The best sword fighting action game ever made (yes even better than Devil May Cry!!).
User Rating: 9.6 | Ninja Gaiden XBOX
Ninja Gaiden, in my opinion, is the best sword fighting action game made to date. While it owes a debt to games like Devil May Cry and the Onimusha series as well as others, it takes the best of those games and surpasses them in every way. The action is fast, wild, and intense, but there is nothing loose or spastic about it. Although it may look chaotic to someone watching you play, for the player it requires fast reflexes, patience, and a good head for tactics. The game is hard, there's no doubt about that. However, it does get easier (easiER, not easy) as it goes on, so don't give up if you're having a tough time in the beginning of the game. For one thing, the extra moves you get when you upgrade your default sword makes your character much more powerful and versitile. The difference between level 1 and level 2, because of one specific move (the flying swallow) makes taking down enemies significantly easier, and you can upgrade to level 2 pretty early in the game. Though NG has great tough fun boss fights, the thing I really love about it is that ANY enemy has the potential to take you down. There are no easy fights in this game. Some of the toughest enemies in the game are the explosive-shuriken-throwing ninjas you encounter relatively early in the game. Every time you encounter these guys (and you'll meet them a lot), you're in for a serious fight. But really, all the enemies are tough. There are specific tactics you can use on all of them to win, but you can never let up and get lazy or you'll be promptly punished for it. NG makes you play at your best all the time and that's what makes it really special. Because of the difficulty and skill involved in winning, NG makes you feel like you're extremely talented for defeating any of its enemies. And it's a justified feeling too, because you won't beat any of them by accident or by button mashing. And although the game is hard, it's never unfair. I can't remember any "cheap" deaths. Every time I got killed it was either becuase I hadn't figured out how to fight the enemy yet, or I got complacent and wasn't giving it 100%. I'm sure everyone has heard about the fantastic graphics by now, so I won't dwell on them except to say that they are artistically beautiful and extremely technically proficient. It's still one of the 2 or 3 best looking games on the xbox even months after its release. The sound is fantastic. The music almost always works well. It really sets the mood well for both exploration and fighting. The voice acting is well above average also. One last thing. The controls on this game are beyond any superlatives I could use to describe them--and they really need to be to give you a chance to win. I've never picked up a game where the controls felt so natural and instinctive that being able to use them required no learning curve other than remembering what button does what. Being able to use the controls really well does require practice, but you'll never have to fight them. Sometimes it almost felt like I had some kind of mental connection with the action onscreen and that I'd perform moves a split second before I decided that that's what I wanted to do! Sounds odd, I know, but if you've played it, you'll know what I mean. If you, like me, love sword fighing games, you really must have this game. The only game I can compare it to is the first Devil May Cry. Not that it plays like it, but its comparable in terms of it quality and intense skilled action. Even so, NG is the only game in its genre that surpasses even the great Devil May Cry. In conclusion, BUY THIS GAME!!
