Ninja Gaiden Black Shadow

About this project

Ninja Gaiden Shadow began as a GB conversion for Shadow of the Ninja on NES. This is a hack that aims to make the experience closer to NES Shadow of the Ninja, the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy, and the Japanese version of Ninja Gaiden Shadow with some bonus SGB enhancements. Changes are chronicled below.

Graphics:

• A custom border was added
• A custom colour set was added

Cutscenes:

• The translation was redone to be more faithful to the Japanese original and fixes continuity errors from the official English script including the contradictory timeframe
• Stages were renamed to acts to keep in line with the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy

Gameplay:

• By pressing A+B+START on the title screen, the player can access the lost debug menu and use features such as the level select
• The i-frames were made slightly more generous to line up with NES Shadow of the Ninja, now lasting closer to 1.5 seconds rather than just over 1 second
• The player begins with 6 lives like in NES Shadow of the Ninja instead of 3
• The player now begins with 3 flame ninpo uses instead of 1. This makes checkpoints less painful. It also arguably balances the last-minute mechanic better overall, with it now being more feasible to max out ninpo

Recommended hardware/emulators:

• An actual Super GB
• mGBA
• BGB

Credits:

• CF for the hacking and translation
• Maël Hörz for HxD
• marc_max for the SGB injector tool