Ninja Gaiden - Love to Stay but Places to Go and People to Kill

Hack and slash ninja games have been fading in popularity recently, and there is a certain lack of them for the next-generation consoles. Thus, when Tecmo announced that they would be releasing Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, everyone knew that this would be the mini-genre’s savior. The previous Ninja Gaiden games were extremely popular in the early '90s, and Tecmo was hoping that fans of the series would yearn for a new installment in the series. Ninja Gaiden was overly hyped and heralded to be one of the best games to be released for the Xbox console. Fortunately, the game does not disappoint.

The storyline in this game is very predictable, a bit cheesy yet gets the job done. Our ninja, Ryu Hayabusa, lives in a Ninja Village, which is guarding the powerful and mysterious Dark Dragon Blade. As you could probably foresee, the village is soon raided, plumaged through and the Blade falls into the hands of an evil villain, Doku, who was supposed to get the Blade for his master. Ryu lives through this whole incident, yet vows to revenge those that ruined his village and regain possession of the Dark Dragon Blade. Ryu must then sent out to travel to the Vigoor Empire and do what seems just…

Ninja Gaiden is an action game with a few platforming elements, seen from the third-person perspective. One of the many awesome abilities that Ryu possesses is his jumping ability. First of all, our ninja has the vertical jump of Allen Iverson, perhaps higher. However, if you run straight into a wall and jump, then Ryu will perform an impressive backflip, Matrix-style. But if you run toward the wall at an angle, then Ryu will walk horizontally even though he is walking on a wall, not on the ground. If you are unable to jump far enough to get to a certain location, you can usually walk across a wall between the jump. This also presents you with many interesting opportunities during combat, as running alongside a wall and slashing presents easy opportunities to simply chop off heads. In this game, you can even run across a surface of water! Besides the jumps that I have just described, there are a few more that you must master in order to complete this game.

Ninja Gaiden also features a few challenges and puzzles. These puzzles are not very challenging, and you are usually guided by Kunai scrolls to make sure that you arrive to your destination. However, although Ninja Gaiden has a few platformer elements, it is an action game and a great one at that. One reason as to why this game is so well put together is due to the amazingly fluid control system. The developers of this game have experience with fighting games, thus they reproduced the controls to an action game, creating a very responsive and easy to learn control system.

The combat is the main focus of Ninja Gaiden and it is definitely where this game excels. In the beginning, you are equipped with the Dragon Sword. Melee weapons, such as swords and nunchaku, can be replaced by better melee items. This is done by finding or buying better weapons or by upgrading your current weapons. Your character also has the ability to use ranged weapons at all times, including an unlimited supply of shuriken, which are cross-shaped throwing stars. Before getting into the combat, I should note that this game is extremely violent and bloody. No enemy is dead until blood erupts out of their body and covers the enemy completely. All the gore is not at all real and it does disappear after a few seconds, though some very protective parents might decide to steer clear of this title due to excessive violence.

The combat is so amazing due to the combo system and special abilities. Although yes, you can manage to beat the initial stages of this game merely by running toward enemies and slashing them until they die, this strategy will not be a good one once you get into the full swing of things. However, the various combos that you can pull off are simply amazing. Imagine stepping into a room of five ninjas, running alongside a wall and chopping of the heads of two of them, then jumping off the wall and throwing a few stars to finish off two more, and then landing right next to the final enemy and slashing him to pieces. Does that sound fun to you? If yes, this is not a very complicated sequence, and a little practice will have you kicking serious ninja butt with ease.

Besides wielding powerful weapons and having amazing leaping abilities, Ryu can also cast various spells. The magic that he uses is called Ninpo and cannot be used too often, yet when Ryu unleashes a spell you are in for a treat. As you progress through the game, you will learn the fire wheels, inferno, inazuma and ice storm attacks. All of these spells are very cool, do a lot of damage and can help out in desperate situations. Yet the main reason as to why this magic is so useful is that it is cast on multiple enemies, not on just one enemy.

The enemies that you will face in Ninja Gaiden are all very varied. You will encounter ninjas of all sorts (especially in the initial stages of the game), bats, crows, sentries, dragon fiends, samurai, fishes and others. These enemies moderately increase in difficulty as you traverse through the game. The enemy artificial intelligence is very high, as these enemies would very well in groups. Ninjas gang up on you from all sides, some times a few might charge while one stays behind to fire projectiles at you and their defense is admirable at times. The bosses are also quite different from each other, as you will come across a Tank, Zombie Dragon, Lightning Worm and The Dark Disciple just to name a few. These bosses are particularly difficult to beat, mainly in part to their wide range of attacks. In most games, bosses are limited to one or two signature moves that you can eventually learn to avoid, yet the bosses in Ninja Gaiden are drastically harder to figure out.

Now, the one major downside to Ninja Gaiden is its absurd difficulty level. This is evident from the get go, as players are not offered an ‘easy’ difficulty setting. This game can be incredibly hard at times and it is just flat-out frustrating. However, I relish a challenge in games therefore a hard game is welcomed, thus it will not diminish the rating that I give it. Others however, might be unable to complete this adventure due to its difficulty, and it is possible that some gamers could dislike the game due to this.

In terms of longevity, Ninja Gaiden lasted me a good 20-25 hours to complete. This might be because I was very cautious toward the end and took my time. Twenty hours is a solid amount for a single-player action game, although I doubt you will wish to play through this title a second time for quite a while. To increase longevity, Tecmo actually included all three Ninja Gaiden games of the '90s. These entertaining games are not available from the get-go, but unlocking them is definitely a bonus. The multi-player aspect is non-existent in Ninja Gaiden, as this is a single-player only game. However, you can submit your scores onto leader boards on Xbox Live, and a “Master Ninja Tournament” is being held to determine the ultimate ninja in the world. Finally, additional weapons and other goodies have been promised by Tecmo and Microsoft to download via Xbox Live, and the first batch of add-ons were made available recently.

Graphically, Ninja Gaiden is as good as it gets. All of the various locations are stunningly beautiful and detailed, be it in the sewers or even the underwater stages. All of the character models and extremely detailed, and the movement is very fluid. Ryu’s attacks appear to be somewhat taken out of a top-notch fighting game. All of the visual effects, be it the flying sparks or particle effects that occur when you use Ninpo, look really good. However, the best part is definitely the cut-scenes, which progress the story. These cut-scenes are just amazing and sometimes can be mistaken for high-end animation movies. The PlayStation 2 would without a doubt not be able to handle this game, thus it is a Xbox exclusive.

The audio department also did a good job, thus ensuring an excellent all-around product. There is a very varied and large amount of background music, all of which fits in perfectly with the environments. The orchestrated tracks are especially moving and powerful. The sound effects are of high quality, everything from the soft ‘thud’ when you land to the ‘cling’ when a metal sword hits an another metallic object. The dialogue might be the weakest part of the audio, since the voicing was originally done in Japanese and the English translation wasn’t top notch.

Overall, Ninja Gaiden is an incredible, fast-paced, violent game. A game likes this was definitely missing from my collection and makes an excellent addition. This is a top-caliber game, featuring awesome combat, magic, smart enemies, some of the best graphics and a great soundtrack. A combination as such is rare, and there is always one setback. In this case, the setback is the overwhelming difficulty level. This trait can either turn off gamers or they will relish the challenge, such as I. Basically, if you’re looking for a challenging and advanced hack-and-slash action title, this is definitely the one.