Ninja Gaiden

"A game with one dominant flaw."

Ninja Gaiden may in fact be the most overrated game ever made. In fact, the only game that's more overrated than this one is Final Fantasy VII, but that's a story for another day. Anyhow, Gaiden was released just after the beginning of 2004. During that time, it received ridiculous praise from various websites and magazines, claiming it was the best action game of the generation so far. I bought the game without renting it because I figured it had to be good – with straight praise from all of these people, and not one of them complaining, how could the game be bad? Well, I was wrong… very wrong.

Let me start off by saying that Gaiden has plenty of potential. If you've got a ninja game from a team called Team Ninja, you'd think it would be good, despite the fact that I thought the team's previous Xbox project, Dead or Alive 3 (which also got a lot of praise), was really nothing particularly special. The game was directed by Tomonobu Itagaki, a guy who does what he wants to do and doesn't really care about whether or not people like it. I like his style. And I can admit that I've never played any of the NES games, though I hear they're quite good. So what could Gaiden possibly be missing?

I'll get to that in a second. First, let me just clear up what I can tell you about the game's storyline. The story focuses on Ryu of Dead or Alive fame who's training to become a ninja to defend his town. Players will start the game in a training course that will explain the controls and combat. You're also introduced to a stunning reality: This game is hard. Even on the easiest difficulty, it's very tough. Even the smallest of enemies in the game will give you a tough time, and you'll learn to take advantage of the block action, activated by the left trigger. Combat consists of a jump button, two levels of attack power, a ranged-weapon button, and a combination used for magic attacks. After learning to use these functions you'll test them in the first of many tough-ass boss battles, after which Ryu learns that his town is being attacked by a masked foe. You'll spend the remainder of the game tracking this foe down.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm just going to come right out and say it: The camera system in Gaiden is the worst I've ever seen in any game, ever. It's so bad that it completely ruins what could have been a good, fun and challenging game. In fact, I'm positive the game wouldn't be quite as difficult as it is now if I could simply see my enemies at all times. The camera in the game simply consists of being straightened by the right trigger. That's it. That's all you can do to adjust the camera. And although that might be okay in other games, it's an absolute curse in an action game, especially in one this hard. You see, in an action game, you've got to be able to see your enemies at all times so they don't pull any surprise attacks on you, especially with this game, when the enemies are so relentless. Any hint of fun that the game could have had it sucked away by the atrocious camera.

When the ability to straighten the camera is your only option, it makes everything about this game much harder and more of a pain than it should be. For one thing, if you're running in one direction and an enemy is chasing you, then you'd literally have stop, turn around, hit the trigger to center the camera, then turn around and keep running… if you're still on your feet. Even then, it's impossible to keep the camera focused on a particular enemy unless you're always looking in its direction, which isn't likely if you're dodging attacks. The second boss battle in the game is a good example of how the insultingly bad camera system can ruin otherwise fine moments in the game. The boss is a large armored soldier on a horse. The boss is always moving, and therefore you're always moving to avoid getting hit. And this is the problem – I was running around so much and in so many different directions that the camera couldn't stay in one place, and I very rarely even saw the boss. I died numerous times before finishing it, not because the battle was hard, but because the camera gave the boss many unfair advantages.

What's worse is that the game's only viewpoint isn't even that good to begin with. Even if you are looking in the direction of the enemy, you're still not guaranteed to have a good view of the action. Often times the camera is either too far back or too low to the ground, or both. I wished that there were some way to adjust the camera so it's a bit tighter on the action, but it can't be done, and I could barely tolerate it. How so many people could put up with such a god-awful camera system and call Gaiden a great game is beyond me. As I said before, Gaiden has easily the worst camera system I've ever seen in any game, ever, which is saying quite a bit.

To make things worse, other sticks and buttons on the Xbox controller really aren't put to full use here, so it's not like the developers were cramped for control options or anything like that. For example, the right thumbstick is used to activate a look function through first-person, either by tilting the stick or clicking it. This makes absolutely no sense. Why not allow players to rotate the camera by tilting the stick, and first-person be activate by simply clicking it? This, to me, is a sign of developers who don't know what they're doing and really have no business making action games. Even worse, the black button is used to bring up the map, which most players won't use anyway. Why not set the map to the pause menu, and use the black button for toggling camera-zoom options? It's preposterous.

Now, if it seems a bit weird to you for someone to go off on how truly awful the camera system is for four whole paragraphs, that's because it's simply a point worth making, because it was the turning point of the game. Gaiden is, structurally, a well-made game. The level are designed nicely, the puzzles are tricky but can be figured out, and the enemies are tough but never impossible to beat. The game's shining moments are in the few boss battles where the camera doesn't get in the way, as the boss battles in the game are truly brilliant and can be a lot of fun when you can actually see what's happening. The problem, of course, is that the camera completely destroys this game in its moments of glory and turns what could have been a good game into a near-unplayable mess.

Even if you can put the camera aside, the game doesn't work quite as well as I'd have hoped. The battle system is pretty good, but generally I found myself using many of the same attacks over and over again, and really doesn't show as much range as, say, Viewtiful Joe (another overrated action game). Also, Ryu has the ability to run along walls and pull off stunt similar to the ones found in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but lacks the fluidity of that (better) game, as in Gaiden, such actions are simply pulled off by jumping into a wall, in which case Ryu will automatically run along the wall (whereas in Sands, players had a separate trigger for such actions). One thing I can be thankful for is how Team Ninja including an inverted-control option for first-person aiming. Without such an option, I would have given up on the game before finishing.

Even the graphics aren't that great as far as I'm concerned. Although there's no doubt that Gaiden is a good-looking game, it's far from the “best-looking game of the generation” that some have been calling it. At the very least, it runs at a smooth framerate and features some very nice character models. The particle effects are a bit disappointing – not bad, but not very realistic-looking, especially when it comes to blood. The biggest offender, though, was the texturing. After playing through Halo with its amazing bump-mapped textures, this game just looks bland. Walk up to a wall and switch to first-person and you'll see what I mean, as the textures are blurry and ugly. I've seen several better-looking GameCube games, and if GameCube can pull off something better, then Xbox can as well. Thankfully, the game has widescreen support, which is always a plus in my book.

Pros

+ A fairly well-made battle system.
+ Very challenging – enemies are tough and relentless.
+ A good number of secrets and optional weapons.
+ Some of the boss battles are extremely rewarding.
+ Nice graphics.
+ Supports widescreen!

Cons

- Terrible, horrible, awful, excruciating, miserable, catastrophic camera.
- The game may be too hard for some.
- Camera system ruins an otherwise good game.
- Overrated graphics.
- Ridiculously bad camera.
- Sound is nothing special.
- Did I mention the camera?

Overall: 3/10

It seems harsh, but the camera system of Ninja Gaiden actually turns what could otherwise have been a good action yarn into a miserable, frustrating and damn near-unplayable mess of a game. And as for my final recommendation? Rent it. Although I would normally advise you to stay away from this game, I would recommend renting Gaiden if only because so many people seem to like it aside from me. However, given how miserable the experience was for me, it's simply impossible for me to recommend buying the game under any circumstance. Even then, if you absolutely must place an award for the best action game of the generation, then make it God of War… not this.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/05, Updated 09/12/05