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I decided to try it out the other day and to my surprise, it was actually pretty fun. Not something I would sink serious time into or anything, but I was definitely expecting worse. The weird thing is, I tried Ninja Spirit beforehand which is supposed to be way better but found it incredibly boring. I think I'm going to buy the sequel for sure, even if they are pretty much unrelated. Are there any other games besides Demon Sword that have similar gameplay?

I thought the original Legend of Kage arcade game was pretty bad ass back in the day so I liked the famicom/nes port. Also had "Demon Sword" on the famicom years before it came stateside. Also you might want to get the famicom version of "Demon Sword" (Fudou Myououden) because it has way more levels, enemies and power ups vs the NES version.

Before going into other games that play like Legend of Kage, there's a 2.5D Legend of Kage remake on one of those Taito Collections. Also there's a "new" Legend of Kage 2 game for the DS.


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Legend of Kage 2 is the game that taught me even if your avatar is fun to control in an action platformer, boring level layouts can still sink the game.

Another "great" example of this, in a ninja-themed game no less, is the Neo-Geo's Ganryu.

It's ok by me. There isn't really a lot to it though - you'll see all there is to see in half an hour of play even if you suck like me.

Whatcha' talking about, Ganryu has some actual stage design compared to Legend of Kage's "big wide screen with trees to jump on"-stages. Never cared for the latter in gameplay, either.

Never knew about the 2.5D remake before. Only available in Taito Legends Power-Up for PSP. Looks quite horrible.

PC Engine Fan X, why are you masquerading as someone else?

Sorry, I just had to say that.

On topic, I myself recall seeing Ninja Spirit at the arcade, and was reminded first of Kage. Makes me wonder if Taito are the initiators of the Ninja genre, given they influenced the shmup scene with Space Invaders so much. Could never get past the wall-ascending stage myself.

I love that game. I enjoy the crazy tree jumping parrying and what not. I think Taito might have done like maybe 5 bad arcade games, this is not one of them.

If this is true then I have an easy way to defend my tastes if someone ever does look at me funny for showing fondness towards it.
After all, OGR says so himself it was a big hit when it first launched.

Having never played this prior to getting Taito Legends 2 a couple years back, I was still pretty impressed with The Legend of Kage. I still get a credit or two in for the game every now and then.

Good times and good fun.

For real? I'd have assumed you'd like Ninja Spirit, being a fellow Irem/Metal Slug guy. The first two stages are rather plain but from the third on it really picks up intensity, with much more tactically demanding level designs. I might try to get the 1CC, now I've finally got that fucking MS3 no-miss sorted out.

I am quite mystified by how someone could find Ninja Spirit boring. I just discovered it this year and there's just so much happening on-screen but you quickly get the tools to deal. Really chaotic, fun game that's one of the best things Irem ever did.

Uh, bad choice of words on my part; it was not the level design that turned me off, Irem don't do bad level design!
It was just one of the rare instances where the gameplay simply didn't click with me. For whatever reason, I just don't find the combat engaging like I did in Kage.

Yep, including the sequel. Reminded me of a DS Ninja Gaiden. (The good ones.)

Played it (Famicom/NES-port) for hours and hours as a child. Lovely game Why were you expecting worse exactly?

The only somewhat bad part about the game imho is the impossible to react to ranged attacks from enemy (different in other versions?).

So Kage 2 for DS is a bust? Was mulling over getting it.

Was playing Kage 1 and I just realised you get more points for killing guys with your sword vs your shuriken (3x I think). Shinobi before Shinobi (or Kung-Fu Master after Kung-Fu Master, at a stretch). This is probably not news to Kage fans and is probably really obvious, oh well.

I played LOK in the arcades as a kid and liked it then. Although I wasnt that impressed when I played it on the Taito Legends 2 pack, maybe because I was playing Ninja Spirit and Shinobi at that time

Ditto to both. Although I did try to like Ganryu.

I was on the fence about picking up Kage 2 but a few minutes with it convinced me that despite having all the elements of what I guess you would now call hipster appeal, it didn't make that deeper connection that I needed - it needed to be fun. So blah.

But yeah, I like Legend of Kage, especially the arcade one.

Kage 2 I have two copies of (renamed as Demon Sword, complete with sloppy hacked-in title screen), as well as the original Famicom release (an unusual looking red clamshell case with an also unusual fold-out thing inside) that took me a while to hunt down. It feels close enough to the original that I'd count it.

I also thank Legend of Kage for introducing me to Kage (Blue Shadow in PAL land) - a totally unexepected amazing game called just "Kage" showed up when I bought what I thought was the Japanese version of Legend of Kage. It was a long while before I realized that it is even better than Legend of Kage, though that's because it's somewhere between Shatterhand (or maybe Ninja Gaiden) and Castlevania (complete with wall snake things).

Kage for DS I was looking at, but something about the screens didn't look right, I guess.

It's a point worth hammering in for those who maybe knew and forgot it.

Taito really was one of the most innovative forces in arcade gaming, and while they were eclipsed their contributions shouldn't be forgotten. Legend of Kage may seem primitive in some ways today, but as you point out they were starting to put some good, enduring ideas into games (and from the Shmups firsts thread, I mentioned that Stratovox was one of the two first games with voice samples).

Kage isn't bad in a mindless jumpy kind of way, but I can't be hearing anyone say bad shit about Ninja Spirit. Irem's best of all time for me, Never did 1CC the sucker, reached the last level a few times on Mame and C64 though.

I thought Legend of Kage 2 for DS was excellent, pretty much the game the first part was meant to be but couldn't pull off.

However...

...Ninja Spirit blows the socks off both Legend of Kages!

Owned it back in the day as a kid.
Hated it initially, but one day while over a friend's house we took the time to figure it out.

Ninja Spirit is awesome. Great soundtrack too.
I used to play Legend of Kage in the arcade when it came out and seem to remember it was ok but not great.
I was also priviliged to play The Ninja Warriors in the arcade, on the three screen (Darius) cab. Bloodflowers used to own the cab but sold it due to space issues in his garage. A big mistake I think...

Taito was the best. The BEST.

Taito is still god tier as far as I'm concerned. Would be nice to see another Syvalion/Night Striker game though.

But there is no Taito, just Squeenix wearing a skin suit made out of Taito when it wishes.

Interesting comment on Ninja Spirit, by the way. At one time I even had a deal to buy the PCB. But when I reflect on it, I think it's just unstructured in some strange way that I can't really get to grips with. Feels odd for some reason. There is a lot of freedom, and the weapons are cool, but some of the later stages in particular really disappoint with the emphasis on timing enemies perfectly when they come onscreen (and of course the floaty jumps make it harder in this case to land safely). The repetitiveness of some areas deprive it of some of the visceral feeling of progress you get with, for example, arcade Super Contra.

A game that does awesome movement but isn't unstructured as all hell is the SNES / SFC classic Hagane. The barreling forward air roll is pretty awesome to behold. Speaking of which, the cover artist is the guy behind Namco's Mirai (Future) Ninja art, and also the designer of the props for that movie, and some other television work I'd think. Mirai Ninja also feels somewhat unstructured. I believe it is closer to the standard Dragon Buster type game though. Edit: Actually, on a quick playthrough, the starting level is totally different from what I remember, and I forgot the straight-forward shuriken shot, so there is a reason why I don't like it much - I do not really care all that much for the "jump and shoot forward" type of game, unless it's done like Psycho-Nics Oscar, or maybe Duke Nukem or Bio Menace (heh). The "jump to aim your shots" thing gets old in a hurry. Edit #2: Well, a better game than I was giving it credit for being (65K points on my first play in a long while, never really treated it seriously before), but still turned off by jump aiming (and by timing enemies and their shots). Guess somebody out there will love this, though. Even with more upwards shot control it wouldn't really seem like a top contender, though.