The fact that any of us bothered to finish this rage-inducing cheese-fest is a testament to our perseverance back in the 80's. It could be due to lack of other options in the NES days (Sega was NOT a presence in the USA industry and Atari was dying a slow and deserved death) but even though this game would give Super Meat Boy a run for the money as far as difficulty is concerned, just about every video game nerd I knew back in the day had eventually completed this game.
The gamepaly, for the most part, in Ninja Gaiden was incredible and innovative for the time. However, there was one aspect of it that just seemed "broken" and that was the birds.
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One of the main things that made Ninja Gaiden such a great game was that unlike a lot of other platforming games on the NES, you weren't limited to 1 or two hits before you died. The "life bar" would gradually diminish and how much damage you took was decided greatly by what sort of enemy hit you.
All of this went out the window on any sort of platforming section - which is most of the game as you get further in.
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The birds themselves are not a terribly difficult enemy because their "dive bomb" attack is exactly the same every single time. However, some genius over in the dev department decided that it would be a good idea to throw these things at you in certain sections where it is almost impossible to avoid them since you are currently flipping through the air.
When a bird was discovered you could back up and wait for it and then kill it or simply jump straight up to kill it, but if you moved even ever so slightly to the left of the screen (or right if going in the opposite direction) the friggin thing would respawn in exactly the same cheese position. This design flaw didn't exist for all enemies in the game, but just this and several other enemies that are designed to knock you out of the sky.
If the bird simply damaged you that would be fair enough, but that isn't how they worked. If they so much as touched you it would result in you getting uncontrollably knocked back and more often than not, falling into the depths below.
How our ninja hero manages to be able to flip 400 times in a row across platforms yet doesn't know how to swim is something that I think needs to be brought up at ninja school.
Plus, why would a bird striking what is presumably a full sized person cause them to fly wildly backwards as if they were struck by a Volkswagen mid-air? Any enemy that strikes you will cause that to happen and in the case of humans or the larger dog / cat things that you encounter I suppose makes sense, but a bird? The largest bird in the world might break a rib if it hit you full speed but cause you to go reeling back into the pit of despair? Come on!
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Seriously... screw you bird!
I distinctly remember back in 1989 when this was released getting so angry that I would throw the controller across the room and my parents would intervene at that point and demand that I stop playing. Now that I am older I look back on those situations with a certain sense of shame and bewilderment because why on earth would we intentionally get involved in something that makes us so angry?
This was definitely one of the most difficult games that I played as a child and when I look back on videos of it I am astounded at the level of perseverance that I had in order to eventually complete the game. I definitely do NOT possess this level of patience these days and would give up very early on with games that are this difficult. This is the reason what I have never played Dark Souls, wont buy Bloodbourne even when it is on sale, and gave up on Nioh at the first boss.
I think i just had a PTSD moment from you mentioning these guys. So frustrating. That wasn't the only thing annoying about this game though, you also had to have incredible accuracy in order to stick to walls that you had to climb and there were certain walls that you actually didn't want to stick to but it would make you do so even though you were just trying to jump over some obstacle below. Urgh!