Tried Itouryoudan and Iga Ninden Gaiou last night:

[termis]

Gave it a quick initial run (about 1/2 hour each) of both games last night. 

Tengai Makyou Itouryoudan:
I think I would've enjoyed this fighter a lot more if I were familiar with the original characters.  I've been promising myself to give the Tengai Makyou RPG series a run, but am still looking to procure Ziria so I can to start out from the beginning, and marvel at the progression of the series. 

Of course this game will be compared to Street Fighter II.  It's one of the many clones out there.  Really nice and colorful graphics.  Pretty big sprite sizes as well.  Looks to be about the size of SF2 characters.The only thing was that the background felt a bit too static at times.  No people/things moving in the background/foreground at all, which makes things a tad stale. 

The game controls okay, though I didn't feel they really captured the whole Street Fighter" fluidity of moves/combos in the game.  It may get better as I get more involved in the game, but I don't know if I really care enough to get good at the game.  Not bad at all, but nothing to write home about. 

And after playing this game, it got me wondering how SF2:CE would've turned out on the Arcade Card, and though I still have mixed feelings, perhaps NEC did the right thing by releasing it just on a HuCard (not to mention the Arcade card came some time afterwards the release of SF2, IIRC).  The loading times didn't seem too bad on Itouryoudan, but it does get a bit tedious after awhile.  On the other hand, a 16-bit SF2 with full red-book audio sounds.  Mmm...

Iga Ninden Gaiou:
A Shinobi rip-off that could've been a lot more.  It's a basic hack & slash Ninja game.  It looks & sounds pretty good with some good looking background, a lot of cut scenes, and decent music, but the game play leaves one a bit deflated.  You walk, slash, slash, slash, throw those wachamacall it things (not the star things, but the dart-like ninja projectiles).  Some hits that the enemies can get off of you seem a bit cheap, and the gameplay overall just doesn't feel as refined as something like Shinobi series or Ninja Spirit.  A very average Ninja game.

[nat]

Itouryoudan - I like this game a lot, and I have never played another Far East of Eden game in my life. Not even for 2 seconds.

I feel the controls in this game are very fluid, perhaps even better than SF2, and definitely better than the Fatal Fury games. As for the visuals, they are a bit static, but they are very very pretty most of the time. Very colorful game, this was something that immediately stood out to me.

I concur with most of your observations here, but I feel perhaps the game made a slightly better impression on me than it did you. I'd rank this a must-own for Arcade Card owners.

[runinruder]

I agree with Nat.  I thought the controls were great, much smoother than Fatal Fury 2's or Advanced V.G.'s. 

I do think that most people will enjoy the game a little bit more if they play through Kabuki Den first.  I know that for me it was a blast to see the old gang back again; they make a lasting impression in the RPG.   

[ParanoiaDragon]

Gave it a quick initial run (about 1/2 hour each) of both games last night. 

Tengai Makyou Itouryoudan:
I think I would've enjoyed this fighter a lot more if I were familiar with the original characters.  I've been promising myself to give the Tengai Makyou RPG series a run, but am still looking to procure Ziria so I can to start out from the beginning, and marvel at the progression of the series. 

Of course this game will be compared to Street Fighter II.  It's one of the many clones out there.  Really nice and colorful graphics.  Pretty big sprite sizes as well.  Looks to be about the size of SF2 characters.The only thing was that the background felt a bit too static at times.  No people/things moving in the background/foreground at all, which makes things a tad stale. 

The game controls okay, though I didn't feel they really captured the whole Street Fighter" fluidity of moves/combos in the game.  It may get better as I get more involved in the game, but I don't know if I really care enough to get good at the game.  Not bad at all, but nothing to write home about. 

And after playing this game, it got me wondering how SF2:CE would've turned out on the Arcade Card, and though I still have mixed feelings, perhaps NEC did the right thing by releasing it just on a HuCard (not to mention the Arcade card came some time afterwards the release of SF2, IIRC).  The loading times didn't seem too bad on Itouryoudan, but it does get a bit tedious after awhile.  On the other hand, a 16-bit SF2 with full red-book audio sounds.  Mmm...

Iga Ninden Gaiou:
A Shinobi rip-off that could've been a lot more.  It's a basic hack & slash Ninja game.  It looks & sounds pretty good with some good looking background, a lot of cut scenes, and decent music, but the game play leaves one a bit deflated.  You walk, slash, slash, slash, throw those wachamacall it things (not the star things, but the dart-like ninja projectiles).  Some hits that the enemies can get off of you seem a bit cheap, and the gameplay overall just doesn't feel as refined as something like Shinobi series or Ninja Spirit.  A very average Ninja game.

I call it Legend of Iga Ninja, I saw it translated that way awhile back, though, Densetsu is Legend, which isn't in the name, so, I'm not sure how correct that translation is.  Anyways, I believe the throwing knives IIRC are called Kunai, I could be wrong though.  As for the game itself, I think if they combined the various qualities of Iga Ninja with Kaze Kiri, they would've had a near perfect ninja game.

[esteban]

I am too lazy to find my old mini-review of Iga Ninden Gaiou, but I agree that it is a lackluster game. I really wanted to like this game, but the fellow who sold it to me deceptively lauded it as being "Legendary Axe" on steroids and I fell for it!

I wanted to play this game regardless, so I didn't buy it based on the seller's praise alone, but still....

EDIT: OK, here is my take on Iga Ninden Gaiou.