Ninja Gaiden Black

"Th Ultimate Ninja Game"

Last year, there was a game called Ninja Gaiden that came out. Now it had some Xbox Live connectivity with it so you could download things called Hurricane Packs. The Packs included various new features like new customs, more difficult, and weapons. More stuff were in the packs besides those things. Now Team Ninja, has made Ninja Gaiden Black, which is Ninja Gaiden, but with more features. Anyway, let's get to the review.

Story 10/10: The story is the same as Ninja Gaiden. So if you haven't heard it I'll fill you in. You are Ryu Hayabusa. You belong to a clan called the Hayabusa Ninja Clan. There are two swords that belong to the Hayabusa Ninja Clan. The evil Dark Dragon Blade and the Dragon Sword. The Dark Dragon is sealed away because of its thirst for evil. You are intent on keeping it sealed until your village is attacked and burned down by Doku, Lord of the Greater Fiends. They take the Dark Dragon and leave you for dead. Now you must seek your revenge...

Sound 10/10: The sound in this game is incredible. You hear the sword slashes and screams from Ryu and your foes. The voice-acting is great, besides a few cheesy moments in the game. The small explosions from the rocket launchers and explosive shuriken are really great. The gun shots also have great firing sounds.

Gameplay 10/10: The gameplay is simply amazing. You have so many combos with just a few of your very cool weapons. You have just great control over Ryu even though he is such an agile person. You can run on walls, run up walls, and do sick combos to your unfortunate foes. You just can do so many things while doing something. For example, you can run along a wall, jump off towards an enemy, throw some shuriken, then do a flying swallow to hack off your enemy's head. You also feel a sense of weight to Ryu. Like he can only jump so far. Also, this game has some really pumped up difficulty levels, so it's not that easy.

Replay Value 10/10: This game has so much to offer. You can play through the story mode for 10-20 hrs. There's also some new features to Ninja Gaiden Black that make the game so long. Like Mission mode, which adds many more hours of Ninja fun. There's also unlockable customs and difficulties. You can spend 100 hours just on this game. You truly won't be to bored with this one.

Rent/Buy-Buy: You have to buy this game. It may seem hard at first, but you'll eventually get used to it. Plus, if you had Ninja Gaiden, but no Live you can get the features from them. Also, for only $30, you can't go wrong.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/05