Ninja Gaiden 2 on NES takes what made the first game great and cranks it up. Ryu still slices through enemies like a hot knife through butter, but now he can actually climb walls properly—no more awkward jump-sticking from the first game. Just press up or down, and he scales them like a ninja should.

The real game-changer, though? The shadow clones. Grab this orange power-up, and suddenly you’ve got a delayed copy of Ryu mirroring your moves. They don’t take damage, but they’ll slash or throw shuriken exactly when you do, freezing in place if you stop moving. It’s wild watching your clone hang mid-air, still attacking while you reposition. Two clones at once turns fights into chaos in the best way.

That screenshot in the manual where the clone’s frozen mid-jump while Ryu dodges? Yeah, that’s not just for show—it actually works like that. Messing with enemy AI using your phantom doubles never gets old.