The Messenger offers basically the same gameplay, but with helpful additions like more frequent save points and the ability to enhance your armor and weapons.
Like Shovel Knight, The Messenger takes one of the best games of the ‘80s and betters it by fixing everything that was broken or frustrating about it. This time, the original model being iterated upon is Ninja Gaiden, a classic NES platformer in which you play as a ninja fighting to avenge the death of his father by jumping, flipping, climbing walls, and stabbing a countless number of infinitely generating enemies. It was one of my favorite games as a kid (I was so into the story I even read the novelization), but I was never good enough to beat it, even with the help of a Game Genie, because it’s fiendishly difficult. The Messenger offers basically the same gameplay, but with helpful additions like more frequent save points and the ability to enhance your armor and weapons. Sure, it’s easier, but it’s hardly easy—and the kooky storyline, rife with self-aware humor commenting on the inherent absurdity of gaming in general, only makes it better.