Ninja Gaiden

"I am ninja, we are ninja, but I believe you are ninja too"

Ninja Gaiden, I feel was one of the unsung classics of the NES era. It had it all, tough enemies, great platforming, and an enjoyable array of sub weapons that were always plentiful. It was also one of those rare series where the games improved with each sequel. Granted the third NES Gaiden (The Ancient Ship of Doom) was fundamentally impossible, I still place it higher than the other Gaidens. When the trilogy ended I thought that the NG series was over, I made my peace with that fact, but later, when NG Trilogy came out on the SNES I was ecstatic, it raised my hopes that maybe there'd be a sudden rebirth of Ninja Gaiden. Well it took nearly ten years but damn it there was finally a new Ninja Gaiden game. So, how is the game, you ask? Well it's a really fun action hack n' slash game, it is also without a doubt one of the most difficult games you're likely to come across on the original Xbox.

Ninja Gaiden once again casts you in the role of Ryu Hayabusa of the Hayabusa clan. The Hayabusa clan has watched over a pair of swords for ages called the Dark Dragon Blade, and the Dragon Sword. The Dark Dragon is in essence a sword of pure evil (which begs the question, if its so evil, why not destroy it) so the Hayabusa clan guards it. As it happens some people want to utilize the evil energies of the Dark Dragon Blade so an army of ninjas and an evil samurai called Doku are sent out to Hayabusa village to steal the sword. Most everyone in Hayabusa village is killed, with the exception of Ryu, who manages to live after being viciously attacked by Doku. So naturally Ryu swears revenge and to reclaim the Dark Dragon Blade. It's a pretty straight forward plot, and it's not really all that utilized with the exception of some FMVs at the start of each chapter. But hey, you're probably not wanting to play Ninja Gaiden for an involving plotline, you're here for the tactile pleasure of slicing other ninja, military, and various fanged monstrosities to pieces.

Fortunately Ninja Gaiden has got this in spades. Normally a first level is supposed to be an easy walk in the park where you can get a feel for the game. Sure Gaiden is like that for a couple of minutes, but after a few jumping sequences just to get you acquainted with the controls you will face a group of ninja. Usually in a hack n' slash like this the enemies will tend to hang back for a couple of seconds then advance on you, Ninja Gaiden fundamentally gives this type of game design the finger and they send the people out to kill you. The ninjas will not hesitate to run out at you and start carving away bits of your person. After you dispatch these ninjas you keep going, coming upon the first boss in the game. This guy will not hesitate to beat your ass to a bloody pulp. He is not the sort of easy pushover boss that most games throw at you (for a first boss), he is downright merciless. The enemies in the game are rather smart, and they just won't rush heedlessly into battle, most will defend against your attacks and attack when you stop and present them with a part of your body for them to stab. But hell you're a ninja, they'll still be easy to dispatch, for the most part. Most of the normal grunts (in this case, soldiers) will be easy to tear apart with your dragon sword. But when the game decides to chuck the ninjas against you, you will most likely die. The little bastards aren't shy about tossing explosive shurikens into your side when your tangling with another one, they also love to attack in groups. Another thing about the enemies is the fact that they will increase in difficulty as you progress in the game. At about the halfway point they'll fundamentally toss out the easy to beat soldiers and instead toss you super soldiers who will not hesitate to just brutally murder you if you drop your guard.

Fortunately you've got a small, but impressive arsenal of weapons to use in your quest to defeat the Vigooran Empire, and retrieve the Dark Dragon Blade. In addition to your standard Dragon Sword (which can be upgraded, to become a more efficient implement of death), you get nunchaku (with which to bust skulls), something called the Vigooran Flail which is fundamentally just a pair of sickles tied together (I call them Deathchucks, and you don't get this until much later in the game), and a few other weapons I won‘t post, as it may spoil the storyline. You've also got your standard shuriken, a bow and arrow, and some other impressive sub-weapons that become down right necessary as you progress. In addition to your weapons you get a few magic spells that can really save your bacon in a tight situation. These include things like a fireball spell, which casts a defensive shield around you of rotating fireballs. The inferno, which sends a giant wave of flame toward an enemy. And the requisite ice and lightning spells just to round out the list. The way you cast these is sort of confusing, and it isn't explained in the game on how to do it. I assume that maybe the manual has that information, but the copy I bought (my original has been misplaced) didn't include one. Even with the inclusion of the magic the game is not a walk in the park. Almost every area is crawling with baddies, particularly later on in the game when you will quite often have to engage in marathon battles and fight wave after wave of enemies until they quit spawning in the area. The constantly spawning enemies can particularly be annoying if you're having to make a precise jump onto a small platform and an enemy decides to shoot you with an arrow (or whatever) and make you fall a ways away, thus allowing the enemy you just killed to come back and stonewall you. Also the game doesn't have that many save points. So if you're fighting and fighting and get just about to get to the save point so you won't be completely screwed they'll kill you and you'll have to do almost an hours worth of work to do again. It can also be very annoying if say you fought and killed a large group of enemies obtained the main magical widget, and then they decide to spring a boss fight on you. Did I mention the boss fights most of the time range between downright murderous and freakin' impossible? So you'll most likely die and have to redo everything all over again! Which can be specifically annoying if you just completed an annoying timing puzzle, which you only managed to complete through blind luck only to die and have to do it again.

Fortunately the games tight controls make controlling Ryu easy. Performing combos is difficult enough to make it satisfying to pull off an eighty-six streak, yet easy enough so it doesn't seem impossible. Outside of fighting the near constant string of fight after fight you'll spend quite an amount of time exploring the city of Tairon. Sure there's really not all that much to the city, and the enemies like to respawn in an area where you just got done killing them, but it's nice to get a breather every now and then. And aside from the merchant shop (where you can buy the necessary healing potions and upgrades for your weapons) there's really not much you'll want to visit again. Of course, that's not to say you won't, on the contrary, you'll spend quite a lot of time running back and forth from one spot to the other. The game also throws a few puzzles at you, which are actually rather annoying, they're not especially clever, and really just serve to bring the action to a grinding, screeching halt. However most of the time these'll simply be “get to this point before the door locks shut again.” In short the gameplay is quite fun, if not incredibly frustratingly difficult.

Graphically speaking the game is quite pretty. The character models are nice and detailed, the enemy designs are pretty good, but not terribly imaginative. There's the military commando, a different color of military commando, a soldier, and the red uniform soldier. The fiends (read: demons) look better, and have a bit more originality to them, but really they're not special. The bosses are really where they tried to show off. The bosses look good, and they really showcase what made the Xbox the graphical powerhouse that it was. The cinematics in the game look beautiful, but perhaps it was only my copy but a lot of them seemed to move quite slow. Still though the graphics manage to show the chaos of the battles perfectly, and they aren't exactly shy about having the blood flow from the wounds. Granted it's nothing as graphics as say Shadow of Rome, but still it is quite violent and gory. The Ninpo powers look quite neat, I love the animations that it does when you do them (which I found to do by mashing the face buttons), it just looks cool. So over all the graphics are quite nice.

Audiowise the game's okay. The voice acting (little though it is) is good. Most of the game will simply be taken up with the sounds of FWASH, CHOP, SHLORP, HYAH!, and other such noises that are in these action heavy games. I particularly love the fact that the nunchaku (and by extension the Deathchucks) make a FWISH sound when you strike nothing but air. The roars of the fiends sound impressive, but there's not much variety in them. With the soundtrack you get this rocking score that sounds pretty good. It doesn't sound out of place, and it serves its purpose well. It of course increases in tempo when you get to the boss fights. So the audio is serviceable, but it's not great. It serves its purpose.

So at the end of the day Ninja Gaiden is a fun enough hack and slash. It manages to tip the difficulty scales just enough to make it near impossible, but still fun to play. If you have an Xbox, or a 360, pick up Ninja Gaiden, it shouldn't run you more than ten bucks. Particularly if you're a fan of the old NES Gaidens, especially since those are actually unlockable on this version. If you get the choice between this one or Ninja Gaiden Black I'd personally opt for this version. For one, it's cheaper, for two, you can get the NES Gaidens (whilst on Black you get the arcade version), and lastly, it's easier.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 6/10
Story: 7/10
Gameplay 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/08

Game Release: Ninja Gaiden (US, 03/02/04)