Ninja Gaiden is a franchise I have always been a fan of. Ever since I got my gaming mitts on Ninja Gaiden Black for the original Xbox I have been hooked. Maybe it’s because of the difficulty level, or the fact you are a ninja cutting people and demons up piece by piece. I mean lets face it, Ninja’s in general are awesome.
At Eurogamer this year I had the opportunity to play the 3rd installment in the Ninja Gaiden saga, Ninja Gaiden III. I had been a little dubious about this title in the past after reading all sorts of news about the game on the internet, but after having some hands on time with the game I can safely say that this title will not disappoint, and here is why.

The demo started with Ryu Hyabusa standing on top of Westminster tower. the London skyline looking pretty amazing from the offset, a few seconds later I found myself gliding through the air into a collection of heavily armed army personnel. In true Ninja Gaiden fashion the demo had thrown me into the thick of battle from the word go. After getting punched in the face a couple of times I finally got a grasp of the controls and started slicing enemies up with Ryu’s legendary dragon sword. Compared to the other Ninja Gaiden titles this game does feel a little bit easier to get the hang of. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I found myself getting a lot less frustrated and made the game overall feel a little bit more welcoming.

If you have been following news on Ninja Gaiden III at all you will probably be well aware that dismemberment in this game is a lot less prominent than it was in Ninja Gaiden II, as the developers have been focussing on the feeling of cutting your foe. Every now and again the game will instruct you to mash a button to force your blade through your enemy, this works surprisingly well and doesn’t distract from the action, you really do feel like a super human ninja on a killing spree with this small game play element.

During the demo I also got to play around with Ryu’s demon possessed arm. Once powered up Ryu then has the opportunity to go into an epic sized combo that takes out a small legion of enemies in mere seconds. This is a great game play element that works well when mixed in with whatever combo streak you are holding at the time.

After taking out legion after legion of soldiers I found myself exploring the streets of London, while exploring I came across a new game play mechanic, wall climbing. Much like God Of War, Ryu stabs his kuni into walls in order to climb up walls, but unlike God Of War you have to use the triggers to control Ryu’s arms. A small addition to the over all game play but a nice one at that, it makes you feel like you can explore your surrounds a little bit more. After wandering the streets of London I was met by a colossal crab like robot which served as the demo’s boss. I was thrown head first into this battle and in true Ninja Gaiden fashion I was left to work out how to defeat this boss while getting pummeled half to death, and that is where the demo ended for me.

After my hands on time with Ninja Gaiden III it is safe to say that this title will not disappoint. I now just have to wait till the beginning of next year to get my copy.

-Garvaos

When I think of hack and slash games there are only two games that cut the mustard. Devil May Cry for its awesome story and stylish combat and Ninja Gaiden for its fantastic game play and its steep learning curve. The amount of time I have spent trying to complete Ninja Gaiden II is unreal. I still go back to it every now and again just to see if I still have the skills to beat the game. That and I just love chopping the limbs off of enemies with a huge scythe.

Now Ninja Gaiden III has been announced I am once again looking forward to playing as Ryu Hyabusa and ridding the world of demons knows as the fiends.

So what are we expecting from Ninja Gaiden III? Well story wise not much is known, Ryu has been has been requested by the Japanese self-defence force to make a trip to London, England to fight a terrorist threat and a mysterious hooded opponent, it will be interesting to see how Team Ninja portray England’s’ capital in the Ninja Gaiden world and how the fair city ties into the overall story line. This time round Ryu’s right arm has been cursed, this will more than likely play a big part in the game’s story line and game play, Is he turning into a fiend himself? We’ll have to sit tight and find out.

After doing a bit of research on the game I have found out that there have been one or two changes that can swing the game one way or the other. In Ninja Gaiden II, I loved the fact you could chop your enemy limbs off and watch them try to take you down even though they would be missing a leg or an arm. There was a lot of blood, but it wasn’t too excessive and gave the game a unique and appealing feel which, in my opinion, other games haven’t quite got the grasp of.

Ninja Gaiden III however may have taken a step back when it comes to dismembering your foes, this time round Team Ninja really want the player to feel the resistance when it comes to lopping off a limb. They have implemented a cutting mechanic where you have to saw through your enemies bones with your sword. Sounds cool but Ninja Gaiden is well-known for its fast paced combat, so this could slow things down somewhat.  Team Ninja have also removed the classic flying swallow move from the previous games that enabled Ryu to take out a legion of demonic foes in mere seconds (when used correctly) and they have now thrown in some Quick Time Events, which again could slow down the pace of the game. In all honesty this has made me slightly nervous but I am remaining open minded, this could possibly be a good thing as Team Ninja stated they want the game to be more accessible to gamers.

Update: After looking at Team Ninja’s twitter feed (http://twitter.com/TeamNINJAStudio) The Quick Time Events in Ninja Gaiden III won’t be a key feature in the game, they were added as a limited tutorial feature for demo purposes only. Making me feel alot better about the gameplay.

It isn’t all bad on the new game mechanics front though, it appears that Ninja Gaiden III has taken a page from the Kratos’ (from God Of War) book. Ryu can now climb walls armed with a pair of kunai. A neat little trick which I always admired in the God of War series as it brought nice element of platforming to the game.

What I am hoping is that Ninja Gaiden III will give you the same variety as its predecessors did. Ninja Gaiden was great for the sheer amount of weapons you could wield and the different skills you could learn. I just hope the changes aren’t to earth shattering.

Ninja Gaiden III will be playable at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, I will be sure to get some hands on time with the title.

Garv

Hack and slash games for me have become one of my favorite video game genres, ever since I first got my hands on Devil May Cry 3 (The first DMC I ever played) I have had a love for them. The way you can mix up attacks with different weapons plus the fact you feel awesome taking down several enemies at one time with a flick of few buttons. It is definatly a satisfying game genre.

Most hack and slash games though totally miss the mark, games such as Ninja Blade and Afro Samurai, these games had so much potential but didn’t hit the mark when it comes to fluid game play and balanced enemies etc. But some games really do hit the mark such as the legendary Devil May Cry and one of my all time favorites Ninja Gaiden.

Most people argue that Ninja Gaiden is one of the hack and slash games that miss the mark, this is mainly because Ninja Gaiden is notorious for its harsh learning curve. Both Ninja Gaiden I and Ninja Gaiden II gave me hours and hours of frustration, but it was the kind of frustration that got me wanting more and more. The balance of both games was perfect and (don’t let Leon hear me when I say this) in some respects I do think Ninja Gaiden is better than Devil May Cry.

Since November 2010 there have been slight murmurs of Ninja Gaiden III, the next instalment in the epic ninja hack and slash series. Die hard fans of the Ninja Gaiden series are a little bit skeptical though, as ??Tomonobu Itagaki, the head of Team ninja and pretty much the creator of the Ninja Gaiden series left the game developer to create his new development team, Valhalla Games. Since then Yosuke Hayashi has taken his place, notorious for his work behind Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma for the PS3 and Metroid Other M for the Wii, Yosuke is not alien to the Ninja Gaiden Concept, but will it be the Ninja Gaiden we all love and cherish?

Yosuke has explained that Ninja Gaiden III will be different from the first two games. Ninja Gaiden I was all about cutting people, Ninja Gaiden II was all about dismembering people. Ninja Gaiden III will all be about how it feels to cut into your enemies with your sword. You will actually feel resistance when it comes to cutting into people, you will feel the bones breaking as you do so, so Yosuke Says. How will this work? He has stated that you will have to press buttons in order for your sword to go through someone (Does he mean a Quick Time event?) and there will be an element of force-feeback as well. Sounds interesting but will it take away from the fast game play that Ninja Gaiden in famous for? I ask this because Yosuke stated that, and I quote “The intention for this title is to focus on the feeling of cutting someone instead of just going through entire armies of bad guys.”

So will the difficulty be compromised for the reality of cutting into your enemies? Or will this just be classic Ninja Gaiden with a new game mechanic? Who knows, but more will be revealed at E3 this year as a teaser trailer has been released which has got me excited, check it out.

Garv

Devil may cry 3 did it with the special edition having a new character for you to use with alternative costumes, a new unlockable costume for Dante, and some enemy tweaks.

Ninja Gaiden Black introduced new weapons, more cut-scenes, new enemies, new costumes and a few new cut-scenes. But then Ninja gaiden sigma was released for ps3 that added more to ninja gaiden black such as Dragon’s Claw & Tiger’s Fang dual katanas and some changes to the environments in game.

Around sepetember last year Star Wars the force unleashd was released. I did a review of the game and was pleasantly surprised by the game. But now the game is following the same suit as DMC and ninja gaiden and is releasing The ultimate sith edition.

This ultimate sith edition includes: All the downloadable content that’s out for the original game. which is: new character skins and new mission as the apprentice. But the welcome new addition to this pack is The hoth mission pack. This mission pack takes you through the story of the apprentice if he did over throw Vader and was the Emperor’s new right hand man. This will give you missions such as killing obi wan and fighting Luke skywalker.

This special edition looks immense and I cannot wait!

Ultimate Sith Edition Box Hasn't Been Shown Yet, So Here Is The Original.

Garv!

The first ever game i played was Wolfenstien 3D on the PC. Then closely followed by doom I and II. From an early age i was playing over a LAN network against my dad on Doom. As  grew up I was playing Mainly FPS games such as Quake, Duke Nukem, doom, wolfenstein etc. I was pretty muc bought up asa PC gamer. But as soon as I played my Mums PS1 I had been converted.

So pretty much i have grown up with FPS game. They have been the genre I have sworn by since a very early age and today i still do. I have been asking myself recently what is the Best FPS game of all time. And i Have narrowed it down to 3:

Doom: Its the game i grew up with and still play to this day. Got it on GBA and pc and Xbox live Arcade. Still a joy to play

Halo: The first real 3D First person shooter i really gt into and stiill swear by. Sure quake, UT and return to castle wolfenstien were good but i don’t come back to them as i come back to halo.

Bioshock: The sheer atmosphere, coupled with the plasmids and weapon upgrades make this game a cut above any FPS i have played? Why isnt it up my fave one of all time? No online multi player

So as you can see I swear by FPS games. Well up until a point when i had my PS2. It was coming up to my 18th birthday sill playing the ps2 and original xbox. My ps2 was starting to gather dust with the countless am mount of halo i as playing on my Xbox, until a shinning light came from above that granted my PS2 new life.

Leon got Me devil May cry 3 special edition for my birthday. Not big on 3rd person games back then i trusted his judgement and stuck the game in. If there were clouds in my room that day hay would have parted and spread a beam of light over my PS2 that day. DMC 3 has me glued to my PS2 it was awesome! The combos, the weapons the sheer coolness of Dante amazed me! This was a game to go into my all time top 5 for sure.

Ever since playing Devil may cry i sought after more 3rd person hack and slash games. Not too far behind, keeping the ps2 alive was God Of War. Absolutely amazing, i was starting to think why i ever doubted the 3rd person action genre. Then the 360 came out as did dmc 4 and ninja gaiden II Both awesome games but NG2 had the upper hand on this one. Which (as you would have probably guessed by now) got me thinking.

As you can see my top 3 3rd person hack and slash games! What do these 3 have to get into the top 3?

Ninja Gaiden: This game is big on challenge, big on graphics and big on variety. But I don’t really have a big connection with ryu. to me hes just another ninja.

God Of War: Greek mythology, bloody battle and combos you will sing and dance about this game is a worthy contender fr the top 3. But why oh why dos kratos have to be such an angry monkey all the time?

Devil May Cry: Almost nails the top of the top 3 if you don’t mention DMC 2 or 4. not doing the series justice at all, Even if Dante is the coolest half daemon ever.

So all of  his begs the question. Is the 3rd person hack and slash the new FPS? The new genre i swear by? Well yes and no. Yes because you can cause an ultra violent blood bath with out much ducking and covering but at the same time. You can’t get the multiplayer freedom like you can with an FPS.

And guns seem to work better from the first person.

Garv!

When i first saw the graphic detail in the cut scenes of ninja gaiden i couldn’t help but smile. The art directors etc have done well. With the sky city Tokyo looking amazing from the start an all the locales within the game looking mostly very sharp (bar one which is just a big green tunnel which you could tell the designers were getting stuck for ideas around then) Ninja gaiden has made a great port to the next gen with great graphics which make you want to play to the next mission just to see what its like (The mission when it rains blood…..awesome) Speaking of which the sheer amount of gore in his game is nuts. With hack and slash games like DMC where the enemies get slashed up n just fizzle out. In NG2 the limbs go flying and yo can dismember enemies and they will still come back for more. I think this is a nice touch even though it is a bit Monty python (it’s a mere flesh wound…come here and ill bite your legs off) It is used well. If you lop a guys arm off, he will become a bit stronger, leave him for too long and he will kamikaze. But hit the Y button and you pull of an amazing finisher on him. Little bit like mortal combat fatality in that there is a lot of blood and very flashy.

Bloody as it is NG2 is a joy to look at

The game play has a nicer learning curve than it did in NG1. With a basic tutorial guiding you through the first level. At his point mashing the Y and X buttons will get rid of your opponents nicely. But as the game progresses tactics are key an you can’t just rely on simple button mashing to get you through which appals to me a lot. Meaning you can’t just blag your way through this game. OK eventually  the enemies will feel incredibly cheap shooting at you from 6 miles away but your a ninja and dodging is one of the things ninjas are good at :p.

There is a brilliant amount of weapons you get as you progress. different weapons suit different people for me when i get the scythe (yes the one on the box art) there is noting more satisfying than going all guns blazing into a group of spider clan ninjas. The level up system for each weapon is great too. Meaning you get a lot of game play for your moneys worth!  The attacking doesn’t stop at melee weapons, you also have nimpo (awesome ninja magic spells) and projectile weapons, which you also find as you progress through the story and can also level up as you go.

The story is your typical evil thing wants to take over the world so you must stop it by killing demons and it. But with a game with so much in depth game play (for a hack and slash) the story is not your main concern. I found when i was playing it i wasn’t bothered by the story really, it was the game play that had me hooked which is quite rare in this gaming age.

Boss fights are challenging which is what i like to see. Getting you frustrated enough to actually not put the controller down until you kill the bugger. There are some hidden skulls t find which will keep you exploring each vibrant level and there are also tests of valour. Meaning if you kill everything and survive we will give you a shiny gift, which is always nice. And there is a healthy amount of DLC out for it. But if you do get the costumes be warned. I have found myself not being able to play the game when i take my harddrive to a friends house and plug it in their 360. Because of the licencing on the 360 for the DLC it wont let you play the game at all which i find extremely annoying.

As hack and slash games go this ranks very highly. Good way to vent anger nice easy-ish learning curve (not like NG1 when you die in the tutorial :p) and a solid amount of game play. Also is pleasing to the eye. Just a real shame about he DLC rubbish

Score: 8 out of 10