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Ninja Gaiden Review - Xbox

Have you ever considered learning the ancient techniques of the Ninja? Team Ninja strive to get across to the western world exactly what it's like to be a Ninja in their latest and greatest title, Ninja Gaiden. Bored with Halo? Splinter Cell not really your kind of stealth? Pick up Ninja Gaiden today, and you'll find yourself stuck in a new world of soaring shurikens and deadly katanas. Ninja Gaiden offers you more than just quality gameplay - it offers a way of life.

Gameplay

Jump into the boots of the main character, Ryu Hayabusa, and experience just what it's like to be a lethal Ninja. Ninja Gaiden is a game about revenge. The Vigor Empire have swept through his once peaceful town, killing all the members of his ninja clan. It may not sound very original, but the fact is that the concept of Ninja Gaiden is an idea that many developers have had an interest in, but never been able to pull it off. A key example of this is the PS2's Shinobi. Ninja Gaiden originally planned to be released on both the PS2 and the Xbox is an Xbox exclusive and almost fully utilizes the Xbox's graphical power too. If there's one game you get this winter in preparation for Halo 2, make sure it's this one.

Playing as a Ninja is one of the coolest ideas seen in the gaming industry today. You can run up walls, wall ride, shoot lethal ninja stars at incredible speeds, and be a master of the sword with a few pushes of your Xbox controller. The controller is really well utilized and you'll find yourself pushing almost every button on the controller in each level. The only thing that slows the game down is the fact that you must pause it to use items and change weapons, but this is only because every other button is being used to pull off some breathtaking ninja move!

The enemies slowly get stronger and stronger throughout the game, and your skills will have to get better and better as you progress. The game is essentially very hard to play, and is definitely not designed for children. With the amount of blood shedding throughout the game, Ninja Gaiden has unfortunately been censored for its PAL release here in Australia. When you pull off your specialty moves that your ninja master teaches you at an early stage of the game, the enemy dies just like normal. This is where the game has been edited under the PAL format. If you get an NTSC copy of the game, the enemiess head falls right off and blood comes pouring out of the body.

Ryu has been around since 1988 and will continue to live on for many, many years. He's taken the full rounds and been a star in arcades, Nintendo, Sony, ... (continued next page)