Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Review
Hack, slash, thrust, parry. Endless Ninja action on the PS3
by Liquid306
reviewed on PS3
Girls Play Rough Too
In addition to playing as Ryu Hayabusa you can now play as Ratchel. The sexy dominatrix-looking blonde bimbo with physical appendages that give Lara Croft a run for her money. Ratchel is a Demon hunter on the search for her sister. Her main weapon is a two handed axe/scythe-like weapon that is ‘ideal for chopping heads off fiends’. The weapon is very bulky and slow compared to Ryu’s but evens out with the sheer blunt force that the weapon delivers. She can make quick work of some of the Ninja’s that tend to give Ryu a hard time.
In the previous versions of Ninja Gaiden, you played the whole game and just meet up with Ratchel in cut-scenes. The ability to control this diva is a welcomed addition to an already refined game. She offers a completely different gameplay dynamic and shows the view of another character in this universe. It gives the player a insight as to why these creatures exist and the motivation for each characters’ actions.
Harakiri
Even with essentially the same game getting a re-print three times, there are some performance and gameplay issues that need to be addressed. Sigma offers an install feature where you install a small amount of the game onto your harddrive which reduces load times between levels. A great feature on paper but when you are exploring within Ninja Gaiden, you will still get a loading icon in the corner that pauses the game and takes you out of the experience completely. Even in mid-battle, I was killing spirits in an underground level and slashed about eight of them at once, the game had to load while in mid-slash. The camera can a get a little out of control in tight spaces as well.
In that same area, a few minutes later, I was surrounded by undead axe-wielding zombies and spirits. I decided to go and save seeing as how I could easily die and reload to try the battle again if saved. I ran up to the altar and watched the save game screen for about ten minutes. After that I decided to give up, quit the game completely and reboot my PS3.
The game looks and plays great throughout when rendering in real time. It seems that the CGI cut-scenes from the original Xbox game have not been touched. This is quite unfortunate seeing as how an awesome boss battle is accompanied by an ugly CGI cut-scene afterwards. These aren’t really very large problems but the game still could have benefited from a few extra coats of polish.
The One-Two Punch
Ninja Gaiden Sigma is an exquisite game filled with jaw dropping battles and controller throwing rage. A master Ninja and a smoking hot friend round out the cast of characters in this marvel. Armed to the teeth with shiny authentic Ninja attire as well as some fantasy magic to jazz things up, the developers did a great job of making you feel like a total badass slicing heads off demons and ninja’s alike. With a sizable single player campaign and scoreboards to keep perfectionists coming back for more, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a very rewarding experience that shouldn’t be overlooked.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
