Ninja Gaiden is... fine? I just don't think it's anything remarkable and that even games like Castlevania 1 and the first few Mega Man's have aged better, I really don't understand putting the franchises on the same level, especially when both of those franchises continued improving and evolving through the SNES and onward sticking moooostly with Nintendo while Ninja Gaiden did basically nothing for a decade after the NES before finally getting it's reboot... that along with it's sequel was originally an Xbox exclusive, which is what it's primarily associated with, and has never even been on a Nintendo console save for the 3rd game which seems to be the one people don't like. I'm fine with Ryu in Smash but I've never understood putting him on the same tier of Simon or Mega Man, or Bomberman for that matter.
You know I don’t necessarily disagree with you because I think he’s a very special case. Honestly, I think Hayabusa is more iconic than the games themselves considering he’s a main character in Dead or Alive, made 5 or 6 appearances in the Warriors games, made an appearance (technically) in both Nioh games so far, and even made a name drop and reference in ****ing Halo 3.
the timeline goes:
Ninja Gaiden Arcade - 1988(NA)/1989(JP)
Ninja Gaiden NES - 1988(JP)/1989(NA)
Ninja Gaiden II - 1990
Ninja Gaiden Shadow - 1991
Ninja Gaiden III - 1991
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy SNES - 1995
Dead or Alive - 1996
Dead or Alive 2 - 1999
Dead or Alive 3 - 2001
Ninja Gaiden Reboot - 2004
Ninja Gaiden Black- 2005
Dead or Alive 4 - 2005
Ninja Gaiden Sigma - 2007
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (which people often overlook but it’s super good) - 2008
Ninja Gaiden 2 - 2008
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 - 2009
Dead or Alive: Dimensions - 2011
Warriors Orochi 3 - 2011
Ninja Gaiden 3 (the bad one) - 2012
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge (Wii U)[The Good Version of 3] - 2012
Dead or Alive 5 - 2012
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (the other bad one) - 2014
Warriors All-Stars - 2017
Nioh - 2017
Dead or Alive 6 - 2019
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate - 2019
Nioh 2 - 2020
I actually eliminated a few rereleases like DoA5: Ultimate/Last Round, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, and a few other rereleases.
My point of all this is that I think this is why Hayabusa has remained a steady icon for as long as he has and why he still is. He’s just so well known because of so many things. Some people are like oh I used to play his games on NES, or I used to play those games on Xbox, or oh that guy from Dead or Alive, or oh that guy from Warriors Orochi, or even oh that guy was a secret super boss in Nioh. And I think that’s why he’s so well know and so iconic. Hayabusa has just been around consistently since his first ever appearance and it’s just kind of crazy to think about.
Edit: I know I have definitely have contributed to the derailment of the thread so I definitely do apologize for that but I just can’t help it. I jump at Ninja Gaiden discussion anytime I can because I love that this speculation era has at least gotten people more interested in the games and that just makes me happy.