Review | ‘Ninja Gaiden Black’
A Bit of History
Originally released on March 2, 2004 for Microsoft’s budding Xbox console, Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden reboot was impressive in a number of ways. It was an incredible stylish action game released right when that subgenre was at its most competitive, going up against Capcom’s established Devil May Cry and Onimusha brands and beating Sony’s God of War to market by a year. It was an insane technological showcase and it also helped pioneer now-ubiquitous DLC: Team Ninja released downloadable “Hurricane Packs” that included new mission modes, weapons, and balance changes.
On September 20, 2005 Team Ninja repackaged the game as Ninja Gaiden Black, which included all of the downloadable Hurricane Packs as well as a host of new balance changes and improvements. Even 12 years after its release, Ninja Gaiden Black remains the highest-scoring game of the stylish action subgenre and the high point of creator Tomonobu Itagaki’s career.
Personally speaking, I had next to no experience with Ninja Gaiden prior to this playthrough. When the game was new I only had a PS2, although I still admired it from afar through magazines and online videos. One of my best friends is massively into this series and he had me try Black for a few minutes several years ago, but it didn’t really click with me at the time. Given my love of games of this type, Ninja Gaiden has always felt like a “missing link” in my personal gaming history. Now seemed like the perfect time to fill in the gap.
The Good
It is difficult to describe just how good Ninja Gaiden Black feels to play. I am incredibly passionate about the stylish action subgenre, raised on Devil May Cry and with a modern gaming diet that includes a lot of Platinum Games’ work. As good as games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry 3 feel, Black beats them all. I’ve never encountered a melee combat system that feels this precise, this technical yet fluid, and where the hits given and taken feel so goddamn vicious. Swords actually feel like they are cutting through flesh and bone, and bludgeoning weapons like hammers possess a dizzying weight that sends enemies flying. The animations and feedback are superb.
What elevates the combat is the fiercely intelligent nature of the enemies you face. In the Devil May Cry series, enemies can be challenging but largely exist as combo fodder to allow the player to express their creativity through lengthy and intricate move lists. Black is far more defensive in nature and almost entirely about simply surviving encounters. It’s a common complaint that many modern games pit you against groups of enemies only for them to politely take turns hitting you. So imagine my shock when one enemy launched me into the air, another leapt up to combo me, and three more were waiting to pounce on me when I finally hit the ground.
In this way, Ninja Gaiden feels like the strongest precursor to the popular Dark Souls games that I’ve yet found. Even the “easy” enemies can kill you in just a few hits if you aren’t careful. You can never get overconfident or lazy. Like those games though, Black gives you all of the tools you need to succeed. Protagonist Ryu Hayabusa is incredibly fast and lethal, and if you play him right you can kill most enemies in only a single hit.
Although the Black experience lives and dies by its razor sharp combat, it is surprising how pronounced its adventure elements are. The game features some amazing level design, including acrobatic traversal that surely made the teams behind Prince of Persia jealous as well as some charmingly obtuse lock-and-key puzzles that will make old-school Resident Evil fans feel right at home. It’s a game that knows how to make the most of the quiet time between intense combat encounters, and that pacing ensures that you’re always ready for the next big melee.
Special mention has to be made of the design effort put into Black’s difficulty settings. From the easiest “Ninja Dog” to the ultimate “Master Ninja,” each setting is crafted with care and features different enemies and item locations. In fact, there are several enemies and boss encounters that ONLY appear in the game on Very Hard or above. This heavy remixing ensures that every replay contains something new, and players seeking mastery over the game will never have a chance to grow bored.
Finally, the game’s production values are impressive even today. The character models are insanely detailed and its impressively animated action almost always runs at a crisp 60fps. With unique art direction, lavish CG cutscenes, and great performance, Black really hasn’t aged a day and holds its own against modern action games just fine.
The Mixed
Ninja Gaiden Black’s camera system is the very definition of a “mixed bag.” During regular fighting it holds up pretty well: by pressing the right trigger the camera snaps behind Ryu’s back as quickly as it can. This works fantastically and ensures that as long as you remember to tap the trigger you will always have a good view of the action no matter how fast you jump around the battlefield. During its traversal and platforming challenges, however, the camera is often too low to the ground to properly frame the obstacles ahead and it gets caught on environmental objects easily.
Boss battles see Black’s camera at its worst. They stick to the boss itself like glue, which means that your character is almost always juuust out of view. I understand that they wanted to make sure that a boss could never sneak up on you, but when you can never see your own avatar easily avoidable mistakes start to pile up. This issue is compounded by the tendency that higher difficulty settings have to throw smaller minion enemies into boss fights. Ryu’s attacks actually track towards the boss at all times, which makes dealing with these lesser foes a fucking nightmare.
Lastly, the story in Black is pretty much just… there. Ryu’s ninja clan guards an evil sword, but the village gets razed to the ground and the sword is stolen. Cue a very straightforward quest for revenge devoid of any twists, moments, or characters that really stand out amongst the competition. All that said, the game has some very fun and beautifully shot CG cutscenes, and the story never gets in the way of the action.
The Bad
Although I really enjoyed the game’s defensive approach versus the more offensive Devil May Cry games, there are a few enemies that just aren’t fun to fight. At all. Like the fucking “ghost fish” enemies that require perfect timing to kill without taking stupid damage. Mess up your rhythm even once and they essentially lock you into a “damage cutscene” where you can’t do anything until the game arbitrarily decides you’re not stunlocked anymore. There’s no creativity in these encounters, no player expression, just cold mechanics. Situations like this are thankfully in the minority, but they stick out so badly because they fail to make the most of Black’s thrilling combat engine.
As is all too common for this subgenre, the final level is a mostly lazy gauntlet that downplays Ninja Gaiden’s fun puzzle and traversal elements in favor of recycling old bosses and grinding down the player’s patience. Even the final bosses are a letdown, relying on poorly implemented gimmick controls and behavior that is too easily exploited for an easy victory.
Finally, there is a chapter that relies far too heavily on cumbersome first-person shooting, with bosses and one-off challenges that can only be cleared using the game’s bow projectile weapons. It’s a noble attempt at injecting variety, but it ends up just being clumsy and it lacks the high levels of polish present almost everywhere else in Black.
Bonus Round: Black vs. Sigma
For this review I also played a decent amount of Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which was essentially an HD remaster released on July 3, 2007 for the PlayStation 3. It still uses the same basic experience of Black as its framework, so if this is your only option it is still a decent way to play. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as good overall as Black. The visuals are actually worse in most areas outside of the opening level, with a special mention going towards the horrendous new water physics. The water in the original release is gorgeous and fairly realistic, but in Sigma it looks and behaves like jello.
The game attempts to streamline the experience by removing some of the more involved platforming and puzzle solving of the original and replacing it with more generic “challenge room” style combat encounters, going so far as to recycle a boss or two. Your mileage may vary, but for me this was a huge negative as the Prince of Persia-lite exploration elements of the original are one of my favorite things about the game, and these intensely repetitive combat additions are a poor substitute.
Rounding out a rather lacking package is the addition of a new playable character, the demon hunter Rachel (pictured above). This sassy girl features heavily in the game’s silly plot, so shedding a little more light on her comings and goings is a great idea. Like so much of Sigma, sadly, that idea falls apart in the execution. Her play style essentially just takes Ryu’s pre-existing War Hammer moveset and strips away all of his fun mobility options. Rachel should be a badass addition to the game, but instead she just comes across as a gimped version of Ryu without any real strengths to make up for it. Her missions are also pretty badly designed, featuring very little exploration and a huge focus on multi-wave enemy gauntlets. Playing as her is exhausting and she drags the game’s pacing down as a result.
Lastly, Sigma contains a smattering of new enemy types and a new weapon, but these additions are negligible. Sigma is the inferior version of Ninja Gaiden and should only be considered if you lack the hardware to play Black.
Parting Shot
Ninja Gaiden Black constantly appears in lists of the best action games of all time and is one of those games that is spoken of in hushed, reverent tones by its fanbase. After finishing it, it’s easy to see why. The game’s fast paced but defensive combat really doesn’t feel like anything else, and almost everything about it simply looks and feels amazing. It is fantastic, and the 12 years since its release have only served to sharpen it. If only all games aged this well.
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‘Ninja Gaiden Black’ is…
Masterful: This game is an exemplar of its genre. It may have flaws, but its strengths are such that the game dominates its competition.
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Review Scale
Essential: A game so thoroughly exceptional and valuable that it should be experienced by anyone with a passion for the medium, often regardless of genre preference.
Masterful: This game is an exemplar of its genre. It may have flaws, but its strengths are such that the game dominates its competition.
Enjoyable: This game has flaws that grate but the overall experience is still one of value, especially if the player is a fan of its particular genre or design approach.
Average: A game whose flaws and attributes are in constant battle with one another. The game can provide some value and its true potential may shine through, but ultimately the experience is in major need of improvement.
Lacking: A game in possession of flaws that overpower the experience, leading to more frustration than value for the player at almost every opportunity.
Offensive: A game so thoroughly terrible and without value that it should be excised from the broader gaming canon. The sooner it is forgotten, the better.
