Ninja Gaiden

Richard Pomfret relives the Ninja heyday of his youth...

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Never piss off a Ninja, in a split-second he could flip out and murder the whole town. He could kill you so stealthily, that you wouldn't even know you were dead. With this in mind, it is better to only associate yourself with the shadow warrior (that's another name for a ninja by the way) through the medium of a video game. Those guys at Nintendo knew this when the original Ninja Gaiden game was released, to critical acclaim, on the NES system back in 1989. A couple of sequels followed and the series became firmly ingrained within the echelons of ninja gaming history.

Now the Team Ninja development studio, on behalf of Tecmo and with the creative vision of Tomonobu Itagaki, has produced a much-hyped addition to the series for the Xbox. Of course, I shouldn't have to tell you good peoples about Team Ninja. Having already released Dead Or Alive 3 and then DOA: Beach Volleyball, their rep grows bigger. They have a trademark look to their games, with reliably jaw-dropping and toe-curling animation. In fact, I'm secretly praying their next game will be a remake of Leisure Suit Larry.

So upon carefully placing the holy Ninja Gaiden DVD into my Xbox, I sat back and allowed a thousand and one past ninja cultural references to fly through my head. As it loaded up and I selected 'new game', I recalled flicking through martial arts magazines as a kid and wishing I had the money to buy a ninja suit with 800 secret pockets. But hey, maybe it is not too late to buy a ninja outfit, right? But I digress...

When playing Ninja Gaiden, it soon becomes apparent that the quality of the visuals surpasses the earlier efforts from Team Ninja. The early CGI cut-scene sets the scene and describes how the player, Ryu Hayabusa, must seek revenge by wielding the great 'dark dragon' blade. It is the usual tale of burned villages and murderous demons and really doesn't serve much purpose, other than to reward the player with progressively more impressive cut-scenes to dribble over. The CGI really is something to behold, with splendid fire effects, hair animation and impressive use of reflections.

The first couple of environments are straight out of rural, feudal Japan and assert that familiar feeling of ninja genre authenticity. It reminded me of the art style seen in contemporary titles like Tenchu, Shinobi and The Way of The Samurai. If you stop and look around during a pause in the action, you can see Mount Fuji in the distance and spot the occasional wildlife gliding past. This still atmosphere contrasts splendidly with the hectic fighting, which all moves at a fine and smooth frame-rate of 60fps.

As you progress through the game, the authentic Japanese village approach goes out the window. Before you traditionalists turn away in disgust, let me convince you that this is actually a very good thing indeed! The variation to each environment brings with it the freedom for expansive level design. In total there are 16 Chapters to the game and each ends up being surprisingly varied and large for what initially seems to be a standard slash-em-up romp. Each new environment brings the same game play mechanics but throws a new range of enemies at you, from Special Forces soldiers & cyborgs to demons and giant worms. The third chapter, for example, moves the player up and away onto a Hindenburg style airship. Here, as you will find in later levels, there is also an emphasis on exploration, platform acrobatics and puzzle solving. Although actually, it is rather unfortunate to mention the Hindenburg disaster, seeing as this airship also goes down in flames once you have completed the level.

Ahem, however, this innovative approach paves the way for a rich variety of enemies in each chapter and some of the largest and most aggressive bosses you are ever likely to meet. All contain rather sophisticated attack patterns and will keep even the most hardened game veterans on their ninja toes. In fact, I can bravely say without shame that I failed to defeat any of the bosses first time.

"The corpse of another fallen ninja. What were his last thoughts as he slipped off into the darkness?"

The responsive game play and intricate control system is what makes this a really, quite superb game. There are two basic sword attacks (Y & X), which differ in power. Holding down (Y) will issue you with a fantastically powerful special attack, which builds into combinations depending upon how many enemies you have recently dispatched. It is a nice system and one that is difficult to abuse due to the time it takes to charge. You also get to use projectile attacks too, starting off with the Shuriken and then progressing onto other weapons like a trusty bow and arrow.

Along with the basic attacks, which you are taught in the rather 'Game Of Death' inspired opening level; you also have a number of evasive maneuvers at your disposal. As is the current trend for platform-action games, you can run along walls to expeditiously avoid enemy attacks. This is particularly satisfying when you hit (X) a couple of times while in mid-air and dematerialise, confusing your foe and reappearing a short distance away.

Taking on multiple attackers has never felt so good. Whirling like a tornado and vanishing between four or five soldiers, slashing their throats before they can turn around and hit you is really impressive indeed. Although it is not quite up to the over-the-top standard of Shogun Assassin, there is also a generous quantity of gore in this game, too.