I like ninjas. Hell, who wouldn’t like ninjas? Ninjas are cool. One of the first video games I owned and remembered was The Revenge Of Shinobi for the Sega Genesis — I was rarely on the leading edge of technology as a kid and generally got the bastard children of the console generation… I had a friggin’ Odyssey² for pete’s sake — which was about ninjas and revenge. There are few things cooler. Ninja Gaiden:Black is about ninjas fighting other ninjas and samurai and helicopters. Hence it transcends “cool” and enters the hallowed “sweet” ground.
But really
Ninja Gaiden was released on the Xbox last year, followed by some free downloadable content in August and September of the same year. I played it back then when I was renting from GameFly and thought it was a fun and very challenging game. Being in the “rental cycle” I returned it before finishing for whatever the flavor of the week was and never got back to it. Not having the manual, I didn’t really get into it very much. I didn’t realize there were other weapons or special moves and combos.
This release, titled Ninja Gaiden:Black contains, well, I’ll let IGN say it since they got it down correctly.
Ninja Gaiden Black is not a sequel to Ninja Gaiden by any means. Rather, it is a repackaging of the original with material from the two downloadable Xbox Live Hurricane Pack expansions, an expanded story, more costumes, a port of the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden, extra levels of difficulty, and a whole new mode of play focused on scripted missions.
And this time I have a manual. I’ve gotten a new weapon to play with and, for whatever reason, the action seems a whole lot more addictive this time. There’s some powerful special moves that have wonderful benefits and drawbacks that really make your fighting seem to flow and have structure. After a while you get the feeling that you could block far less often and quickly attack in those little openings between enemies’ strikes. In other words, you feel like a ninja… a virtual one, anyway.
Give it a shot, it’s $30 this time around.
I told you ninjas were cool. I haven’t actually gotten to that part yet, but supposedly it’s a rocket firing helicopter. And you fight it. As a ninja. An admittedly badass ninja. I ask no questions.
Helipcopters?
Ninjas fighting helicopters.
Are we talking Huey or Apache? ‘Cause, I mean — I can see a Ninja kicking a Huey’s ass… but an Apache?… I don’t think so.