I love the Ninja Gaiden series in general, and definitely wanted to play Ninja Gaiden Sigma. It features new areas and lets you play as Rachel. I like how they toss you right into the gameplay without a tedious tutorial forced-play. You're leaping up walls, vaulting over enemies, and slashing your way through tatami-filled rooms. It feels quite visceral and thrilling to be hacking away at ninja enemies while working your way towards your objective.
The graphics are reasonably good, although certainly not perfect. There were ample times where I clipped through a wall or a body or blood stain did something not quite physically possible.
The game ensures that you can't just button mash your way to victory. You have to be deft with your jumping, blocking, and different styles of attacks to make it past the enemies. Some of them are quite challenging. At times it seems like they have thousands of enemies hiding behind one single wall, just streaming out at you endlessly.
I do have to give a special thumbs-down to their camera. Certainly complaining about bad cameras is almost a given in gaming reviews. Camera angles can be quite annoying. But even knowing how bad cameras have been in other games, Ninja Gaiden Sigma has serious faults here. There have been ample times that I *should* have won a combat sequence but the bizarre twist of the camera made it impossible to know what to do.
The game also loves to mis-interpret your commands. You can be hacking away at an enemy and doing a near-perfect job of taking them down - but get too close to a chest and the game decides that this is the ideal time for you to sit down and read a complex scroll on how to do a new move. Ah, no. I had no intention of opening that chest. I was in the middle of fighting for my life.
Still, the game is immensely fun. I enjoy the levels and the enemies. Well recommended to ninja-style fans who are up for a challenge.
Rating: 8/10
I purchased this game with my own funds in order to do this review.
Buy Ninja Gaiden Sigma from Amazon.com
