Another upgrade to Ninja Gaiden, this time for PS3.
Gameplay:
The gameplay of Ninja Gaiden still holds up well by today standards do to precise and responsive controls. Challenging thanks to great AI and plenty of combos make it a intense and exciting gaming experience. However the game suffers thanks to a actually worse camera than previous versions and some tacked on and pointless sixxaxis controls, shaking the controller up and down to charge ninpo to make it more powerful is just silly. There is some item placement changes and level design changes, some bonus sections, like the Doku and Ryu fight in Chapter 2 is now playable, some new enemies, and a added boss in a later chapter to keep old pros on there toes. Some added gameplay content comes in the form of Rachel, she is slightly slower than Ryu and is limited only to her war hammer and whip, and later on 1 ninpo, but she uses the war hammer much better than Ryu and overall is a fun edition to a aging game. Overall this is still one of the best combat systems in a action game to date.
Audio:
Well most of it is over 3 years old so it's starting to show it's age and some of the voice acting is still as cheesy as ever, but it's still good. Weapon effects still sound nice and music is still techno goodness.I can't help but love it.
Graphics:
This is where the game really takes a hit. Character models are good and so are physics, but environments, most notably water effects, look pretty dated. Shadows and lighting is still the same as they were on XBOX, but character models now have self shadowing so it sometimes looks awkward with environments still using the standard XBOX versions lighting while character models now have self shadowing. This would all be ok, but the game has some slowdown in a few areas and when lots of action is happening on screen. Also the game has a lot of loading, it even has to load a picture when picking up items, which is very distracting and gets annoying especially when you look at the fact there is nearly 3-4 times as many than in the XBOX versions. Finally the game reuses the CG from the XBOX installments which only go up to 480p so if your on a 1080p HD TV that is again very distracting. Overall you can clearly see this is just a XBOX game running on PS3 hardware and it can't hold up to the big boys of the console, but it's not a ugly game by any means.
Closing comment:
This is still one of the best action titles, but it's starting to show it's age and this somewhat sloppy port/remake from Hayashi doesn't help make it keep up with the times. If you have never played this game before on XBOX it's a definite must buy, if you already have a copy of Ninja Gaiden Black then this isn't really needed, but if your a huge fan of the series like me, then this is a must just for collection purposes. This is probably my favorite version of the game, and one of my favorite games ever, even if this version has some flaws and glitches not found in Ninja Gaiden Black which sadly force me to lower the score.
Overall: 8.5/10
Pros:
Solid and challenging gameplay still holds up perfectly by today's standards
Still one of the best action games ever made
Sony owners finally getting a chance to play it
Playable Rachel
Cons:
Slightly dated graphics with very minor framerate issues
More "now loading" screens than XBOX versions
Camera is slightly worse than Black
Needlessly tacked on sixxaxis controls
Missing opening prologue cinematic