by: John Olin

October 03, 2005

As the game opens, you have only one kind of melee weapon, your sword, which is the weapon you will use to do most of your slicing and dicing. As you progress, you buy weapons from an old man at various stations or his shop, or you pick them up, most of them are upgradeable and as you upgrade them they will of course become more powerful. The Dragon Sword is the weapon you will probably use the majority of the time, due to how versatile it is. You may also use the nunchucks to build up combo points, fend off a large number of enemies, or use various other weapons that could give you advantages in specific situations.

Jump in the air and press the B button, and Ryu flings a few shurikens in the direction of an enemy. The shurikens fall under the projection weapons category, and are accessed through a menu you see when you press Start. There are many other projection weapons you come across such as incendiary shurikens, which you may use to destroy a barrier, big boomerang shurikens, and many others such as a bow and arrows, which act as a sniper rifle. The melee weapons, your main weapons, come in many flavors and varieties, most of which are upgradeable by collecting Ki energy.

Ryu will eventually possess an array of magic “Ki powers” that can be upgraded with special jewels, and are activated by pressing the Y and B button at the same time. When you do this (depending on what Ki Power is equipped), you may jump into the air and release an onslaught of electricity into the environment, damaging all the surrounding enemies, unleash a massive fireball, or perhaps create a spiraling hailstorm.

When progressing through the game, you will come to a town, and the majority of the game takes place in this town. However, the impressive level design, combined with how Ryu progresses, makes sure you do not venture into later levels before you are ready. The purpose of the barriers and what I call “mysterious circles” that you see earlier in the game are revealed in the final levels.

The Golden Scarabs you collect throughout the game unlock different items, but after collecting fifty you receive quite an “old school” surprise. The biggest surprise, though, comes with the final boss, and that's the point at which you realize just how good the game’s story ended up. That isn’t even the end, though! Tecmo will eventually launch their “Master Ninja Tournament” were you download challenges, and posts your high scores adding even more replay to the game.

If I had to mention my few complaints about the game, they would be the death-causing camera (although it could have been far worse), or the tough-as-nails, sometimes hard-to-figure-out baddies.

Ninja Gaiden breaks all kinds of records — not only is it the most violent action game this side of GTA, it is actually composed of four games, and it is also the best-looking action game to date. It is apparent that besides the superb gameplay, the rest of the development time was spent on the crisp, 60 frames-per-second graphics. The only downfall of the graphics is, that you will see some slow down in the smoothness occasionally in areas with a lot of activity (like if there on eight enemies on screen and you unleash an electrical Ki attack) because they try to do so much.

The environments in the game are lush and detailed. Water ripples like real water; you can see each individual aging cinder block in a dungeon, grass waves in the wind, wood has a certain shine to it in temples, and everything is as detailed as if it were part of a pre-rendered background, although it is actually 3D. The massive locales (which are completely interactive) are amazing, and when you're in first-person view, you could just stare at them forever. Ryu and his enemies alike have details that far outshine even the detailed figures in games like Dead or Alive 3 or Halo. You can see all of Ryu’s tools on his belt, the engravings in his weapons, his rippling muscles, veins, etc. in full bump-mapped glory... Man, I can’t believe it’s not butter! On the enemies, you can see individual scales shining perfectly in each light source, see through their translucent wings, and be dazzled by their massive energy attacks.

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If you didn’t try out Ninja Gaiden Black last year you have no excuse not to get it at the reduced price. The game is presented well visually, is excitingly violent, and is a challenge that you will find yourself addicted to. Throw in the fact that you have all the extra content you could download from before, with new missions, and you have one hell of a package.

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