Ninja Gaiden Makes a Grand Entrance to the Playstation 3!
User Rating: 9.1 | Ninja Gaiden Sigma PS3
Let me preface this review by saying that I love Ninja Gaiden. In fact, I love it so much that I bought the original, then bought Black, and now own Sigma. If you do not own an Xbox or Xbox 360 and have never played Ninja Gaiden (with Hurricane Packs) or Ninja Gaiden Black, then stop reading this review. Just go to the store and buy this game. Ninja Gaiden is quite simply one of the best action games ever made. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, a really badass ninja. You are on a quest to retrieve the Dark Dragon Blade from the evil Vigoor Empire. A Greater Fiend by the name of Doku steals the sword from Ryu's village and burns the village down. Early in the game, Ryu dies at the hand of Doku...but then he comes back to life. As you can imagine, he's pissed off. The overall tone of this game is that of vengeance. Overall, the story is pretty good. Along the way you meet Rachel, a Fiend Hunter. Rachel has big breasts, is scantly clothed in leather bondage gear, and sports a powerful war hammer. Towards the middle of the game, you play a couple of missions as her. These missions are an addition from the first two Ninja Gaiden games. They help to further flesh out the story the same way Ada Wong's "Separate Ways" missions did in Resident Evil 4. You get all sorts of awesome weapons in this game ranging from swords, to nunchuks, a lunar (staff), a flail with blades, to dark dragon blades, to a wooden sword called the Unlabored Flawlessness. Each weapon has its own distinct style. Each of them kicks a whole load of ass. In addition to bad ass weapons, Ryu is also empowered with Ninpo, or magic. There are numerous Ninpo that can be found in the game; they can be powered up with SIXAXIS controls. Ryu's greatest asset on the battlefield is his agility. You can run up and across walls, you can run across water, jump on enemies' backs, roll, climb almost anything...Trust me, you're going to need to use your environment to get through this game. This game is notorious for its difficulty. Nothing has changed in that regard. However, there is no doubt that Ninja Gaiden Sigma is the easiest version of the three due to extra save points and stores found around the world. This is especially true on default settings. Purists may be put off by this, but I welcome the change. This game is meant to be played on Hard or higher difficulty settings. The addition of such save points and stores balances the game a little more and makes the game a little more fair. It makes getting your ass kicked by the enemy AI more bearable. The graphics in this game are very good. The HD enhanced textures are readily noticeable and help this game POP out graphically, when compared to its' predecessors. Everything with light on it is shinier, brighter. In contrast, darker areas have better contrast and color saturation. Team Ninja did an excellent job upping the visuals for this game. This game looks especially stunning in 1080p. Keep in mind though that the backgrounds in this game come from an original Xbox game...Those textures get beefed up to 1080p not, native 1080p textures...There is a difference and my rating notes that. Finally, last but not least, the game runs at a rock solid 60 frames per second. I have no memories of any slowdown during combat. The soundtrack and sound effects in this game are excellent, though they are not of "God of War" caliber. Controls are also excellent and highly responsive. In my opinion, I think this game plays better on a SIXAXIS than it does on an original Xbox S controller. However, I do like the Xbox 360 controller better than both of them. After you complete the game, you can play Mission Modes. These are tough challenges that pit you against tons of foes AND/or bosses that you must defeat. Once you get good at this game, Mission Mode is a ton of fun. It greatly enhances replay value. New difficulty settings are unlocked are each play through. This game is worth beating more than once. I have taken time to heap praise on Ninja Gaiden Sigma. You might be asking yourself why I said that Ninja Gaiden Black plays best...Here's the answer...One of the most awesome things about Ninja Gaiden Black was that despite looking good, playing fast, never slowing down, and having super responsive controls, it never had any discernible in-game loading screens. It would take a little bit of time for the game to load up a level, but after that, you would very seldomly see a loading screen. If you did, you saw it load for about 3 seconds tops. I have Ninja Gaiden Sigma installed on my hard drive. It takes up about 3.3 GB. That should keep load times to a minimum in my mind. The only problem is, there is a lot of loading during the levels...I can't explain why it does this. It loads all the time. A couple of seconds here...a couple of seconds there...Sure it helps me to catch my breath a little, but I think it is kind of ridiculous compared to how this was NEVER an issue with Ninja Gaiden Black. I like how when Ninja Gaiden Black was released on Xbox, it did NOT carry a full price tag. I believe the game sold for $39.99. It was an absolute bargain! Paying $59.99 for this game is a tough sell in comparison. At the end of the day, this is still a FANTASTIC game. It's just that for $60, anyone who owns Ninja Gaiden Black should probably pass...If however, you have only played the original Ninja Gaiden (minus the Hurricane Packs), check it out. There is a LOT more content compared to the original. If you have never played Ninja Gaiden, then RUN TO THE STORE AND BUY THIS GAME! 
