by: John Olin

October 03, 2005

When Ninja Gaiden came out in 2004 it helped define hardcore for a new era. In an era where games are often to easy to beat, Ninja Gaiden came and was one of the hardest adventures around. Even more amazing is the fact that for the most part, the difficulty didn’t come from the cheap tricks of the game itself, but rather if you didn’t get the hang of how the game flowed fast enough. Those of you who haven’t already picked up the original, or those die-hards who want more rejoice—you can now buy all of what Ninja Gaiden was last year and then some for a cool thirty. ‘Black’ comes with many new additions, including both Hurricane Packs that were downloadable over Xbox Live before, so you Xbox gamers out there without Live now have the chance to play some hardcore missions. The missions are unlockable after beating the game, and they are pretty hard. It is basically a test of endurance, but if you don’t have online you can’t post your scores on the scoreboard to brag. If you are a newcomer to the title though, you should be happy you just got through any parts of the game. Other things you can unlock include more costumes for Ryu, and higher difficulties. Then after you beat one difficulty, you can get another. The most hardcore of the hardcore will easily get thirty hours of play out of Ninja Gaiden Black. Especially if you beat it a year ago, as now the missions actually seem a lot easier.

The mission mode is actually pretty cool, but it will recycle some scenes from parts in the story mode, with some more inventive and crazier demons and monsters to kill. You will even go up againt yourself in many instances, and it can be pretty frustrating, even if you are a ‘Master Ninja’. So that is enough about the new content, as you should probably find out about it yourself. Go on further down to know about the rest of the game.

Ninja Gaiden follows the story of Ryu Hayabusha, a young ninja in search of the evil Vigoor Empire that completely massacred his entire clan and village, and ran off with the Dark Dragon Blade - a blade that when enough chaos is created, unleashes its true power to whoever possesses it. The genius in this is that Ryu will create the chaos himself as he murders anything and anyone that gets in his way with his Dragon Blade.

When you begin the game, you are dressed in a purple, pajama-esque outfit that some may remember from Dead or Alive 2. The best way to describe the gameplay is as a combination of Devil May Cry, Otogi, Mario 64, and Dead or Alive 3. You are immediately engulfed in how completely badass this game truly is. It is EXTREMELY hard, even on normal mode; in fact this is probably going to be one of the hardest games you will play in a long time. The challenge is completely rewarding though, and you just keep on coming back for more. There are a total of sixteen chapters, and they will take you at least 20 to 30 hours of gameplay to complete. As you progress through the game, you become even more of a ninja badass by collecting various trinkets, weapons, and magic. Ninja scrolls that you will collect hold "combinations" - they unlock new moves that you can use. When you kill an enemy, they can leave three kinds of Ki energy: blue (health), red (magic), and yellow (currency/Ki build up). When there are yellow Ki floating about, you hold down the Y button, then release it to unleash a devastating attack on any nearby enemy.

There are so many techniques to play the game - it is completely and utterly insane. You could run up a wall, jump to another wall, press the Y button to swoop down and slice three heads off, from there run along another wall, go high up, jump off the wall, hold down Y and come down with a big “boom” attack. In just that combination you could kill off four or five enemies! You could run into a gang of enemies, and as one jumps at you, you jump at him and completely dice him up in mid-air. The grounded combat is just as insane. You block one enemy and counterattack their attack with a katana uppercut, roundhouse kick the mutant next to that guy, block and roll to avoid the comeback attacks (L trigger+analog), then come back at them with a fury of sword swipes. Surprisingly, there are a few puzzles in the game that you have to solve, but the majority of them have to do with wall running or getting through enemies a certain way. When you progress, normal enemies become as difficult as bosses were earlier in the game, and even more outrageous. You’ll be fighting four fifteen-foot horned lizards that randomly generate in fours totaling to forty in a row - how does that sound? That isn’t even half of the insanity - the massive boss battles are a sight to behold!

Imagine accomplishing 50+ hit combos in a certain amount of time and getting scored on it, adding even more depth to the game. The more points you score of course, the higher your end Chapter rank will be, you could spend hours just trying to accomplish the highest ranking, “Master Ninja”.