Ninja Gaiden (book)

First edition, US paperback.

Ninja Gaiden is a young adult novelization of the NES video game Ninja Gaiden published by Scholastic in July of 1990. It is the third book in the Worlds of Power series, and, like all books in the series, it is attributed to "F. X. Nine." The internal text lists the author as "A. L. Singer," which is a pen name for Peter Lerangis.

In the book, Ryu Hayabusa is a young gifted ninja who, on the day of receiving his black belt from his ninja teachers, also learns about his father's death. His father, a black belt ninja, but also a doctor of archeology, discovered ancient Japanese statues in the jungles of Peru left there 700 years ago by the legendary ninja Shinobi. A tablet at the site warns that if the statues are ever brought together in a distant temple at specific time that only happens once every 700 years, the great evil defeated by Shinobi will be resurrected. Ryu's father was killed trying to recover the statues, and now Ryu must find them and prevent the great evil from being brought back into this world.

Personal

As a child, the only Worlds of Power book I owned was Blaster Master. However, as an adult, I wanted to read more of these extremely hokey video game books, so I bought several others online. I found this book to be equally as ridiculous.

Status

I own the second edition book and have read it.

Review

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The book includes a lot of Japanese terminology and culture, including tabi boots, straw mats, ginkgo trees, etc.

Bad

• Like much of children's media on the early 1990s, ninja are not described as being ruthless mercenaries practicing espionage, but rather openly-accepted martial arts students who go to ninja training camps and love their mommies.
• Nearly all of the violence of the game has been censored. For example, Ryu doesn't kill an axe-weilding barbarian at the bar, but instead almost fights a biker. And, instead of ferocious animals, Ryu kills robotic animals.
• The CIA accidentally gives some random person an artifact that can destroy the world instead of a fake? Seems legit.
• Ken Hayabusa, Ryu's father, isn't just a black belt ninja, but also doctor of archeology! Talk about your Renaissance man!
• The cover art was recreated and mildly censored.
• The author mistranslates the Japanese word gaiden to describe a letter left to Ryu Hayabusa by his father. However, the real definition of gaiden is more akin to "side-story."
• Ryu just walks around wherever he goes in full ninja costume with his sword!

Ugly

• Nothing

Media

Although the cover art looks very similar to the video game, it was actually completely repainted for this book. The remake doesn't have as much detail as the original and removes Ryu's dagger from his hand.

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  1st edition, US mass market.

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  2nd edition, US mass market.

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  UK mass market.

Links

 

• atarihq.com/tsr/odd/scans/ng.html - Review.
• gamebooks.org/Item/3634 - Game Books.