retro
Let's Quickly Learn About Ninja Gaiden
Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 1:00 PM on June 5, 2008
Forget the finger-pointing and lawsuits for a moment, here's a quick look at the history of Ninja Gaiden, minus amusing English mispronunciations.
X-Play History [Go Nintendo]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
NitrousO
Posted 1:31 PM 5/6/08
@Thorax: Say it like guy-den
NitrousO
(俗・ ) Grey Gecko
Posted 1:28 PM 5/6/08
@Thorax: AFAIK= Gaiden, g-e-i-d-e-n, belive it means sub/side-story.
could be wrong though.
(俗・ ) Grey Gecko
Thorax
Posted 1:26 PM 5/6/08
@NitrousO: Much appreciated, BUT HOW DO YOU SAY IT?!!?!!?
(no longer wishes to pisses off the fanboys with mispronunciation)
Thorax
NitrousO
Posted 1:24 PM 5/6/08
@Thorax: Gaiden, I believe, is Japanese for story.
NitrousO
Tiger-Fever
Posted 1:22 PM 5/6/08
My gosh, I couldn't get over the way she pronounced, but it wasn't like I was missing much anyway. Cute video clip but I need more than a couple minutes to adequately sum up any series with that many games in it.
Tiger-Fever
Thorax
Posted 1:20 PM 5/6/08
@Katorok: How do you pronounce it? I'm not being a jerk, I really don't know.
I also have no idea what a "Gaiden" is, but the Ninja part has always led me to believe that it has something to do with awesome. Or pirate hatred.
Thorax
NitrousO
Posted 1:14 PM 5/6/08
The more you know!
@Katorok: As long as she didn't say Ninja Garden, I'm fine with it.
NitrousO
StopTheOncoming
Posted 1:08 PM 5/6/08
"Ninja GI-DEN" At least she got it mostly right.
StopTheOncoming
Katorok
Posted 1:07 PM 5/6/08
GAHHH, the way she said Gaiden was KILLING ME...
Katorok
Absent Blue
Posted 1:53 PM 5/6/08
"It seemed like Itagaki was done..."
Uh...
Yeah.
So those two "largest ever" expansion packs released on XBL for it's time were just little after thoughts, right? Nice little retrospective, but I'd leave those to GameTrailers, a quick video list of what games came out when doesn't say much that a quick look on GameFAQs won't.
Absent Blue
Green-clad Gamer Dude
Posted 1:53 PM 5/6/08
She sounds like she doesn't like saying anything japanese. "Gaiden, Ryu Hayabusa."
Green-clad Gamer Dude
Xelotath
Posted 1:52 PM 5/6/08
Wow, can a voice be more aggressive to the ears than that? Also I need to play the 3D titles, the last and only one I played is the first on the NES I downloaded on the VC.
Xelotath
Delano_J
Posted 1:46 PM 5/6/08
I thought Itagaki said it was, "GAY-den."
Either way, the narrator chick made me want to comit sepukku and play more Ninja Gaiden II... in hell.
Delano_J
SpearXXI
Posted 1:35 PM 5/6/08
Easiest way to pronounce it is Guy-den. More specific would be roughly Gah-I-Day-N. *shrug*
SpearXXI
JoRo1986
Posted 2:23 PM 5/6/08
A...VERY...WELCOME...ADDITION
Man, that chick's voice is annoying.
JoRo1986
dhlt25
Posted 2:12 PM 5/6/08
@Delano_J:
actually seppuku is samurai only practice
dhlt25
Highlander Wolf
Posted 2:39 PM 5/6/08
I remember the Ninja Gaiden arcade cabinet very well. That was a very fun game for its time. The Nintendo version was certainly revolutionary, no other game had cutscenes like that, and they told the game's story very well.
...pretty sure she's pronouncing "Gaiden" correctly. It's definitely not "Gay-den". The emphasis might be on the other syllable, but wtf, I'm not into splitting hairs.
Highlander Wolf
My name changed for an unknown reason
Posted 2:31 PM 5/6/08
Anyone ever play Vice Project Doom on the NES?
It's a lot like Ninja Gaiden, except a bit less difficult and overall much better. I could just never get into any of the games in the series, but I love Vice Project Doom.
My name changed for an unknown reason
Doug
Posted 3:00 PM 5/6/08
@Katorok:
It kills you when someone pronounces something the popular, accepted and correct way? (GUY-DEN)
Doug
Joolies
Posted 3:57 PM 5/6/08
Annoying voice over with questionable pronunciation.
Joolies
supercrap
Posted 4:29 PM 5/6/08
I remember that voiceover voice and I don't like it, even if it did pronounce things correctly.
supercrap
JustThisGuy
Posted 4:34 PM 5/6/08
@My name changed for an unknown reason: Ooh, as long as we're talking about vaguely similar Ninja Gaiden alikes--anyone remember Shatterhand? Christ, I loved that game. I also really dug Kabuki Quantum Fighter, even though that title consistently beat the shit out of my 8 year-old ass.
JustThisGuy
JustThisGuy
Posted 4:31 PM 5/6/08
@My name changed for an unknown reason: Meh. The Spy Hunter-like car sequences killed it for me. It had a great story for the time, though.
JustThisGuy
BigBooBuddy
Posted 5:13 PM 5/6/08
Yesss, Shatterhand was the shit. I always avoided getting robot allies whenever I could. I thought it kinda Broke the game.
Batman for NES. That was another NG alike that absolutely KICKED ASS.
BigBooBuddy
meltyman
Posted 5:08 PM 5/6/08
@SuperCollider: lmao
meltyman
SuperCollider
Posted 5:01 PM 5/6/08
I can hardly believe you jerks! Morgan Webb's game reviews are like lullabys, her voice like an angel's, and her butt cheeks like the most comfortable pillows.
SuperCollider
Highlander Wolf
Posted 5:55 PM 5/6/08
Okay, got the ol' kanji dictionary right here. It's definitely "Guy-Den". According to this it means "a traditional biography". So, Ninja Gaiden means "Biography of a Ninja", I guess.
Her pronunciation is spot on, she might be emphasizing the second syllable a tad more than a native speaker, but she's already got it more correct than most people would get.
Highlander Wolf
Mara
Posted 6:41 PM 5/6/08
A year ago I decided to do something that I couldn't do as a kid, finish Ninja Gaiden for NES. Now a year later, I still haven't done it.
Mara
kitenai
Posted 6:28 PM 5/6/08
umm she's saying everything correctly, better than most americans.
kitenai
BillyLee
Posted 6:26 PM 5/6/08
I loved how she said Gaiden!
@Highlander Wolf: I thought gaiden meant 'the first'. So it would be 'the first ninja'.
BillyLee
udaho
Posted 5:44 PM 5/6/08
Are you guys serious? Gaiden in romaji is pronounced exactly how she said it in the video: guy-den. The only questionable part is whether to put the emphasis on the first or second syllable (I am not Japanese but I've studied Japanese). Also, Ryu Hayabusa was pronounced in the video pretty much spot on. If you want to really be picky, you may argue she should have used the L sound in Ryu instead of the R sound, but that's just splitting hairs.
All that said, I still call Street Fighter's Ryu rye-you, but that's only because SF1 came out so long ago when I didn't know better and I've since gotten used to it. Though for me, Ryu Hayabusa is Lee-you Hayabusa. There can be only one Rye-you!
udaho
Johnny_Under
Posted 7:07 PM 5/6/08
Believe it or not, Ninja Gaiden's history started before you brats were born. We had three continues and we had to memorize enemy patterns so we didn't die every board. We also called levels boards.
You kids with your fancy shmancy Internets and games on laserdisc. I'll bet you've never had to burst blood vessels in your face blowing into a cartridge to get the damn thing to work, huh? Never had to shove a cartridge half into place and then push it down into the system to get it to sit right? Upside down? Both ways?
Man, those were the good old days. Now go get gramps a glass of iced tea and maybe he'll show you his U-Force.
Johnny_Under
Highlander Wolf
Posted 8:44 PM 5/6/08
@BillyLee: No, don't think so. It's been ages since I studied japanese, but I think "fIrst" might be "hitotsu-me" or "saisho" -- I could be way off on one or both of those -- but the kanji they're using for Gaiden definitely means "biographical side-story":
[en.wikipedia.org]
Gaiden (外伝) (a Japanese-language word often translated as "side story" or "tale") is used to refer to an anecdote or supplementary biography of a person.
Highlander Wolf
Lets-game
Posted 9:21 PM 5/6/08
I was expecting more from this game, but story and graphics were mehh I enjoed the fighting thought. It was intense if you are fan of NG and got cash its worth a purchase otherwise rent is good too.
Lets-game
LiquidDarsh
Posted 10:04 PM 5/6/08
Man, that video was lame. I thought it would be like a GT Retrospective.
"This game came out, it was good. They thought it was done. But no! There was another. Then, another. Then they thought it was done. But no! There was another."
Boring.
LiquidDarsh
BillyLee
Posted 12:38 AM 6/6/08
@Highlander Wolf: I'm sure I read it in a Ninja Gaiden review.
Man, I'm watching this again just to hear her say 'Gaiden' again. I think I'm falling in love with her!
BillyLee
RhymePhile
Posted 1:39 AM 6/6/08
@Johnny_Under:
Before *some* brats were born. Man, seeing those old NES screens takes me back to 8th grade.
RhymePhile
udaho
Posted 3:26 AM 6/6/08
Gaiden's kanji is 外伝, which means side story, as quoted Wikipedia says. 外 means outside, 伝 means story or incident, thus 外伝 means outside story. 'Supplementary' is a good way of putting it. BTW, Japanese for foreigner is gaijin, which uses the same gai: 外人 (literally outside person). And that wraps up our Japanese lesson of the day :)
udaho
TendoMentis
Posted 3:17 AM 6/6/08
@Johnny_Under: That takes me back. Classic NES games were great for enemy patter analysis...when sometimes the best (or only) strategy involved using your weakest weapon in a position that would get you killed in one shot, when your weakest weapon would take damn near 30 minutes to finish off the final boss.....
Think Mega Man 2 and the final boss. God that sucked.
I worked my way up to the last levels of NG 1 and 2, but never completed them. Now I have to go dig up my emulators and see if I can make them work with my Xbox360 controllers.
TendoMentis
izrofel
Posted 5:41 AM 6/6/08
@Highlander Wolf:
Her pronunciation is not spot on. Putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable makes it the wrong word. The emphasis for "gaiden" is on the first syllable only, and the way she heavily puts it on the second syllable makes her seem very unintelligent. It's GAI-den, not gai-DEN.
For instance, take the word "sake" in Japanese, commonly known by Americans as Japanese plum wine. It is pronouced sa-KE (sah-KEH). If you say SA-ke (SA-keh), you are saying salmon (with regards to nigiri sushi). If you say SAKE ("for heaven's sake"), you probably don't know what plum wine is.
And yes, in romaji it would be spelt out ga(gah)-i(ee)-de(deh)-n(n). Gaiden. This concludes my public service announcement.
izrofel
GorbyGipper
Posted 9:04 AM 6/6/08
I remember being so pissed when Ninja Gaiden on the NES wasn't a port of the arcade game. It was awesome in it's own way, though.
I was a huge whore for the co-op beat 'em ups that dominated the arcades back then. TMNT, X-Men, Final Fight, Ninja Gaiden...
GorbyGipper
Masatomo
Posted 7:24 PM 6/6/08
Well, I suppose me not being an anglophone helps out a bit but.. I didn't notice any "amusing English mispronunciations".
Could anyone point them out for me, please?
No, the various "Ninja Gaiden" and "Itagaki" don't count.
Masatomo