Intense high action ninja fighting at its best!
I saw some review of the game some time ago and decided to give it a try. I was expecting some mindless boring fighting game. After an hour of game play i was proven wrong.
The story is pretty much about a Ninja called Ryu Hayabusa who is out for revenge on the people that attacked his home village. The story is not amazing but it keeps you playing to see what will happen in the next chapter. At first the controls was a little bit difficult to handle and i got killed so much i almost stopped playing. But when you learn to handle it’s a really good action game. The fighting system is among the very best i have ever seen and it’s great fun to slice up your enemies. The great variation you can do this in is what keeps the fights fun every time. The action in the fights is very
intense and it's an advantage with good reflexes. Sometimes you will find yourself surounded by a hord of enemies and if you doubt for a second they will slit you open. But if you keep alert and in motion you'll do just fine after a while.
You can also find different weapons with different fighting styles. The first weapon you get is a pretty basic sword but later in the game you can get your hand on some nice weapons like the nunchakus or the war hammer. There also are certain places in the game where you can purchase new equipment or upgrading your weapon. But the melee weapons aren’t the only way you may achieve victory. There are also ranged weapons like bows and different kinds of shurikens (throwing stars). The ranged weapons is often useful against bosses.
The game even has a quite powerful magic system. You can learn different kinds of Ninpo which is a kind of spells. All this results in the fighting almost never gets boring. Even though these fights are what gets the most attention the game also has some minor puzzles you have to solve. Ninja Gaiden is divided into 16 chapters. Every chapter has some new monster to fight and new environments to explore. Although in some chapters near the end you return to places you have already been to.
You get to visit quite interesting places like one time you are fighting through an amy of high tec military dudes on an flying airship.
Each chapter has more than one boss you have to fight. The boss fights is also a big part of the game. Every boss has its own strengths and weaknesses you have to figure out to defeat it.
Now for the graphics. The game looks great for being an Xbox game. The environments are very well done and so are the monsters and bosses. The cut scenes that plays every now and then looks absolutely amazing. Ninja Gaiden is one of the most difficult games i have ever played and you will probably die a lot through the entire game. But if you are in for a great challenge that lasts quite a while (Took me about 21 hours) then this is certainly a game for you.