and trying to quit does nothing… and there’s no entry for the game in Task Manager. WTF?! Remember that scene in Weird Science where the two lads are in the process of creating Kelly Le Brock, and not even unplugging the computer will switch it off? It’s like that!!!
In the end, I had to let everyone kill me, then it went not-fullscreen again, and like with Lee Carvello’s Putting Challenge, I was asked “Do you want to play again?” I came back to the main menu and could quit with the menu options from there. This. Is. Weird.
I’ve denoted this as more of a ‘first impressions’ since, as you’ll see from the gameplay below, that was pretty much all I played of it. That was enough. Maybe you’ll enjoy it more? Either way, it’s not worth the current asking price, but maybe check it out in a sale later in the year.
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection is out now on PC/Steam.
Important info:
- Developer: Koei Tecmo
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
- Players: single-player
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.