New kicks!

Old ones are to be retired — maybe.

They got holes.

Cards from the girls.

Good beer

Fun in the sun ☀️

Good food.

NINJA GAIDEN 3: RAZOR’S EDGE ✅

With this, I have played all three games included in the NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

Now, how was my overall experience with all three games? I can say that, I had a great time!

When I first talked about starting this collection, I had mentioned that I watched one or two YouTube videos to see if it was worth my time getting this collection. What I was looking for specifically was if they had anything to say about the game’s difficulty. My past experience with these games is that they are pretty difficult. It turns out that the added a new Hero difficulty that, as I had mentioned before, makes the game much more approachable. At this point in my life I am not up for challenges, I just want to enjoy the game in my own way, and it makes me happy to see the toned down difficulties for players like me.

Having finished NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2, I was browsing the YouTubes there and came across this video, Before you buy. And boy was that a mistake.

Usually, when I look for a YouTube video on a specific game, usually is to find out specific things, usually gameplay, I don’t necessarily carafe for the YouTuber’s opinion much. And even if they have a bad opinion, I don't affect me much — most of the time. However, every once in a while, it might.

Specifically with these games, I believe that the general consensus is that, the first Ninja Gaiden is a cult classic, the second one is good, and the third is the weakest one. Kind of like with the Blade movies. Or according to this video review mediocre at best. Furthermore, it seems like in this collection, we got the “lesser versions”. These games have been redone a few times for different reasons, and the reason they didn’t remaster the “Original” and apparently “the good versions” is because the lost the original code for them.

Whatever!

I hated myself after watching this video. Why? Because then I had some influenced misconceptions about the game. I started approaching the game in a critical way. I am not a critical person when it comes to games, movies, etc. I just enjoy stuff but yeah, every once in a while my opinions can be influenced — a little —, it happens. This is why I try my best to not read reviews, I try to judge for myself. Because of this, I tend to be a fan or enjoy games and movies most people would probably hate.

That being said, here’s what I think of these games.

NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA: A cult classic! It is a fantastic game, and you are into puzzles, this is the game for you.

NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2: It’s good, not many puzzles and less exploration, but still a lot of fun.

NINJA GAIDEN 3: RAZOR’S EDGE: Slicing and dicing! Hack and slash, whichever way you might call it. Much more linear story, no puzzles whatsoever and lots of blood. My kind of game. I had a fucking blast with this game, I might even replay it, it's an action adventure joy of a game.

The first one, won't probably play it for another few years, played it, beat it, done. The second and third game, they might have much more replay-ability value — for me.

NINJA GAIDEN 3: RAZOR’S EDGE ✅

With this, I have played all three games included in the NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

Now, how was my overall experience with all three games? I can say that, I had a great time!

When I first blogged about starting this collection, I had mentioned that I watched one or two YouTube videos to see if it was worth my time getting this collection. What I was looking for specifically was if they had anything to say about the game’s difficulty. My past experience with these games is that they are pretty difficult. It turns out that the added a new Hero difficulty that, as I had mentioned before, makes the game much more approachable. At this point in my life I am not up for challenges, I just want to enjoy the game in my own way, and it makes me happy to see the toned down difficulties for players like me.

Having finished NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2, I was browsing the YouTubes there and came across this video, Before you buy. And boy was that a mistake.

Usually, when I look for a YouTube video on a specific game, usually is to find out specific things, usually gameplay, I don’t necessarily carafe for the YouTuber’s opinion much. And even if they have a bad opinion, I don’t affect me much — most of the time. However, every once in a while, it might.

Specifically with these games, I believe that the general consensus is that, the first Ninja Gaiden is a cult classic, the second one is good, and the third is the weakest one. Kind of like with the Blade movies. Or according to this video review mediocre at best. Furthermore, it seems like in this collection, we got the “lesser versions”. These games have been redone a few times for different reasons, and the reason they didn’t remaster the “Original” and apparently “the good versions” is because the lost the original code for them.

Whatever!

I hated myself after watching this video. Why? Because then I had some influenced misconceptions about the game. I started approaching the game in a critical way. I am not a critical person when it comes to games, movies, etc. I just enjoy stuff but yeah, every once in a while my opinions can be influenced — a little —, it happens. This is why I try my best to not read reviews, I try to judge for myself. Because of this, I tend to be a fan or enjoy games and movies most people would probably hate.

That being said, here’s what I think of these games.

NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA: A cult classic! It is a fantastic game, and you are into puzzles, this is the game for you.

NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA 2: It’s good, not many puzzles and less exploration, but still a lot of fun.

NINJA GAIDEN 3: RAZOR’S EDGE: Slicing and dicing! Hack and slash, whichever way you might call it. Much more linear story, no puzzles whatsoever and lots of blood. My kind of game. I had a fucking blast with this game, I might even replay it, it’s an action adventure joy of a game.

The first one, won’t probably play it for another few years, played it, beat it, done. The second and third game, they might have much more replay-ability value — for me.

Today it’s going to be hot, in fact, it’s been hot all week but today the highest is 93 degrees. I am lucky enough that I am allowed to come to work wearing shorts if I so choose to and I love that. In this particular pair of shorts, the right pocket it’s broken, it’s got a hole. When wearing shorts, I normally just put my phone in the right pocket because I have no fear of maybe scratching the screen too much with that little button jeans got on the right pocket. A button I have no idea what its purpose is other than scratching screens? I don’t know. The thing is that even with the hole in it there is still enough cloth to hold the phone, I just need to be careful. Today, when getting out of the car, I put my phone in the pocket, missing the pocket and when I stood up, I felt the phone slighting down my leg’s skin…

Survival instincts kicked in and with the speed of a desperate person, I grabbed my shorts and the phone and prevent its imminent, nasty fall onto the asphalt. And no, I was not wearing a case.

Phew!

I got to either fix the pocket or retrain my brain to use the phone on the left pocket just like I do with jeans. With jeans is a natural thing now, not for shorts.

A recent conversation in the Micro.blogs there had me thinking about this again. I have been using Day One, since 2013, maybe even before that, as my main journaling app. It wasn’t until 2016 that I even considered blogging. So, anything before 2016 was entered in Day One and has been in there ever since.

Once I started blogging, my blog, became my journal. I even have an IFTTT action that anything that gets published to my Micro.blog, gets into Day One as a new entry. In my blog I post about anything and everything, regardless of how personal. Well, almost everything, but I can definitely count with one hand the entries I haven’t published and even then, they are pretty old.

Though I always try to post about positive things and the things I enjoy in my blog, it is not to say that I don’t have darkness in me or that I am not battling my own demons. I just, don’t write/journal about them anymore? Wondering if that’s a healthy thing? Perhaps, I should make it a habit to reflect and journal about it, and if it’s not too bad, maybe even publish it, otherwise it’ll stay private.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma as part of the NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

If I remember correctly, NINJA GAIDEN was first released back in 2004 then ported with extra content and graphical improvements and thus NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA. I think I first tried to play this on the Xbox 360, I think under the name of Ninja Gaiden Black. Kind of confusing, but same game. If you are familiar with this series, you’ll know that these games are tough! I don’t think I made it any farther than maybe the first 2 chapters before rage-quitting.

Then, this Master collection was announced, with a Nintendo Switch version, so I knew I wanted this collection on the go. I was still afraid that the game would still be difficult, and I would — again — rage-quit it.

I was watching a couple of YouTube reviews videos to see how the games would hold up and if any changes in the difficulty were made. I cannot with a hundred percent certainty say that the difficulty has been toned down for sure, but it is something that got mentioned. Moreover, they added this new HERO difficulty mode. In this mode, as you’re nearly dead, Ryu would auto-block and dodge, and you can use Nimpo as much as you want. You do have quite some time to fight your way around before you’re dead, dead. This made boss battles doable and the entire game much more approachable. The challenge is still there, but it is a wee bit more forgiving in a way.

This is how I managed to beat the game, finally, for the first time. The game holds up pretty well, besides some control mechanics and camera annoyances it is a fun game. Bosses are ridiculous and over the top, some don’t even make sense but who cares, and dashing and slicing! Female characters are over visually over sexualized, no surprise there, but it can be off-putting.

The game was about 10 hours to beat, for me, it never felt like it was dragging too much. There were times I got stuck trying to figure out what to do as the game doesn’t hold your hand like other games do, I am spoiled by modern games, I guess. But I had a good time.

If you’ve never played the series, give this Master Collection a try, I think with the new difficulty setting it is, like I’ve said before, more approachable for newcomers.

If you have ever played any of the Devil May Cry games, this will be familiar to you.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma as part of the NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection on the Nintendo Switch.

If I remember correctly, NINJA GAIDEN was first released back in 2004 then ported with extra content and graphical improvements and thus NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA. I think I first tried to play this on the Xbox 360, I think under the name of Ninja Gaiden Black. Kind of confusing, but same game. If you are familiar with this series, you’ll know that these games are tough! I don’t think I made it any farther than maybe the first 2 chapters before rage-quitting.

Then, this Master collection was announced, with a Nintendo Switch version, so I knew I wanted this collection on the go. I was still afraid that the game would still be difficult, and I would — again — rage-quit it.

I was watching a couple of YouTube reviews videos to see how the games would hold up and if any changes in the difficulty were made. I cannot with a hundred percent certainty say that the difficulty has been toned down for sure, but it is something that got mentioned. Moreover, they added this new HERO difficulty mode. In this mode, as you’re nearly dead, Ryu would auto-block and dodge, and you can use Nimpo as much as you want. You do have quite some time to fight your way around before you’re dead, dead. This made boss battles doable and the entire game much more approachable. The challenge is still there, but it is a wee bit more forgiving in a way.

This is how I managed to beat the game, finally, for the first time. The game holds up pretty well, besides some control mechanics and camera annoyances it is a fun game. Bosses are ridiculous and over the top, some don’t even make sense but who cares, and dashing and slicing! Female characters are over visually over sexualized, no surprise there, but it can be off-putting.

The game was about 10 hours to beat, for me, it never felt like it was dragging too much. There were times I got stuck trying to figure out what to do as the game doesn’t hold your hand like other games do, I am spoiled by modern games, I guess. But I had a good time.

If you’ve never played the series, give this Master Collection a try, I think with the new difficulty setting it is, like I’ve said before, more approachable for newcomers.

If you have ever played any of the Devil May Cry games, this will be familiar to you.