Ninja Gaiden

Tecmo's bringing back Ninja Gaiden in a big way - these latest screens show how drop-dead stunning it's looking. Full preview.

	Version Xbox	Developer Team Ninja	Publisher Tecmo	Genre Action

By Brian Haggenmiller

Every gamer in their twenties remembers the Ninja Gaiden series on the NES. Taking control of Ryu Hayabusa and slashing through hordes of ninja opponents was how many of us spent our time back then. But for some odd reason, game developers forgot how much we love our ninjas.

For a while, Ninja Gaiden was gone, Shinobi was gone, and the Ninja Turtles were gone. Thankfully, developers are waking up and there's something of a ninja renaissance happening - and the Xbox-exclusive Ninja Gaiden looks by far the best of the bunch.

Tecmo's Team Ninja (of Dead or Alive infamy), is working on creating a surefire must-have Xbox title. From the footage and pics that have been seen to date, Ninja Gaiden seems poised to blow all other action titles out of the water - at least graphically. You might say that Shinobi and Tenchu were just warm-ups for this one. And in terms of gameplay, this game is ready to push the boat out as well.

Ryu is back on a mission of revenge. The Vigor Empire, led by the Holy Emperor, has slaughtered Hayabusa's clan, and taken the magical sword Ryuken in the process. It's up to our favorite neighborhood ninja to defeat the Empire, destroy the Holy Emperor, and get his sword back. Hey, when we say this title's going to push the Xbox, we didn't say anything about the plot. At least they didn't kidnap his girlfriend.

Visually, Ninja Gaiden is beyond stunning. Take a look at the E3 2002 trailer (available to download here) and the screenshots, because no words can truly do it justice. When we first saw this game in motion, we thought that it was FMV or a cut scene between the action; it looks that good. There are scenes with four enemies on screen with Ryu, all of them large and very animated, and yet no lack of detail compensate.

When there aren't three large enemies on screen, there's a massive mid-boss or adversary that takes up half the screen. Team Ninja’s creativity when it comes to character models is wonderful. To name a few, there are monsters with blue flames coming out of their heads, huge bosses with tentacles flying all over the place, and of course, the grunt ninjas with machine guns. It all looks simply stunning.

It all takes place in lush, living environments. Ryu is fighting in a dojo, running around caves and sewers, and one scene has him in the middle of a huge train station. One level from the trailer has a monster approaching our hero and his real-time reflection quivering in a puddle of water. In the end, this game looks to have taken the graphic prowess of Dead or Alive 3 and put it in the body of an intense action game.

BUT... don't make the mistake of thinking that Ninja Gaiden will be "just a graphics demo". Team Ninja remembers that action games need action too. Ryu has a sword and he knows how to use it. The clip shows him killing enemies with both ground combos and air combos. Though they're not shown, I'm sure that Hayabusa will go old school on us and whip out the shurikens and ninja magic.

Gamers who remember the NES series will recall being able to grab walls and bounce back and forth... well now Ryu even interacts with the environment by swinging from branch-like objects and running on the walls. Ryu is sprinting on walls like his cousins are Sonic and Spider-man.

RPG elements are included as well. As Ryu progresses through the adventure, he can unlock new weapons and combos to fight with. It has not been revealed if this will be a mission-based progression, or point driven - but basically, the better you fight, the more equiped you'll become to kick ass in even more a superme fashion.

Team Ninja have also figured out a good way to use the Xbox's hard drive. Gamers can pause the game and save it mid-action, and then continue from this same point. No more save points, baby!

We're sure Tecmo will give us a little more at this year's E3 next month, The expected release date is early September 2003 in the States, so let's hope it's not delayed. Stay tuned for hands-on impressions soon.