Ninja Gaiden delivers with a tantalizing mix of excitement and ninja goodness
Written: Mar 27 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: One of the most prolific games to come out in years
Cons: Only for Xbox, no hope for Ps2 or GC owners.
The Bottom Line: Incredible depth, dazzling graphics, and one of the most fun action-adventure games to come out in ages. Ninja Gaiden is pure gold.
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| kenshin-guy's Full Review: Ninja Gaiden For Xbox |
It's pretty hard to impress gamers nowadays. With the proverbial hype machine being cultured by relentless computer consumers and net-junkies, ideas are transferred, rejected, stolen, and floundered as much as people want. What does this lead to? Take a look at the crappy budget games made by little-known third party publishers and you'll see. Temco's Ninja Gaiden, though burdened with the delays and expectations only equaled by rabid fans of the Matrix sequels, delivers on its promises ten-fold.
NG borrows from many other games, most noticeably the classic-to-be Devil May Cry, but then again that game's engine has been bastardized so many times by other lower developers that it doesn't really matter. NG takes the same furious, frenetic style of combat that DMC had and jazzes it up with lethal combos, strategic thinking, and a tough-as-nails difficulty level. The story follows Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja that in the position of having the Dragon Sword. His mission: To recover the lost Dark Dragon Blade and defeat the man who slaughtered people in his village, Doku.
Almost immediately the game starts you off with a challenge. Ryu stands before a great ninja compound and works his way up to the top where he faces off against a master ninja who wields nunchaku. To give you the sense of how difficult the game is at this point, I'll put it this way. Most people I know have given up because they couldn't get past the Nunchaku wielder. Some have even put down the controller before they reached HIM. The level only lasts around 15-20 minutes if you try and breeze through it, but first-timers will most likely go through it upwards of 20 times trying to figure out each enemy's pattern and formula. That's a very significant part of playing the game.
Every enemy in a game has a pre-set pattern and routine. Just like in the games of old, the player will need to examine how an enemy functions, how it moves, and when it is vulnerable. In many ways, it has the same type of gameplay found on the old NES versions of the game just implanted onto a newer console. The game will make you pay for your mistakes but part of the reward is successfully figuring out how to vanquish every enemy easily, bosses included. Through the games 16 levels (or missions as they call them) you'll face renegade ninjas, goblins, demons, fiends of all shapes and sizes, and other series of undead creatures. You'll have plenty to keep you busy, trust me. The game's tight controls are your greatest ally against all of the adversaries.
Temco really came through in the art department here. I remember seeing screen shots months ago (before the game was delayed for the 3rd time) and being amazed initially at what they had done. Now, after extensive work has been done to the game it looks even better. This game pushes the limits on the XBox's engine I'm sure and succeeds in being one of the best looking games I can remember. When Ryu swings his sword, juggles his nunchaku, or labors in hurling the monstrous war hammer, a swirl of kinetic energy follows his illustrious moves that makes the screen dance with visual excitement. Nearly every facet of the game visuals has something that you can appreciate. Just the way Ryu moves around with limitless agility is impressive. Every movement is fluid and looks for lack of a better word: real. The game runs at a constant 60 FPS. I don't believe I can remember a time where the framerate suffered at all.
Square-Enix has been heralded as the king of FMV cinemas but Temco actually offers some that are equal, if not better than the RPG giant. Many of the games cut-scenes are done in the game's engine which do nothing more than show off how incredible Temco really is, but the FMVs simply blew me away. One in particular where you encounter the (Spoiler) assimilating (spoiler), then you see Ryu get into full bad@$$ form ready to take on (spoiler). You didn't think I'd give it away did you?
Anyway...The game's sound is great. That's all you really need to know. The ambient music provided through most of the stages in only subdued by Hayabusa's constant swinging of his sword and sounds of fury being shouted. The usual ninja yelps and hollers are here on display too. Nothing legendary, but fitting.
The game overall is a winner. Not only is it a top-notch "beat 'em up and annihilate everything in your path" kind of game but it features many adventure like objectives. Many of these are fetch quests but the majority of it relies on puzzles and superb platforming skills. The game features an essence system where you collect dropped particles of essence left over from your defeated enemies. These essence particles can be exchanged for items you buy on the store, or picked up for health or more Ki (a suped up magic attack in a sense). Also included in the game are the SNES remakes of the original NES Ninja Gaiden games. Only by collecting hidden scarabs (yes, scarabs in a ninja game surrounded by Neo Tokyo settings, I know) can you unleash these babies upon your system. It'll take time, concentration and some broken controllers but you can achieve greatness and get them.
If I had to pick an early frontrunner for game of the year, hands down I would pick Ninja Gaiden. It's got everything a gamer could want. It's challenging, absolutely beautiful, sounds great, and has an interesting story that you'll want to play through again and again. Do yourself a favor and plunk down the $50 and pick up this game, you won't regret it.
~Airen
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kenshin-guy
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Member: Aaron J. Amendola
Location: Erie
Reviews written: 86
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In it to win it.
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