If you're a fan of the Ninja Gaiden NES games, the music probably has something to do with it. The phenomenal sound design in these classic games has become legendary, and now said music has been remastered and gathered together in a fancy vinyl box set. What's in the box? Let's find out!

Transcript of the video:

Hi, everyone. Kris, from Stone Age Gamer here, and welcome back to Stone Age Gaming. These right here are my copies of Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II for NES. They are easily some of my favorite games on the entire platform. These were such formative games for me when I was a kid. Specifically, the first two. Never really cared much for the third one, but these two games were absolute masterpieces. So much so, in fact, that the day it came out, I went out to my local store and bought this turd. This thing's terrible. I don't know if you've ever played this before the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for Super Nintendo. It goes for crazy amounts of money now. It is awful. But what we're actually here to talk about today is a celebration of my fandom of Ninja Gaiden that just came in the mail the other day. It just brings me so much, so very much joy. And that is this right here. This is from limited run games. It is Ninja Gaiden, the definitive soundtrack. It is the soundtracks to Ninja Gaiden Arcade, and NES one, two and three on vinyl. And it comes with some extra cool stuff on the inside and it is just the super coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. Let's take a look. 

[00:01:12] Alright, so here we have the Ninja Gaiden definitive soundtrack vinyl box here. So this did come shrink-wrapped. I'm 99 percent sure it came shrink-wrapped, actually. Maybe it didn't. I opened up the box and I remember pulling it out of its bubble wrap. And then my wife was like, "Didn't you want to do an unboxing video?" I said, Oh no. So I haven't opened up what's inside this yet. I just got as far as this box. But this is exactly how it came in in the box that was sent to me for the limited run games. And it's really quite nice. It's got a matte finish. It feels it feels really good. It's very quality built. There's not a lot going on in the outside. It just basically breaks down what's on the the records volume one is both the and he has an arcade versions of Ninja Gaiden and Volume two is ninja guidance two and three for any us. 

[00:01:59] So yeah, kind of barebones in the outside, except it has this wonderful original artwork on the front. Yeah, this was the original box art for ninja guide and the first one. So as you can see, it's a it's that artwork. It's a little darker than my box, though this box is an actual reproduction, so I guess that isn't the the closest we can compare it to. But the cartridge is not a reproduction. So let's let's take it do a quick little comparison here. Here is my ninja guide kart manual. And yeah, it still looks like the well, no on the kart itself. It looks like the the shadings about the same manual looks a little bit brighter. But you know, all in all, you can't. It's hard to argue with the awesomeness of this artwork. I just I've always loved this picture of Ryu with the art of the fire wheel around. It's super cool. But since this is on the outside, what exactly is on the inside? Let's find out. 

[00:02:55] So let's go ahead and remove this here. Just black on the inside. Nothing, nothing fancy there. And here we have the Famicom box art for Ninja Gaiden one. So you can get that out here. Here is Ninja Gaiden, the definitive soundtrack volume one and you got an arcade. And Yes, by Koji Yamaguchi minichiello Saito and reuteri Nieto blanket apologies to anybody's names. I have mispronounced and it's just the same, you know, full of basic info on the back. So let's see what's inside this or there's there's got to look forward to that, but let's put that aside so we can focus on this one real quick. So let's very carefully get my box cutter here and just in always. Is a little slice alongside here. Don't want to scratch anything, obviously, but we do want to be able to get the shrink-wrapped off. Oh, I got it. Got it. 

[00:03:54] OK. What have we here? So I think these were released elsewhere a long time ago, like a couple of years ago. These same two volumes of these soundtracks, which is where I found the original track listings for Ninja Gaiden, which are absolutely hilarious. The actual song titles are Oh Joe, look at that. Oh boy, this is one of my favorite images in all of video games. Oh my goodness, look at this. All right, so here we go. And it's gotten any. Yes, I love these track names. We have the Moon Knight dual determination father's message. The Dragon Ninja, Mysterious Woman, bravery on the clutches reminiscence. A sudden development like a howling gate in hiding, pursuing the nightmare I catch the CIA, the sanctuary of Shadows, The Amazing REU Crisis Surprise Attack, The Wicked God's Secret Maneuvers Oh man, yeah, wow, this is OK, so it's two separate records. The first soundtrack is on one record and two sides CFA. So we got in here. Oh boy, oh boy. 

[00:05:05] All right, so we're looking at Ninja Gaiden 1. What is this? Oh my goodness. I did not realize this was coming with this is a whole book. Look at this madness. Oh wow. It's kind of roundtable interview. Look at all this all original arcade artwork. This is so cool. Wow, I I was not aware this was coming with a fancy schmancy book. I was just just getting the soundtracks. Wow. I can't wait to read all this later. All right, that is extraordinarily cool. Let's take a look at the record itself. This is the NHS game, which means it's not just black. Oh, it's cool, it's orange. So here is Saturday, and so be. Look at that. So you got any artwork on the front, Famicom artwork on the back? That is very cool. All right. So let's see what's in the arcade side over here. So that's disc one. And this is disc two. 

[00:06:12] All right. First off, the record is red, so that is awesome. Look at that and it's got. This must have been on the actual arcade cabinet. I mean, the can jump and look at this. Oh, this is marvelous. All right. Well, that's super super duper cool. So, all right, way to go. That's a I'm not overly familiar with the arcade game. I've played a little bit of it, but it never really clicked with me. So I'm looking forward to spending a little time listening to that soundtrack and seeing how it grabs me. Because, boy, I mean, I bought this for the NHS games. Those are the ones that I spent the most time with as a kid, and that's what I was all about there. So here we go. My favorite one, Ninja Gaiden to this absolutely my favorite game of the series. No question. So, all right, there's nothing else fancy inside of this box. This looks like the same basic principle. You got this written up. This feels like there's a book inside of this one, too. So let's go ahead and give it the old slice a little slice-a-roni here. And easy just to get it started and. We go. Off with the plastic. Gorgeous. 

[00:07:24] Oh, I love this artwork, so this is not a retro box, this is my copy of Ninja Gaiden, to which I managed to salvage my original box for, and this looks pretty spot on. It does indeed look a little tiny, bit darker than my original box, but there you go. Just because we did it with one, let's go ahead and do it with two, let's do a little cartridge comparison here. Have my cart manual here, and yeah, it's actually looks almost identical to manual. Maybe a little tiny, bit darker, but yeah. There you go. Into to it is my favorite guide game, so let's see what's going to be on the inside of this one. What is going to be the inside of this one? And it is. Whoa, look at that. That's Ashtar. Oh, that is cool. I've never seen that artwork before. And that's the dark sort of chaos. Ooh, I like that. I like that a lot. All right. So we got a super cool track. Names a twist of fate going gets tough. Robert, the army. Dehumanize now, they're not quite as over the top as the first one, but and then integrating three of the ancient shepherd tombs, track names are all cinema display 11 and 12. Wow, that's interesting. They really go crazy with those names at all. But all right. 

[00:08:44] Let's take a look. Let's see what we've got cooking in here. I feel a book. I feel a book coming on. And the record does not want to come out, let's grab the book, Ooh, what is this? Redeem your free digital album, oh, sweet, I wonder if there's one in the other one that I just missed. So we've got the book here and this is more awesome artwork. Oh, I love this artwork. There's your ancient ship of doom artwork right there. I don't have a box for this one. Not even a repro. But there's there's that. So we didn't get a big when. We do get a nice big picture of the Ninjago three art, which was fine. It was not as cool as the other ones. I really like Ninja the three all that much for any as I keep trying to make myself like it, and it's never really worked. But man, look at all this. Look at all this junk over at Rob. Oh man, this is awesome. I cannot wait to read all this stuff. So yes, just more talking about the Earth, talking about the games. Look at that. There's the Japanese and American versions of these are the logos. Wow, that is unreal. Very, very cool. 

[00:09:53] All right. Let's take a look at the records themselves. This will come out a little easier now, what are you stuck on? There you go. Oh boy, it's blue. Well, look at this record. Oh man, that is awesome. I guess that's Japanese box after Ninja Gaiden 2. What is this? I don't know. I don't know what these images are, but I love them. That's great. So this has got to be an indication into. Let's see, with an integrating three one looks like what color do we think three is going to be? Yellow. Hey, it's yellow. That's right. Look at that. Wow, that is bright yellow. Wow, this is super cool. That's the coolest ninja in three stuff I've ever seen. I guess I don't particularly like three, but man, look at this. I cannot wait to give this a listen. Well, there you go. That's it. That's everything in the box and how the artwork compares to the cartridges themselves. Pretty spot on. A lot more stuff in this art or in this book than I'm used to, but that's OK. Super cool stuff. Can't wait to read the rest of it. Awesome.

[00:11:04] So if you follow this channel at all, you know that video game music is extraordinarily important to me. And since I've shot the part where I unboxed the video, I have actually lists better watch time listening to these records and they sound phenomenal. And I went through and read those the booklets that came with them, and they're really, really informative and just utterly fascinating. Listening to the the inspirations of how different the inspirations for the music were between one, two and three, which was. It was a really interesting read. I can't recommend this box set it up. It's just the coolest darn thing, and I'm so glad that it exists. So, yeah, that's it. Thanks for watching everybody. If you liked what you saw here today, please comment. Like, subscribe to all those wonderful things and let us know what your favorite ninja Gaiden memories are. Do you also love the ninja gaiden soundtrack as much as I do? Did you learn how to pronounce the word guidance from the wizard that was released in theaters way back when I was a kid? When that guy yelled, "Ninja Gaiden", just to sound off in the comments, let us know what your favorite game soundtracks are and all that jazz. Thanks again for watching everybody on behalf of all of us here at Stone Age Gamer. Keep playing games.