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| | Title:
Ninja Gaiden Black
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
Action
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Publisher:
Tecmo
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Developer:
Team Ninja
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Release:
9/30/2005
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Rated Pending
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Ninja Gaiden Black comes amidst a flurry of hot titles this Fall. Tecmo is holding nothing back with Black. This is almost like a three-in-one deal for Gaiden-loving fans, with both Hurricane packs doubled into a nice new package with a bonus of all new material. Additionally, a pre-order straight from Tecmo gets you a T-shirt!
Do the Ninja Turbo Dance of Destruction!
NGB looks to retain the amazingly fast-paced, lightning action featured in the recent Gaiden title, but the action doesn’t start and stop with what Ninja Gaiden Black retains; rather, this series offers players a re-conjoining of the two Hurricane packs in a more originally polished form; plus the Ninja Dog Difficulty, 50 bonus missions and an Xbox Live-enabled mode that allows you to post and share hi-scores across the multiplayer community.
Ninja Gaiden is one of those games (even dating back to the NES years) that prided itself on it’s difficulty. Black does nothing different in composing the difficulty in this game for a wide variety of gamers: From the newbie action-arcaders to the hardcore Gaiden freaks. This game looks to pull gamers in for a long time without letting go. For instance, the difficulty in this game varies the item placement and ability attainment. Hence, on the more difficult levels there are less gaps between earning new items, so players are given more earlier on due to the amount and fierceness of the opposition. With the Master Ninja difficulty being so difficult that you actually get quite a few bonuses to start with just to keep you from being pulverized without a chance of succeeding.
Master Ninjas for hire...
This game, in fact, has the Master Ninja difficulty setting being so hard, and so tough, and so detrimental to any kind of accomplishment whatsoever, that this difficulty setting just might be considered “Impossible” for anyone with less than God-granted skills tailored especially to beating Ninja Gaiden Black. Which, in turn, is quite a breath of fresh air (oddly) insofar that most games out there on the market are so easy. For $50 gamers become weekend warriors and return back to their normal schedules due to the over-simplicity of concept design and the overall lacking challenge factor(s). The Ninja Gaiden Series settles for nothing less than the most skilled of gamers to complete it’s harder settings. Which is why it carries with it a following of loyal, die-hard fans of games that are just really hard to beat. Probably the most shocking thing of it all is that this game is actually being released for $29.99 right out of the basket. So not only do you get a much more competent challenge of nearly undefeatable foes and red ninjas with flaming shurikens, but you also get a couple of extra features that gamers of this kind might find interesting for a very reasonable retail price.
What to wear?...What to wear?!
It appears Team Ninja is giving players possibly more than five different outfits for their ninja fashion taste. The known outfits include Ryu’s standard black leather outfit, his gear from the Dead or Alive rendition, his Hurricane Pack black and red outfit, and a stylishly slick new pair of Ninja attire. All of which are selectable before the game starts, so you know exactly how you want to look while kicking butt (or otherwise getting your butt kicked).
Ninjas in the Dog house
This is one of the more important parts of the features, as it stands out for players of the lesser-skilled gene. Or, for those who would rather spare no more than a couple of hours of hacking and slashing in order to actually complete the game. Dog Mode is basically where the player, after dying enough times, is given the option to cop-out of being a Ninja Master, and basically go back to the Dog house for some serious (cough) cheap (cough) butt-kicking improvements. Ayane basically replaces his picture in the game and follows through with explaining that he is no longer capable of being considered a Ninja Master. Hence, you are like that of a cheating Dog and must complete the game with endowed powers of immense proportions. Albeit you are ranked lower than Ayane, and are reminded of this with the removal of his picture icon during the gameplay.
Story? Who needs one? Not I...
Well, Ninja Gaiden Black does indeed have a story, (for those who didn’t know,) it’s just not a very depth-driven story. But, NGB does offer up some new, beautifully rendered cinematics, in addition to the ones from the previous games. So players will get a bigger treatment of eye-candy this time around; which should be an excellent excuse for those who will need to take a break and stretch their fingers, hands and wrists, as the next thumb-numbing wave of bad-guys await your arrival.
All the goodies you need in a hand-basket of explosive shurikens
The missions on this game, as already stated, are hard. Hence, for those who benefit from the completion of Ninja Gaiden Black with joyous anticipation for more, you’ll be in for a treat with those aforementioned bonus levels. Basically it allows the player to choose from any of the levels they unlock and battle it out against pre-determined foes with random items and weapons unlocked for the player to utilize. The first ten levels are unlocked once you defeat the game on any difficulty setting. Those who already have a saved game from the previous Ninja Gaiden (or Hurricane Pack) will find it less than need-worthy to beat the game to unlock the first ten levels, as they will already be present once you load your saved game. Assuming, that is, you successfully completed the prior game(s) and saved.
To keep the interest high, Team Ninja have made it in such a way that for every five missions completed, five new ones will be available; up until all the mission levels are unlocked. They range from battling a doppleganger of Ryu (Which is quite impressive when it comes to the neat techniques, counter-techniques and abilities they can unleash against one another), to having a three-on-one fight against a nasty triplet of worm bosses. The variety is large and distinctively challenging for a range of skilled Gaiden fans. Simply considering that unlike the standard mode of play, the bonus missions have no skill setting, so excellence is a virtue set aside only for the master ninja.
Thus, the prepared Gaiden fans will be training their sheaths off to take on this monster game, when it hits shelves come September 20, 2005.
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L3e
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