Ninja Gaiden Sigma

The value of the next-generation game has often been the threat of gaming. With new consoles, gamers need an incentive to play new games. The PlayStation 3 has suffered the fate that its two predecessors avoided in that it has failed to deliver big-name titles that separate it from the competition. With Ninja Gaiden Sigma I had hoped Team Ninja would inject some life into the PlayStation 3 library, but the slim amount of additions to the game make it one whose value doesn't satisfy the price to the casual gamer.

For starters, the biggest new addition to the Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden Hurricane Pack Expansions/Ninja Gaiden Black gameplay is the ability to play as the series heroine, Rachel. Rachel is a fiend hunter and is generally just one step ahead of Ryu. Though it is definitely interesting to play the game from another perspective, Rachel doesn’t possess much of the coolness that her Master Ninja counterpart Ryu Hayabusa does. Although she has quite an amazing counter-attack while blocking (you can jump over an enemy and decapitate them with her giant hammer in one swift strike), she doesn’t move very quickly and spends more time in battle blocking and dodging, preparing for a strike than anything. Some have criticized her and dubbed her "tank-like", I think this is a slight exaggeration, though it is true that she is much slower than the Master Ninja. Ryu is still the star of the show, and his levels have new sections as well as new items and events that I never saw while playing the original Ninja Gaiden. Since I had never played the Hurricane Packs or Black, I had no idea that the game had changed so much in some areas. I don’t even remember some of the Golden Scarabs that I found in Sigma, but perhaps my adventuring skills have improved, as I found many more than I did originally on the Xbox version of the game. For the most part, the changes introduced in Sigma are welcome.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma doesn’t drop off its weight-of-the-world difficulty at the door unless you banish the proud title of Master Ninja and activate Easy Mode (which is a disgusting pushover of an Easy Mode if I've ever played one). The enemies are just as difficult, the boss fights are just as intense–this is still Ninja Gaiden at its best, after all. I must say that I was incredibly pleased with Team Ninja's brutal attack on players who accept Easy Mode.

The PlayStation 3 doesn’t do much to add or subtract from the merits of the original game, especially in terms of gameplay, but it does feature a major strength and major weakness. The strength is the new quick-access inventory. Ryu and Rachel can now view their limited item inventory on the bottom-left part of the screen, and can use a selected item with the press of the Down button on the directional pad. This makes it incredibly easy and quick to use a spirit potion to recover health in battle, and truly adds to the experience. It makes inventory management and access a hundred times easier. The only hitch is visual; sometimes while playing the game will need to stop and load for a brief second. This is incredibly annoying, and every time it happened I was immediately cut out of the trance-like state that I would sometimes enter while fighting Vigoorians.

In other areas, I wish more puzzles and platforming elements were removed from the game. Personally I was a fan of all of the fiend and Vigoorian challenges that Ryu and Rachel could find while backtracking various areas. These challenges were long–Ryu or Rachel would enter a room or area, be locked off, and forced to stay alive for a long period of time while Team Ninja's finest had their way with them. Often these challenges were as difficult as the notorious boss fights–and you can bet your ass that Alma is as difficult as she always was on Xbox.

I mentioned the annoying in-game loads, but generally, Ninja Gaiden Sigma plays at an incredibly quick and constantly steady frame rate. This game is truly lightning fast, and although it is often criticized as being slower and less intense as other games (Devil May Cry) thanks to Ryu's (and now Rachel’s) ability to block almost anything, it is still one of the fastest, twitchiest, and most intense experiences I have ever handled. When things are running in high definition the colorful design comes to life (and Rachel's ridiculous individual boob physics pop out of the screen). Still, the overall look of the game isn't very next-gen. Environments lack that super-detailed appearance of the next generation, so Ninja Gaiden comes off as a decent-looking PlayStation 3 title or an amazing-looking high-definition Xbox one, whichever you'd prefer to apply. The soundtrack, which was great before and remains great to this day, has some of the best battle music in any game, and it never failed to grab me and pull me into a battle thanks to its exciting mood.

The biggest criticism of Ninja Gaiden Sigma will be its value. Is a last-generation game with almost no added incentive and a full price appealing to the consumer? Truth be told, Ninja Gaiden is a game that can’t be messed up. Team Ninja made a masterpiece for Microsoft’s Xbox. It remains as entertaining as it ever was on Xbox. I would go as far as to say it is one of the best two or three PlayStation 3 games to date, it is just worthless to gamers who have had a chance to play the game before. Without being too harsh, that really goes to show you the stressful state of life the PlayStation 3 is in. If developers are going to regurgitate their last-generation efforts, we need more incentives. Ninja Gaiden fans could fairly raise my final score by a full point, but I can't promise that sort of experience to the typical gamer. Ninja Gaiden Sigma just isn't enough for its price.