Ninja Gaiden Sigma

"Simply put, the best Ninja game ever made :)"

Well it's either that or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 on the NES! Alright, well this is my first time playing Ninja Gaiden (on the Xbox/PS3 that is), and my first "Next Gen" review! Well it's been 8 months since the PS3 has launched and well, there's been a lack of good games, and well....Sigma cures the craving PS3 owners have been asking for! Basically, you play has Ryu Hayabusa, a member of the Hayabusa Clan and the Dragon lineage, who have been entrusted to protect the Dragon Sword in addition to the Dark Dragon Blade. Unfortunately, someone has take the Dark Dragon Blade, and destroys the Hayabusa village, leaving Ryu on a quest of revenge, and to reclaim the sword.

Gameplay: 9.5/10

This is the defining part of the whole game. As Ryu, you're going to have an arsenal of skills and weapons to take on your enemies. As a ninja, it's mandatory, or so it would seem, to walk on walls akin to the style of Prince of Persia. While Ninja Gaiden Sigma is very much like Devil May Cry or even God of War for that matter, it seems to rely much less on platforming, as your skills will rely mostly on getting through certain obstacles or reaching a certain area. But really, this is really not all that much of an important part of the gameplay compared to...

The swordplay! Basically, I felt that the swordplay in this game is much more advanced than any of the other action games I had played so far. While, you may look at it, and decide that there isn't much to the game's depth, once you get a huge arsenal of weapons, and take the time to study the combos (press triangle on your selected weapon in the menu), you'll find a variety of combos to attack your victims. The only thing that felt mildly annoying was the fact that the combos are all variations of square and triangle, while God of War will also use the L1 and R1 buttons in addition to square, triangle, and circle.

However, God of War can't touch Ninja Gaiden in sheer amount of weapons! In addition to the Dragon Sword, you'll be able to use the Lunar (my favorite) which is essentially a double sided spear, once you upgrade it, then the Dabilaharo, a huge sword great for the big enemies, the dual Katanas, one of the additions to Sigma, and they are quite useful, because they've got some powerful combos, although the recovery time is not great. Then there are nunchucks and Vigoorian flails, which are nunchucks, the flails having blades attached to them. There's the Kitetsu, another kind of katana, the Wooden Sword (upgrade this to get a powerful weapon), and there's a couple more. But then, there's still the projectile weapons, as you can now also shoot arrows in mid air. The projectile weapons are great for killing enemies you don't want to get close to in addition to of course enemies out of range.

Also, you can now play as Rachel who now has the War Hammer. Basically, she's like a tank. Slow and clunky compared to Ryu, maybe it's the huge breasts, or her weapon of choice. Her missions are short, and are nowhere near as fun compared to Ryu's weapons but it's nice to see her side of the story, but I don't think they needed to include these missions, just an extra incentive for the Team Ninja fans.

Controls: 8.5/10

Alright, well the controls are pretty much standard but there's something about this game that bothered me so much that I had to comment on it. First of all, the camera angles. In certain boss battles, you can't adjust the camera, which puts you in difficult situations depending on the angle. It made Doku frustruating at times. I tried the first level on Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, and playing on the PS3 felt pretty natural to me. L1 to block felt perfect in addition to the usual buttons for your standard action game. The wall running controls work pretty well for the most part, but water running is somewhat of a hassle, as you automatically run on water, but trying to go afloat or diving in was a bit of a hassle. Also hanging on rails was a minor complaint, as I had problems attempting to drop down from the rails at certain times.

Graphics: 8.5/10

The graphics are good, but not great, and not the best I've ever seen on the Playstation 3. While my friend has Ninja Gaiden, we took the time to compare, and the big difference lies within character models. It's definitely much shinier than the original Ninja Gaiden, and frankly, I thought it was kind of cool how they look shinier in the game. The environments however don't look vastly improved at all, with the exception of more details and different lighting. I found that to be a disappointment, but nothing too bad. Also, in the first mission you can notice the foliage falling down from the trees and it really sets the atmosphere of the first mission and that's really not anywhere to be found on the Xbox versions. But also playing it on HD helps tremendously, otherwise you won't be finding huge improvements over the Xbox version.

Sound: 8/10

Not a whole lot to expect from this game. On my surround system, it's nowhere near the top tier of sound in games like Resistance, Call of Duty, or probably the soon to be Lair. The acting itself is also very mediocre, as they are very bland and don't seem to evoke any emotion at all (not that the story in this game is really that great). The plus is that they include Japanese acting, and it seems to make the game much more authentic, compared to the english voice acting. The music is also very bland, and it has its fair share of orchestral music and rock music, but while the rock music isn't anything too unbearable, nothing sticks out, including the orchestral music which is for the most part quiet and nothing within dynamics.

Replay Value: 9/10

The game has a nice amount of replay value for the standard swordfighting game. Well it's mostly because of the difficulty. The game could take 12-15 hours on your first try, and well there's a hard mode, and then there's an even more difficult one. Some people say Sigma is easier but I can't comment on that, it's still fairly difficult. In addition to the story mode, there's Mission Mode, which basically has you do tasks under time limits, and you get prizes for it. I'm not really into it, but providing it is still a nice incentive. Now here's the dying question, if you've already played Black, is it worth it to get Sigma? Based on what my friend said (we played this a lot), and reading the board, I'm going to say no. While it doesn't have some pretty improved graphics, it also has NG and NG2 from the NES taken out in addition to some extra costumes, and some effects taken out during Ultimate Techniques. However, the Dual Katanas, and the extra Rachel missions which are integrated to the story might be enough for the big Team Ninja Fans. If you only played Ninja Gaiden, then Sigma might be enough to warrant paying another 60 dollars.

Overall: 8.8/10

This is not an average, but I did take into account that this is a third release of the same game, and what improvements had been made. Overall, this is a fantastic game, and I was glad to finally experience this game for the first time, and well it was impossible to not draw comparisons to the first and second releases, and thus it affected the score slightly. I might've felt cynical, but really this is probably has the best game mechanics of any action game I've played yet, but it certainly could work on the other areas, which God of War excels at. I won't say which is better, and my scores are not the ones to compare. God of War II as a PS2 game may score a 9.5 from me, but to compare to Sigma, it's difficult to say how they stack up. Enjoy!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/07