Ninja Gaiden

"The best, most stylish game on Xbox"

Forget Halo. THIS is the reason to own an Xbox. After over of decade of absence (other than Dead or Alive cameos) the legendary Ryu Hyabusa is back and better than ever. Trust me when I say that this is one of the best looking, best playing Xbox games to date.

(NOTE: This is not a review of the Hurricane Pack. Just the normal game. So, even though one of the game's flaws has been remedied with the pack, I have not yet completed it and I won't bring it up. There are a few spoilers as well. You have been warned)

Story: Well the game starts out simple enough. You're a ninja dressed in ninja garb with a blade called the Dragon Sword. Yawn. But after the first boss battle things start to pick up. As you're talking to a Ninja Master a young female ninja named Ayane (yes, the one from DOA) runs in and says the village is under attack. So you, Ryu Hyabusa, quickly runs to the rescue. I'm not going to go any further but to be honest, the plot isn't that deep. There are a few twists but nothing big. The basic idea is that a big bad monster gets an increasingly evil blade and Ryu has to stop him. The cutscenes are pretty entertaining but the story is not this game's strong point. I'll give the overall plot a 6/10.

Graphics: Two words: HOLY CRAP. This game looks freaking amazing. From the backgrounds to the characters to the animations, everything screams perfection. Ryu moves so smooth and his attacks look awesome. The enemy designs, while somewhat cliched, are overall very creative and look just as good as Ryu. And, unlike other action games, the enemies have a great variety. You'll face everything from military men, to ninjas, to dragons to other nasty monsters. The backgrounds are great as well and the water effects are incredible. Even your weapons have great detail. And Ninja Gaiden has some of the best CG cutscenes I have ever seen. Everything is so detailed, so lush, so smooth. These graphics really show you how talented a developer Team Ninja really is. I give the graphics a big 10/10.

Sound: The game's audio is pretty good as well. Every character has a voice and none of them sound too campy or overdone. Unfortunately, Ryu doesn't say a lot, but whenever he opens his mouth, you'll listen. Ninja Master Murai is big and buff and his deep voice suits him. Ayane and new girl Rachael (the blonde chick with the big chest) all sound believable and it suits their personality. Dragons roar. Demons screech. The nunchuks brought back memories of Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (that's a good thing). The music, however, wasn't as good as the rest of the sound. It's mostly traditional Japanese music (which is actually pretty nice) and heavy metal guitar riffs (I love rock but these tracks just suck). So, overall audio gets an 8/10.

Gameplay: Ah, gameplay. The most important factor in a game. As you know, most action games suffer in this department. Whether it's a bad camera to just mindless hack and slash, you have to look hard for an action game that can hold your attention and control well. Fear not, because Ninja Gaiden controls nearly flawlessly. Nearly. The fighting is the thing you'll be doing most and it outshines everything else. Ryu has an insane amount of combos and attacks as well as a wide variety of weapons to use. This brings a lot of depth and options to the table and everything controls very well. The game's controls are very responsive and pulling off combos takes a little practice, but with some patience it'll become second nature. You fight a lot, but the gameplay is so good and the action so fun you'll welcome each and every battle. It's just that fun to play. It's also worth noting that each weapon has different moves and combos so if you ever want to use any weapon other than the Dragon Sword, then I suggest you check those combo commands. (Flying Swallow=Coolest. Move. Ever. Almost.
Now, I said this game controls nearly flawlessly. The only control issue I have is minor, but worth mentioning. In an attempt to add vareity in the gameplay, Team Ninja added a few platforming sequences. These are the only thing in Ninja Gaiden that I did not enjoy doing for two reasons. 1. As a ninja, Ryu moves pretty fast and it's very easy to overshoot a jump if you're not careful leaving you to do it again. And 2. The game's camera does not work well with these sections because the camera is always behind Ryu and you cannot move it to get a better vantage point. Frustration galore. These sections brought back bad memories of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. (Yes fanboys that game did suck. Go play it again.) But the platforming does not occur often and most of it isn't really that bad. So gameplay gets a 9/10.

Difficulty: The only reason I'm including this is because Ninja Gaiden has a reputation for being an insanely hard game. Well this may be true for Very Hard mode but on Normal mode, it's not that bad. Granted it is by no means and easy game, but it isn't impossible either. In fact, this is one of those games were if you practice a bit, you won't have much trouble. Some of the bosses (I'm looking at you Alma!) are hard but still, come on, hardcore difficulty? If you're playing the Hurricane Pack then yes, hardcore. On Normal, no way.

Replay: Most action games don't have much replay value to them. Usually when you beat the game, you're done. However, Ninja Gaiden has a "New Game +" of sorts called "Successive Play" after you beat the game you will be asked to save it. If you do, load up the data and you'll start out on the first chapter as normal. Only you'll have all the golden scarabs that you had found from the last game (Scarabs give you stuff if you find enough) so if you missed a few, you can go back and get them so you can unlock one of the best secrets in the game. Yep, you can unlock the old Ninja Gaiden games. This really gives the game even more meat because it's such a great unlockable. You'll be driven to find all the well hidden scarabs just to get these classics. You can't just play them, however. Team Ninja has cleverly hidden an arcade cabinet in the game and this is the only way to play them. However, if you beat the game with the disks in your inventory, you'll be able to play them from the main menu. Freaking sweet. The game also offers a few hidden costumes and weapons as well as a neat little ranking system called "Master Ninja Tournament". Here you will compete with other NG players to get the highest "Karma" to win numerous prizes. Karma is basically the points system in this game and serves little purpose outside the tournament. Also, this game has a downloadable called "The Hurricane Pack". As I said before, this is a review for the normal game so I'm not going into detail here. But I will tell you this. If you have Xbox Live, then there is NO reason not to download this. It's free and incredibly challenging. (If you want that "hardcore" difficulty that everyone is blabbing about, you'll get it in spades with this thing). So, as you can see, there are plenty of reasons to play through Ninja Gaiden multiple times. You get Normal, Hard, and Very Hard difficulties as well as Xbox Live support. I'll go with 9/10.

Overall: What can I say? This is the best game on Xbox. Period. Go get if now you don't already have it. There is one other problem I have with Ninja Gaiden though. It's weapon balance. Ryu gets a ton of weapons throughout the game, yet, for some reason, his trusty Dragon Sword reigns supreme. In fact, you can pretty much go through the whole game with just this and his many projectiles and still have no trouble. I kind of wish Team Ninja made weapon use more strategic. For example, make some enemies immune to the Dragon Blade and force you to use another weapon to take it down. I love the War Hammer, but it's just not as good as it looks so I didn't get to use it very much. This isn't a huge problem, but what's the point of having those weapons if you never use them? It's not perfect but its few flaws are minor and they defiantly don't ruin the fun. If you have a decent amount of skill at action or fighting games and liked Devil May Cry then you must own this game. In fact, I'm gonna go play it again. Right now. Peace out.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/04