The Purpose of the Ninja is to Flip Out and Kill People
Ninja Gaiden Sigma has arrived. You should be playing it right now.
Published: July 19, 2007
The sheer amount of depth in how Ryu can defend against and attack his enemies with everything from nunchaku to staves to flails to, in this version, the new dual swords means that there are particular weapons for particular enemies at particular times, and half the fun is just trying to figure out what works best. Any weapon will work, but often one or two work best, and again, this knowledge gets worked into the combat in such a natural way that you don't realize just how good you've gotten with time. Enemies, too, have to be learned, so their combos can be blocked and countered, windows can be exploited and tag-team and area-effect moves can be properly milked to greatest effect.
If the game's combat is exceptionally deep, the storyline and characters are the counter-balance. Now I love me some huge boobs, so the addition of having Rachel to play around with (ahem) was a nice one, but I'll be honest: 2/3 of her levels are over in a few minutes. Her "addition" to the game only helps pad out the experience into almost 20 chapters of sweet, sweet violence, but it's negligible what exactly she adds to the equation beyond huge, wobbling mams. She is different, though, and at least offers a change of pace from Ryu's ADHD-addled spaz-fest fights.
One of the bigger sticking points about the game has been the fact that it's by and large a pretty straight port. Yes, there are goodies, but the biggest obvious change is that the game is natively running at the top end of hi-definition, yet still maintains its silky smoothness. To ensure that the pretty isn't interrupted by over-stretched textures, most were re-done to match the higher resolution, and though there's the odd moment of a texture that's still a little lower-res than the rest, the game looks quite sharp with full self-shadowing to boot.
Team Ninja also opted to re-do a bunch of the pre-rendered cutscenes in real-time. Initially I thought it was just because they were trying to make a point about the tech leap the PS3 provides over the last generation, but as it turns out, it was really just to minimize the embrassment of having the remaining pre-rendered bits run in 480p, which can be a painfully jarring experience for those who have grown accustomed to the squeaky-cleanliness of the main game.
No doubt some of the frantic nature of the game is due in no small part to the music, which is about as high-energy and uptempo as you'll find in an action game. When techno-infused guitar riffs are screaming at you at 120bpm it just helps make the game that much more thrilling, but it's when things slow down that the clarity in effects from Ryus footfalls to smacks against stone during wall running segments and some of the sword slashes to end fights really start to pay off. The voice acting, on the other hand, can be at times cringe-worthy, but this probably won't surprise or offend anyone who is used to Tecmo's pool of voice work. It just kinda comes with the territory sometimes.
I could sit here and weigh the little middling pros and cons of the game, but the bottom line is that it kicks ass. It might be the third time in as many years that it kicks ass, but it still does it all the same. If you've never played the first two releases, you need to buy this game. If you have but you want to see if the updates are worth it, you need to buy this game and if you don't really know anything about the series yet love action games like Devil May Cry or God of War then you need to buy this game. Basically what I'm saying is it's a must-have. Period.
