Well, the original Ninja Gaiden Black in NORMAL is a different beast, it's more skill demanding that NG2/NGS2 in normal.
Hard, very hard and Master ninja is a total different experience, specially NG Black. I'm very proud I beat Black in Master Ninja. That's no button-mashing. But my point is, if you have a normal mode that is just "easy" to beat chaining combos mindlessly, that's just button-mashing. You have to grade the game by its normal mode, that's what the game throws at you in your 1st playthrough.
BUT. Ninja Gaiden is more tactical than Bayonetta by miles. But still, a button-masher it is.