Great thread! 

I found that nearly all NES games that carried the name of the arcade game were not conversions of said game and differed quite substatially in some cases as Ninja Gaiden proves (a beat 'em up becoming a platformer).

The first one that sprung to my mind was Mercs on the Mega Drive, it does contain a conversion of the arcade game but also has a superb (and much better) original mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv ... tion_20484

There is also ESWAT, which plays nothing like the arcade game is more like a Shinobi style affair:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGUCSoRSR-w

Absolutely love the Megadrive verison of Eswat!

Strider on the NES was awesome! One of the few NES games I actually finished.

This is another one I just thought of . . . .

Shadow Dancer on the Mega Drive, different to the arcade original!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAJs-D8hjKA

Both absolutely wonderful games.

Here is a good example from an older console, Zaxxon is a very different game on the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. Mostly down to the change in viewpoint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAejrDtlBE4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BOeT0SLCnA

Loved Ninja Warriors at the arcade, the use of three screens fascinated me as a kid. Here's the arcade version and the Super Nes version.

Arcade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSJ2L35CSog

SNES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw6cy7jM2dg

I always thought they did a epic job in the SNES version of Ninja Warriors, and beside, the snes version was a sequel rather than an arcade port..but one classic arcade game from Tecmo "Shadow Warriors "Ninja Gaiden" in Japan was an excellent port to the Amiga counterpart as the video below shows

Arcade Version[/align:l00yqzmr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZtLrTtbgXQ [/align:l00yqzmr]

Amiga Version[/align:l00yqzmr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnmAXVieUqk [/align:l00yqzmr]

I can remember being pretty impressed with the Amiga version. I also remember the Amiga conversion of Ninja Warriors being pretty good.

I always thought they did a epic job in the SNES version of Ninja Warriors, and beside, the snes version was a sequel rather than an arcade port..but one classic arcade game from Tecmo "Shadow Warriors "Ninja Gaiden" in Japan was an excellent port to the Amiga counterpart as the video below shows 😉

The ST/Amiga version of Ninja Gaiden was excellent, as was the Spectrum port too. Interestingly the only console version that was actually a conversion of the arcade game was the Atari Lynx version. The NES, PC Engine, Mega Drive, Game Gear and Master System versions were all different.

Loved Ninja Warriors at the arcade, the use of three screens fascinated me as a kid. Here's the arcade version and the Super Nes version

Funny enough I was just talking about the Sega Mega CD version of this game in another thread!!!

https://www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/index.php?topic=531.15

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Another one I found aout about recently is the Atari ST and Amiga version of Darius. There is no video sadly but you can see the game HERE

The PC Engine version of Ninja Gaiden is also nothing like the other versions of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_nZdlr ... re=related

Thread bump but looking at some of the games mentioned and continuing with my GAMEStm Conversion Catastrophe look at feature...

BOTH 2600 Zaxxon and NES Strider get awarded this badge.

In fairness with 2600 Zaxxon, GAMEStm DO say it was NEVER going to be possible to pull off a decent conversion as 2600 hardware not geared up towards producing this viewpoint, so makes it an odd choice for conversion.

NES Strider however, they say:

'The NES version is'nt exactly terrible....but it will only leave you dissapointed.The backflips are nowhere to be seen, making combat a much more stiff and stilted affair than it should be.Wall jumps are present, but they're so difficult to pull off that 99% of the time, you'll stick to the wall for the briefest moment of time, before simply sliding back down'.

'Vertical scrolling is so jerky that it becomes uncomfortable to play'.

Here is another one I thought of, Enduro Racer on the Master System. It's very different to the arcade game as it uses an isometric viewpoint instead of the conventional 3rd person view and relies a bit on more on doing stunts but is an equally good game in its own right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5r3E_gDPK4

I loved enduro racer on the SMS, like you said, great game in its own right. I'm sure it wasn't well received by reviewers at the time iirc.