Now, I haven't played the original trilogy of Ninja Gaiden games on the Nes/Snes, so I'm not really familiar with the games' history and storyline, but for a game called Ninja Gaiden, it seemed a lot more like a Devil May Cry than a Ninja game. What with all the fiends and demons and whatnot, I expected to play the game fighting ninjas and samurai in 1605 japan, more like Tenchu. Ok, so I was a little decieved and apart from that minor letdown it's a pretty solid game. But, for reviews sake, here are the pros and cons. Cons first:
1) The con I mentioned above; I wanted and expected a game about ninjas. Instead I'm playing Devil May Cry with a ninja instead of Dante. You spend most of the time fighting fiends and humans in a medievil european town/castle/dungeon/caves/egyptian tomb. But, that can easily be explained with the games' world and storyline, so apart from a personal preference, this con is mostly moot. Still, worth noting I feel.
2) Biggest problem with this game is Rachel. Oh my god. Who the **** designed her? A 13 year old boy? Were all the past females in this franchise so badly designed? I know video games are often guilty of giving females magical metal bikinis that magically protect the girl from death, but when you give a female character, who is a devil hunter, black-borderline-bondage gear, stupidly giant breasts and high heels, it goes just too far. Also, Itagaki, the head developer for this game who also worked on Dead or Alive, should go study real breasts and how they move. Rachel's breasts bounce and jiggle like beachballs submerged in syrup when she does even the most mundane of things. It looks silly and I refuse to believe that the devolpment team managed to create this game without laughing like idiots. I know Rachel has some sort of demon blood in her, making her strong enough to wield that hammer of hers, but would she really go about wearing that? I know this all sounds a bit trivial, but when you're playing a character that looks like a whore with perfect hair and makeup, it just takes you right out of the game when you get a cutscene and her breasts are so unrealistically big and bouncing all over the place. Game developers need to get out more. And pay a real artist to design female characters, not 13 year olds.
3) Ok, now that's over with, next con. The difficulty. I had heard this game was hard. And for most of the game I managed to get through it on Normal without too much trouble. But then there were times when I would have to try again and again and again and some more another ten times, just to be beat a boss, and it's often because I've used my elixirs already and to buy more i need more money, but to do that i need to kill more enemys, but i end up losing health when i do that and it would be like this a number of times. Not to mention upgrading your weapons. This game is unforgiving. The final boss (the giant emperor) is also WAAAAY overpowered. A few hits and you're dead. All this on Normal? I don't think I have ever played a harder, unforgiving game. Want to play it on easy? ok, but first the game berates you for it, basically rubbing it's difficulty in your face, saying "can't beat me? awwww ok, you can have your easy mode, you pathetic excuse for a gamer, pffft, can't even beat the final boss, you suck." It's not really like that, but try it, die three times, and you'll see. I like a challenge. It makes victory over a boss that much sweeter, but when you have to keep retrying and retrying, I just don't have the patience for that. Also, trial and error, no game should have it. Ever. It isn't fun and never will be. All games should avoid trial and error. Last level escaping the lava filled room, I'm looking at you.
4) Story and characters aren't really all that engaging or interesting. But maybe you'd need to play the previous games or something. Just didn't click with me.
Pros:
1) It's very pretty. Graphics are top notch and framerate is solid, never noticed a single hiccup.
2) Combat is a double edged sword here. Know how to use the weapons, their combos and blocking and dodging and you can be a master at most of this game. If you can't master the combat then this game will suck for you. The better I got at the combat, the easier most of this game was. But the Pro about the combat is that it's slick, fast, responsive and it looks cool and stylish...well, with Ryu anyway. Playing with Rachel is a chore.
3) Certainly worth the money. There's a lot of replayability here, and if you want you can find a ton of stuff to do and collect in the game. That's IF you can become a master at the combat.
I'm probably forgetting a lot of what I intended to write but I can't think of much else now, so out of ten I give Ninja Gaiden Sigma an 8.5 out of 10. A great solid game let down by personal preference problems of story, character design and an arrogant difficulty.