The Dink Network

Eh, I played to 6-2 recently. That's when extremely punishing and stupid hard. comes in. Up until that point, the cheapest things were shitty enemy placement specifically to get you to fall. The only other section I can think of that was 6-2 levels of bullshit, but not as bad, was the one before that tall knight thing I can't remember the name of who could not be dodged whatsoever. After being cheaply killed by nonsense enemies and causing them to attack in a certain pattern, I could get passed them. The way to defeat the knight was seriously just to walk up to him and hit him a lot and hope he dies first since his attacks are impossible to avoid.

I can't believe everyone complains about that guy. I guess everyone except me just sucks at Ninja Gaiden. GET ON THE GODDAMN PILLAR THEN JUMP. You can dodge his lightning bolt attack every time.

But Ninja Gaiden definitely isn't a great example of good difficulty. It just throws a lot of shit at you from off screen, too quick to react to. The only reason I persevered with that game was the wicked cool soundtrack - very possibly the best melodies in any game ever.