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| Ninja Gaiden |
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| Written by Si Holmes |
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Saturday, 12 February 2005
Quentin Tarantino would love this. Ninja Gaiden sees protagonist Ryu leaping and wall running around beautifully realised environments leaving fountains of blood spurting in his wake. His repertoire of combination-moves slice and dice enemies with equal dashing of flair and veracity. Ninja Gaiden, put simply, is a big budget martial arts blockbuster.
It is also a remake, another vogue concept in Hollywood. Appearing first in the coin-op sector as ‘Shadow Warriors’ (at a time when the word ‘ninja’ was deemed inappropriate for UK audiences), it was famed for stylish looks, fluid combat with varied enemies and exhilarating boss battles.
All of this remains, multiplied up several times for the new version. It is clear that Tecmo are now masters of exploiting, if that is the right word, the Xbox hardware. Ninja Gaiden has a reasonable claim to being the best looking game ever made, and it runs at a solid sixty frames per second throughout.
The environments are huge and varied - from classical villages, to futuristic cities and strange underworlds, the player never knows what to expect next. He same is true of the enemies inhabiting these locales: Ryu must fight other ninjas, armed soldiers, mutated blobs, and unholy fiends. Some of the boss characters are huge, without wanting to ruin any surprises, yet all move with choreographed splendour.
It is not all praise, however. At times, as is true in all three dimensional games, the camera causes problems (though equally some of the direction is excellent, Tarantino-esque). The combos soon get repetitive for all their fluidity. Worst, the game is perhaps a little ‘hardcore’, which is not a commentary on the presence of the numerous scantily clad women.
Ninja Gaiden is one tough game. This reviewer bought it on release day with the aim of getting a write up done as soon as possible. It is now a month later - you do the math. It is not impossible, so it gives good value for money. It is also highly rewarding to see how your skills at playing improve over the days and weeks. Going back to the first level again after the end and slicing everything that moves is a lot of fun.
But, the fact that there is neither ‘easy’ mode, nor training section hurts. The game is too harsh and hence off putting; the first boss is a whole evolutionary leap above what has come before. Bosses in general can be expected to take upwards of a dozen attempts to vanquish. Some of them are quite a distance from save points too; to get to the nigh on impossible boss it is still necessary to battle through hordes of bad guys. One particular stint involving three dark ninjas (as mean as they sound), a fiddly safe cracking conundrum, and then a room of around sixty fiends comes to mind. It becomes a tiresome nightmare after a few attempts.
To call this an action/adventure is a bit of a joke too. There is no real adventuring - the pseudo-adventure parts, involving such well thought out puzzles (note sarcasm) as finding keys and fitting things together, are painful. They are the bad dialogue of Kill Bill, probably put in as a break from the frantic action. Then again, the joy of discovering an arcade cabinet that plays the original Ninja Gaiden makes it all worthwhile.
This is flawed genius, but only slightly.
8 |
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