Ninja Gaiden Black

"One of the greatest games of all time..."

First I would like to clear a few things up, first of all, I am giving this game a 9.8, which has been rounded up to a ten, secondly, I will still explain the game as a whole, but I have played the original version so forgive me if I compare the two a bit to much.

Graphics 10/10
This game uses the Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball engine, so it delivers amazing visuals. You can't help but be impressed that the framerate only drops when you kill 20 or more people at once, and it only drops to about 30fps. And really, how can you not love countering someones attack so you have an opening that cuts all of the enemies' sorrounding you heads off (sorry, couldn't use correct grammar, I tried though).

Sound 8/10
This is some of the best music in the industry, this may b the only time that techno beats in a video game were not actually painful to listen to. The problems come when the songs repeat and the sound effects really aren't anything special.

Gameplay 9.99/10
This is easily the best combat I have ever seen in a game, it's identical to the original Xbox title (which is easily an improvement over the straight, one-hit kill sword swiped of the original trilogy), but there is far more of it with a mission mode that offers 50 challenges of pure combat. There are adventure elements, but there aren't very deep, deeper than the average action game (wall running, you can return to other areas, run on walls etc.), but nothing special. Thankfully, the depth of the combat really makes up for this, there are dozens of fully upgradable weapons, each with radically different styles, I've played the heck out of this game (still playing it) and there are still weapons that I've never upgraded once and even weapons that haven't been in my possesion in Story Mode (got in mission mode). The combo system is completely and utterly average, you have about 5 or so seconds to hit an enemy efore the combo meter is erased, also, outside of your Karma (points), it does nothing. Luckily, this doesn't affect the gameplay in the least, the one problem I could find was the camera, while improved over the original, even with the new third-person camera, you can't move the camera in boss fights and it will get stuck behind obstacles even in normal gameplay (it happens rarely, but is annoying when it does). The last thing you should know is that, while not as blasingly difficult as the original trilogy, this game is really, really, hard. Luckily, as in the entire series, there are absolutly no cheap deaths, your survival depends solely on you skill.

Extras 10/10
The game has both hurricane packs, 45 all new missions (the last 5 are hurricane pack vol. II), new weapons, the original "Ninja Ryukuden" arcade game, new enemies, 2 new diffuculty modes ( "Ninja Master" Mode, an extremely hard mode requiring absolute perfection and "Ninja Dog", an easy mode, or should I say easier ((it is still not for the faint of hear)) which will make fun of those who select it), improved AI, new cinematics and the ability to submit your score in any of these modes.

Lasting Value 10/10
See extras, this is one of the largest games of this generation.

Plot 7/10
Your average over-the-top "Ninja vowing revenge" story. The dialogue however is excelent and I also love how it pays omage to the old games (Ex: The game starts with ninjas attacking Ryu for no currently appartent reason, even after watching the opening cinematic, Ken Hayabusa is currently in the wilderness were Jachio would defeat him, and thankfully, Ryu is a ninja, NOT a shop owner). There are a few twists, and it gets a 14/10 compared to the nonsensical Dead or Alive stories, but the plot extremely predictable, but you don't play ninja games for plot.

Overall 9.8/10
Really the only downer that matters is the camera, otherwise, this game is extremely fun and deep. This may be the single greatest Xbox game currently available, get this game now, it looks and plays amazingly and will keep you busy for a long, long time.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/05