Ninja Gaiden - Review

Added March 9th, 2004 by Unahona

Introduction:

It’s been nearly 13 years since a new Ninja Gaiden game has been released, and long past since gaming in the US went through the Ninja fad of the late 80s and early 90s. Gaming mastermind Tomonobu Itagaki hasn’t let that hurdle stop him. This year he has revived the old gem from the deep dark depths of the arcade and Nintendo Entertainment System era with a fresh new action game promising to be the best Ninja Gaiden title to date, and one of the best action games of all time. Is the series doomed to just be a has-been game of the past, or can Team Ninja pull off their hopes and promises and prove that their game formula is a timeless classic? Read on to find out.

Gameplay:

When you first start a new game, it does a nice job of getting you immersed in the action instantly. In the opening cut scene, you learn about 2 very powerful weapons being guarded by the Hayabusa ninja clan, including the much sought after dark dragon sword. The dark dragon sword is a blade with immense untapped power that, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, could be used for chaos and destruction. Right off the bat, the Hayabusa village is attacked, and the Dark Dragon Sword is stolen by an evil samurai fiend named Doku. In the game, you play the role of Ryu Hayabusa, who is a master ninja in the, yep you guessed it, Hayabusa ninja clan. Your goal throughout the game is to catch up with the evil Doku, and retrieve back the sword for your clan.

You start the game off with just the dragon sword, and some plain shuriken (ninja stars). Throughout the course of the game, you will find all sorts of new weapons, such as new swords, exploding shuriken, a bow, and of course, nunchaku (nunchucks). Each weapon has their own set of combos for all types of situations, be it while wall running, while jumping, or standing still. As you kill enemies, they will drop different types of essences (little orbs) that will give you different things such as a blue essence will replenish some of your hit points, and a yellow essence will give you gold. The gold can then be used to purchase upgrades for your weapons that will unlock new combos, allow you to buy healing elixirs, ninpo techniques (magic attacks), and other stuff as well. Leveling up your weapons is key to survive in the later levels and the boss fights. In most situations the dragon sword does perfectly, but if it’s not upgraded it won’t be as useful as it could be. Also, for each enemy you kill you will gain karma points, which along with other factors such as how much ninpo was used, and how fast you completed a chapter, an overall chapter ranking will be decided. The highest of these rankings is Master Ninja. These rankings serve no other purpose but to tell you how well you did on a stage, and can also used in order to gain some unlockable prizes.

The camera system, despite what you may have heard, is pretty great overall. You can quickly tap the R trigger to put the camera behind you, or in rare instances or if you just want to take a look around, can use the right thumb stick to look around in first person mode. 99% of the time the camera will not cause you any problems or be a burden to control, but in that 1% of the time it will sometimes give you an awkward view, or just not be up to snuff. The camera does not ruin the experience in any way whatsoever.

The difficulty in Ninja Gaiden is pretty hard. I wouldn’t recommend this game to total gaming newbies, people who just don’t enjoy a challenge, or people with slow reflexes because you may find yourself getting very frustrated. For most normal gamers and experienced gamers, you’ll find the difficulty to be refreshing and a nice change of pace compared to how easy most of the games of the present times have been. I’ll admit that once in a while you might find yourself frustrated on some of the bosses, but with a little work, observation of their main patterns, and a little effort, you will be able to overcome them and feel great about it after. You’ll also want to remember to use the block button (L trigger) often or you’ll find yourself living in the game over screen.

Graphics:
These are probably the most gorgeous and well-done graphics in an Xbox game to date. The creatures and environments are all nicely varied. The character and enemy models are very detailed, and their animations are very fluid and believable, Ryu’s especially. The game runs at a perfect 60 frames per second, with a VERY RARE instance of a slight drop in frame-rate here and there. Also, the cut scenes are very well done and very life-like to the point where you would think you could just reach inside the screen and touch it. For people with an HDTV set, this game supports 480p widescreen. Progressive scan mode makes it look even better! This game is just a graphical masterpiece.

Audio:

The game has a great soundtrack that will captivate the mood more often than not, and get you pumped up during battles. All the sound effects and explosions are very well pronounced, and the controller’s force feedback helps bring a higher level of immersion, even during the cut scenes. A couple of times I went to set the controller on my lap during a cut scene and had to stop the controller from falling on the floor. The game has full Dolby 5.1 Digital support as you might have expected, which can help at times because you will be able to tell where an enemy is coming from, and help you plot your course of action that much more efficiently. The voice acting in the game is very good even on the English setting despite any worries by some skeptical people, and also comes with the option of switching to Japanese voices with English subtitles, which is a great addition.

Controls:

Left thumb stick- Movement
Right thumb stick- First person look
D-pad- Navigation in the start menu
Back- Not used
Start- Open up the start menu
Left Trigger- Block with your weapon
Right Trigger- Put the camera behind you
Y- Primary Weapon Strong Attack
B- Secondary Weapon (Shuriken, Bow, etc)
X- Primary Weapon Quick Attack
A- Jump
White- Shows Karma Score
Black- Shows the Area Map
Y + B- Use current Ninpo Technique

The controls are all very responsive. You can go into your start menu at any time unless you are getting attacked by an enemy and use healing elixirs, change weapons, and anything else you desire.

Replay:

There are plenty of unlockables hidden throughout the game to keep you busy for a while after you finish this 15-20 hour adventure, such as the classic Ninja Gaiden games, and other fun surprises. There is also a revolutionary Xbox Live feature included in the game called the Master Ninja Tournament. This feature will begin in May, where players from around the world will be able to go through specifically created stages in a goal to gain the highest scores, fastest times, and highest rankings and be uploaded onto a scoreboard hosted on Xbox Live. Then, later in the year at X04 (the big Microsoft hosted Xbox Convention), people will be flown to the event to compete for the almighty Master Ninja title and prizes. I’d say these things should keep you playing this game for a good long while.

Summary:

This is easily one of the best games on Xbox, and one of the best games that has been released this generation. The graphics and sound are at the very top of the line of what we’ve seen yet in an Xbox game. The action is fast paced and fluid on every character model, boss, and Ryu himself. The difficulty in the game is pretty tough, yet fair and very enjoyable. The controls are responsive, including the camera once you get the hang of them. I recommend this game to all Xbox owners, and would recommend to anyone that is on the fence about purchasing an Xbox to finally go out and do so. Ninja Gaiden is a prime example of what a talented development studio can accomplish, and that even a console as powerful as Xbox has a lot left to be tapped into.