Ninja Gaiden Black

Easily 4 out of 4 stars.

Best action game ever made (until Ninja Gaiden 2 comes out)!!

Pros...

• Incredible fighting engine.
• Spectacular graphics (even today).
• Tons of polish.
• Hard as hell.

Cons...

• Hard as hell.
• It is "last gen" now.
• 3rd person camera control is backwards from most other games and you can't change it.

I first played Ninja Gaiden Black last xmas and beat it in two 12 hour sittings, and it has been my favorite game ever since.

The story is good albeit relatively straight forward: You're a ninja tasked with protecting an ancient sword, some bastard steals it and kills your entire village in the process, you seek vengeance. There are a few plot twists and the game does a decent job at keeping you anxious to find out what happens next.

The graphics are amazing for an Xbox game. Hell, I'd say they are even better than most Xbox 360 games out there. Still, the fact that it isn't "next gen" is a turn off for some people.

What makes this game such a gem is the gameplay. It is phenomenal. Everything is so crisp and precise and the fighting engine is surprisingly deep for an action/adventure game, which actually isn't all that surprising considering this game is brought to you by the makers of the fighting game series Dead or Alive.

The gameplay and fighting are actually a lot like playing a bonafide fighting game. A lot of the moves' and combos' key sequences are taken straight from DOA. Now combine that type of fighting depth with jumping off enemies heads, flipping around like a crazy ass ninja, running on/up walls, and ridiculous super moves. That's what playing the game is like... :)

So you're gunna buy the game and have a blast, kicking ass crazy ninja style like I described above, right? Wrong!! The game is hard as hell. Most of you who attempt to play it will probably have trouble making it to level 2, much less finishing all 16 levels or playing it as gracefully as The Master Ninjas.

Sooo, here's a gameplay video of what it would be like if you actually had the skills to it play it well...

Holy crap, after watching that tribute I was reminded how this game is the greatest game ever made.