Ninja Gaiden. Fans have been waiting more then a decade now for another game in the popular franchise, and it's finally here. Many people have said that the game is too hard, repetitive, lacks innovation, has bad control and a bad camera, and that it copies too much from other games. Well we all have different opinions and each have different points of view with our experiences for each game we play. Although a lot of the game play has been done before, the real question is who is copping who? Ninja Gaiden for XBOX was in development long before Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was even thought of. So unless Tecmo just decided with in the last couple of months to scrap everything they have been working on for the last few years and copy the play mechanics of Prince of Persia, it's more probable that Prince of Persia is the copy or it's just all a big coincidence. Then again, it may have been something Tecmo decided to just implement at the last minute, but I doubt that. The game is pretty much identical in terms of game play. Except POP: TSOT featured the time warping. Other then that, both feature hordes of enemies, both feature wall running, jumping and hanging technics and both also have a spirit absorb system. Except I prefer the latter... To me POP: TSOT became repetitive all to fast. There was no real strategy in terms of fighting. Just perform a somersault off of the closest enemy and drop with a slash down the middle to end the attack. Repeat for the next, collect his sand. In Ninja Gaiden, if you don't have a strategy you will never finish the game. Some say that in the end it's all about button mashing. I disagree. Button mashing is a waste of time and ultimately will get you killed on the later levels. For instance, the level 3 boss I think it is, Ryu must cross a bridge in his village and before he gets half way he must fight a red samurai warrior on a horse. You also have hordes of spirit jumpers that want to bombard you with green fire balls. This level involves a great deal of strategy. You will be required to block many times. I found that it took me many tries before I found a good strategy. The best way I found was to use the spirit jumpers to your advantage, trying to kill them first won't work as they will re-spawn forever. First enter this boss level well healthed and with you fireball attack ninpo equipped. As soon as the level starts and the horse rider begins to gallop towards you, power up and fire that ninpo at him. Hopefully it hit him and not one of the spirit jumpers. This will drain him quite a lot. Then if you have a refill of ninpo potion use it and then use the attack again. If not then I found the best way was to use your ultimate attack in a zig zag motion. Pressing the Y button, hold and power up. Then as the rider comes towards you, let go and you will attack him. If he's not close by, then do this to the spirit jumpers just as they are about to fire their green fire balls. That way you should miss the fire ball and catch the spirit jumper who shot it or the one closest to you just before he teleports again, usually resulting in a kill. He will then usually leave either a yellow or blue essence orb. If you have enough health, then forget trying to collect the blue ones and immediately start charging with the Y button again, now once you absorb the essence orbs into your sword, your ultimate attack will now be much more powerful, when that rider comes at you again launch your attack and Ryu should unleash a nice barrage of slashing attacks. If a spirit jumper gets in the way, just keep charging then letting go just as he fires to kill him, then move on the next one quickly, Ryu will run around the bridge in a zig-zagging motion, this keeps him on his toes and away from the fireballs, plus your getting orbs to use. All in all an awesome game, but with a few annoyances. The camera can be a pain at times, but what game has a perfect camera? I don't think that exists, all 3D 3rd perspective games have pretty faulty cameras unless it's a pre determined one like in Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy or Resident Evil. Since the birth of 3D games, there has yet to be the perfect camera. Active cameras are the worst because they like to go where they want to and not where you want to (Tomb Raider anyone?) in an attempt to give you the best view of your surroundings. This works good on paper but has yet to work good in a game. Sound is simply stunning, although at times the rock music just doesn't fit with the surroundings. It sounds particularly weird in the old man's shop next to the clock tower on level 4. I think a little tropical tune would have fit better. On the voice side, the english voices are really good, but I prefer the Japanese track. Tecmo wanted to please fans, so they included the entire game in both English and the Original Japanese language, with on and off subtitles to boot. Now if only all Japanese style games did this. Control is responsive but like the camera annoying at times. I think POP had it down better, getting the horizontal wall run started instead of the vertical wall run can be cumbersome, and visa-versa. I found it to be really annoying at times when I wanted to run straight up and instead I'm running horizontal down the wall off the cliff. You need to have the right placement and the camera in the right position or it can get really tricky. As for the game play simply amazing. Great fun. It never gets old. One other thing I like more about in NG over POP is that you really have to have a good strategy, in POP it doesn't really matter who you kill, you just got to kill them. In NG you will need to kill certain foes first as some will carry other weapons like guns and grenade launchers while others attack with swords. If you don't take out the guys with guns first, you may die before you get to them. Also, guys with guns will run out of ammo, so keep blocking until they run out and stop to reload, then either attack them with a shruikin or arrow, unless they are close then use your sword, that way when you get in close they will put their gun away and switch to their sword. All in all a outstanding game, but with a few annoyances. - Mike
The Good: Very challenging, some of the best visuals and soundtrack i've ever experienced in a game, extremely well done character models, none of the games bosses should be underestimated or any enemy for that matter ... Read Full Review
After years of waiting, it's finally here. Ninja Gaiden has been a very long time coming. Five years in development, and delayed numerous times for ‘last minute tweaks’ that required… ooh… several more tweaks than ex... Read Full Review
