Ninja Gaiden review

Ninja Gaiden is difficult, very difficult, but you can tell that the game wants you to get better. There are no easy rides, no simple tutorial levels. The challenge is set right from the outset. And why not? A level that simply lets you walk through unopposed may give you a chance to get to grips with the controls, but isn’t it just a waste of a level that might have offered some kind of interesting challenge? Each time you get forced to replay a particular battle you learn new limits to your character’s finesse.

And there is a lot to be learnt. Perhaps for the first time, a game marries the complex mechanics of a one-on-one fighting game with the freedom of movement of an action adventure. Both the complexity and the freedom are there in spades. Unlike other games that offer a range of acrobatics in a carefully measured fashion, Ninja Gaiden offers the same moves with a callous flick of the analogue stick and simple button presses. You could accidentally run up walls and spring across a room, prancing off the heads of your opponents, without even realising it. But therein lies the promise of the game’s level of difficulty: think what you could do if you actually had thought that manoeuvre through.

I, ninja

And that is the level of complexity that prevents an almost endless string of replayed sections from getting boring. Even the earliest enemies that you encounter can finish you off if given the chance. But there are always at least a few techniques, some simple and some complex, to defeat each enemy. With practice, it almost becomes easy.

None of this would be worth much if it all didn’t run smoothly and the graphics and controls glide effortlessly together. Each of your joypad motions is translated instantly into action, at a perfect sixty frames a second with absolutely no slowdown. Which is impressive, especially taking into account the detail of the environments and the characters. For those of you familiar with Tecmo’s Dead or Alive series of games, the same luxurious level of detail is present, but in an environment boasting greater freedom of exploration. You could point out that there is a certain bleak feeling stemming from the deserted nature (except for your enemies) of some of the city levels, but it doesn’t take long for a fight to break out and fill the nighttime streets with life, shortly followed by death.

Shadow warriors

Even the brief lulls in violence, with a little backtracking across levels, seem appropriate in keeping the pace manageable between explosive encounters. In fact almost all of the pacing throughout the game is pitched just right, no mean feat for a game that lasts a good twenty hours across sixteen levels. The only exception to this is the last few levels, which become almost absurdly difficult.

The journey across the levels is full of its own rewards however, with new weapons to unlock on the way, as well as expanded lists of techniques and ninja magic to buy. None of these come too cheap or too often, but it does always seem as if a new upgrade is just around the corner and often each of these upgrades can add a completely new dimension to your fighting experience and style, such as the first time you come across the nunchaku. With secret items hidden in some of the more secluded or hard-to-reach locations (always cunningly hinted at though), you can even unlock the original eight-bit console versions of Ninja Gaiden for a history lesson in 2D gameplay.

Side story

We can only imagine what one-on-one Ninja Gaiden would be like over Xbox Live, because sadly, there is no option for multiplayer, not in the conventional sense. Instead there are specialised tournament levels meant to challenge the skills of the best players and rank them in global competition. A sort of Ninja Olympics, if you will, with players from all over the world comparing their scores.

Which brings up another issue of different territories, because for some reason, Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom have seen fit to remove decapitations from the PAL versions of the game. Thankfully this has no effect on gameplay, as the enemies still die from the same blows that would normally cut their heads off. It seems like a strange choice, in light of the fact that you still get to repeatedly slice people until they shower blood everywhere. It certainly fails to make the game significantly less violent.

Ninja brilliance

But a minor issue like that does little to cast a shadow on Ninja Gaiden’s brilliance. All of the gameplay and graphical elements come together to create a solid whole, the sound too, is right on target, with both Japanese and English audio tracks available. And although the Japanese track can seem more authentic; the English voice acting is imbued with a certain exaggerated style native to classic martial arts movies. The music impresses without being tremendously distinctive, although some of those guitar riffs do seem to come straight out of an eighties action flick. But ask yourself, is that a bad thing?

Ultimately, Tecmo have created a game that recreates, and in a none too shallow way, the martial arts action movie experience. Everything from the cut scenes to the gameplay show that a great amount of effort and care has been put into producing what has turned out to be one of the best games for the Xbox to date.