I really wish MS hadn't made Ninja Gaiden Black backwards compatible.

I was FINALLY over my addiction to Ninja Gaiden. I was enjoying all sorts of new games and new genres. After over 1000 hours of Gaiden I thought I had it licked. I played the Tom Raider reboot (and sequel). I played Bastion, A Tale of Two Sons, The Walking Dead, Torchlight, Fallout. Skyrim, Doom, GTA V, XCOM, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid: Samus Returns, Castlevania LOTS, etc. I replayed the Mass Effect trilogy. I started playing the Dragon Age series. Origins was AMAZING. DA2 was fun. Inquisition was daunting but engaging and I was maybe thirty hours in when I got a message from my buddy. "Dude, Ninja Gaiden Black is playable on the Xbox One and it looks/runs amazing!" "Cool....but I played enough of that on the original XBox and the 360. Plus NG2, Sigma, 3, Razor's Edge, Sigma Plus, Sigma 2 plus, the NES trilogy.....okay might as well boot it up to see how it runs...."


Now, 2 months later I forger what I was doing and where I was in Dragon Age. The story is fading in my mind. The characters, the lore....all fading. I eat sleep dream Ninja Gaiden. I beat Normal. I beat Hard. I'm almost done Very Hard. Master Ninja is next. Approaching 20 million Karma in Mission Mode.....might as well chase 30 million since I never got there....and if I do, well screw it why not go for 40?


I have played maybe 8 hours of other games in the last 2 months. NHL 16 with a friend, and Rainbow Six Siege/Overwatch for a few hours each since they were free to try for the weekend (Overwatch is AWESOME.....Rainbow Six is good but 1, 3 and Black Arrow are still the best imo).


Today I have the whole day to myself. The kid is with the ex wife. Great time to get back into Dragon Age, right? Yep.....boots up Ninja Gaiden.


I wish I believed in a god so I could pray for help cause I think I'm like a guy back with his abusive ex- I know it's bad for me and everyone is telling me so but the sex man....the sex is just unbelievable.

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth is an enhanced port of a 2009 Wii game entitled Muramasa: The Demon Blade which was an excellent 2D side scrolling action role playing game that starred 2 characters: the princess Momohime and Kisuke, a ninja with, wait for it…..amnesia! Yes, amnesia, that old video game trope (I’ll save you the hassle of searching for the story section of this review and just tell you right now that if you are playing this game for the story you’re barking up the wrong proverbial tree).

When you begin the game you are tasked with choosing one of two stories to play through. Momohime’s  or Kisuke’s. Depending upon which choice you make you’ll either be travelling east or west; if you choose Momohime you’ll play as a princess possessed by a vengeful spirit in search of 108 legendary demon blades. Choose Kisuke and you’ll play as a ninja with amnesia……in search of 108 legendary demon blades. The stories both evolve (some might say devolve) from there but frankly, I paid very little attention. What did get my attention, however, was both the audio/visual presentation and the gameplay. The game is simply gorgeous, the music is great and it plays like a dream.

Open Letter To Chair Entertainment

Dear Chair,

(never thought I'd ever type that particular sequence of words)

I am writing to you today to ask a favour of you. You see, your company developed one of the absolute best video games last generation (no, sorry, not Undertow). The game to which I am referring is of course Shadow Complex. Shadow Complex was easily the best Xbox Live Arcade game at the time of its release, and in this (not so?) humble gamer's opinion, still is (maybe tied with Geometry Wars and Puzzle Quest but I digress). Let me tell you a little story:

I have been gaming since the late 80's. I grew up on all of the same games you all (hopefully) did. Namely (duh), platformers, shmups, adventure games and beat em ups. You all probably have your favourites from these genres, and many of them will likely differ from mine. However, one thing we definitely have in common is a love for the old school archetypal game designs of the eras bygone, one of the most prominent, and criminally (yes, criminally) underused being the so called “Metroidvania” (“Castleroid” to some, but they are from the wrong side of the tracks, so we can do as the government does and simply ignore them) design. Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are the two most well known games of this type, but of course there are many more (just not enough). Clearly, you fine people noticed this travesty and decided to capitalize on the oversights of others far less badass than thou and release to the world a brand new game using this game design philosophy.

So, on August 19^th, 2009, you released Shadow Complex and the response from both gamers and critics was overwhelmingly positive. The sales were great (despite that unfortunate little trial version exploit that you wish we would have forgotten (we didn't, but I bought the game, so don't worry)) and Chair Entertainment (now a subsidiary of Epic Games, ching ching!!) was on the map. All well and good, but how do I fit into this story, you ask? Well, I am glad you did. See, to make a longer story long, I, as I stated earlier, have been gaming since the late 80's, and while I still love gaming, I definitely fall into the rose tinted glasses nostalgic old school gamer camp. Games, for the most part at least, just do not satisfy, excite, challenge or engage me the way they used to (with few exceptions) (Bayonetta, anyone?). And then you came along and holy **** I was 12 years old again! 

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus 2- Ninja Race Mode Tips

So I have been playing a bit of the Ninja Race mode in Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus 2 on the Vita and I thought I would share some tips for this super fun, challenging mode. Note: I have been playing as Ryu, so these tips are (mostly) character specific.

-Lunar Staff is obtained after beating Chapter 1 in the story mode- do this first.

-The Lunar features quick combo kills using weak, weak, strong. This is much faster than square, square, triangle, shuriken cancel, triangle with the dragon sword.

-The Lunar is also fantastic for crowd control, unlike the DS. Standing neutral strong, either stand alone or chained into a combo is good, as is the standard weak, weak, weak, strong strong. A good one for quick limb detachments is chains starting with towards and square. This is a poke with range and power and like the other combos mentioned above it seems to grant some crowd protection in the same way that VF combo strings do. The dragon sword does not carry this advantage.

-The Dragon Sword does have the flying swallow, but it whiffs too much sometimes and therefore wastes too much time. There's no whiffing with the Lunar staff.

-Minimize ET/UT usage. Keep it to the purple essence or health if you don't need it. You'll definitely want to avoid using the green essence for them as green grants time bonuses. The white essence grants speed and power bonuses so try not to utilize that for ET's/UT's either, unless you're at max speed/power or you're in trouble.

-I experimented with both avoiding fights and taking them all on and what seemed to work best for me was a combination of the two- run until you group enemies together at a point where you're forced to fight and kill them as fast as you can. You'll get a feel for the best spots to do this as you try the course over after failing (unless you're amazing and do it in one go) but off the top of my head, I skip the first three regular ninjas and have them follow me, along with the first 2 dogs, into the bridge area where you're forced to fight the spider ninja. Then I grouped together the next batch with the big fight at the area before the archer section.

-Speaking of the archers, DO NOT BOTHER WITH THEM. Major time waster. Either fight the guys below while dodging arrows or take them all with you to the underground passage and kill them in close quarters (if you get far enough ahead you can no essence charge a UT, or at least an ET to soften them up (if you want).

-Plan on failing several times while you're learning the route(s) and strategy(ies). Unless of course you're god tier. At this point in my life I'm human tier, so it took me a good 10 tries or so to figure it all out. The time constraints are rough and leave little room for error. The most time I can recall having on the clock at once was somewhere around 2:40.

-Race 01: If you get to the first boss fight with less than 40 seconds on the clock restart. When I beat the course I believe I got to him with 1:10 or so left.

That's all I can remember atm.

Ninja Gaiden (Xbox, 2004) Was Ahead Of Its Time

Note: I use 'hack n slash' to describe the genre of games to which titles such as Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and Bayonetta belong. I recognize that to many, the term hack n slash calls to mind games like Diablo and Champions of Norrath while games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden would be considered third person action games. Just remember that when I say hack n slash I mean Ninja Gaiden, not Diablo.

'Ahead of its time' is a phrase with which I am intimately familiar, having said it myself many times in my life (usually in reference to a video game or a technical death metal album I am raving about at any given time). It is also a phrase with which I take issue, as the concept of something being ahead of its time implies that it is possible for something to exist before it should exist, which seems patently absurd, especially when stated so clearly. If something comes to exist at a moment in time, what other time could there be, aside from the one in question, at which the thing in question should exist and who determines that? Clearly the idea of something being ahead of its time is a romanticized and hyperbolic one. That being said, I am prone to hyperbole and romanticism and so I am going to make the claim that Ninja Gaiden (Xbox, 2004) was ahead of its time. If it is at all possible for something to be so, Ninja Gaiden is it.

At the time of the game's release, the hack n slash genre was well established, but certainly not to the degree to which it is today. Nor was it nearly as popular as it is now. God of War had not yet released. Devil May Cry 3, arguably the best in the series and the title that really elevated both the Devil May Cry series and the hack n slash genre as a whole in terms of mainstream popularity (as well as acting as redemption after the dud that was Devil May Cry 2) had also not yet been released. The first title in the series was, at the time, widely considered to be the best of the genre, and probably rightfully so. At the time, Capcom really innovated and elevated the genre with the release of the original Devil May Cry.

And then in 2004, a reboot of the classic 8 bit Ninja Gaiden series developed by Team Ninja, the development studio behind the Dead or Alive fighting game franchise, was released and the genre was elevated to dizzying new heights (see, there's that aforementioned tendency to hyperbole).

The first thing that really stood out upon first playing the game was how smooth, fluid and fast everything was. The game ran at a blistering 60 fps, which, if I am not mistaken, was a first for the genre, at least on consoles. It felt incredibly smooth, fast and responsive, and this was felt immediately after beginning to play. The controls were tight and the main character, Ryu Hayabusa, was incredibly agile. The options in terms of mobility were staggering. You could run up and along walls, hop back and forth between them to get to high places in seconds (known within the series as "bird flipping") jump on enemy heads and then launch yourself off of them, either once or multiple times in succession, allowing for the possibility of getting past a group of enemies by simply traversing over them as though they were a part of the flooring. Ryu could also roll dodge and perform a move known as the "Flying Swallow" which is a mid air flying sword thrust which covers great distances instantaneously and can decapitate multiple enemies in a single motion.

Hmmmm....three guys all shooting at me, what do I- oh, that takes care of that then!

Totally unrelated to the feel of the game, but equally noticeable upon first playing it was the fact that the game was absolutely stunning. Upon release it was one of the best looking Xbox games. Arguably even the best, period. This makes the fact that it ran at 60 fps all the more impressive since developers typically have to sacrifice either visual fidelity or the framerate when developing console games. The best looking games, especially during the sixth video game generation, were typically 30 fps. The few games that did run at a higher framerate were not typically the most technically impressive games from a visual standpoint. Ninja Gaiden was a top tier game in terms of visuals and it also somehow ran at 60 fps. The game was an absolute technical marvel and it was a dream to play while being a beauty to behold.

I Now Write for Pixelvolt

I recently got a gig writing for PixelVolt and my first article written for them went live today. If anyone is interested it is available to read HERE and yes, it's about Ninja Gaiden. It's a new approach to talking about the game, although I guess not really as at the end of the day it's a bunch of praise for the game written under a slightly different context. I can't help loving what I love, people :P

I promise that going forward I will be tackling a diverse set of topics. The next one I am working on has to do with the fps genre and I promise no mention of Ninja Gaiden will be made.

Adieu

Basic Ninja Gaiden Tips

I LOVE Ninja Gaiden. LOVE IT. Any regular reader of mine is already acutely aware of this, and probably sick of hearing about the franchise on this blog. Well, those people can roll their eyes all they want but it's my blog and I will mention Ninja Gaiden as many times as I want. I am independent, defiant and need no audience.

Wait, come back!

Okay, okay, I won't mention Ninja Gaiden for a while after this, I promise.

So, for anyone who may be new to Ninja Gaiden and are finding themselves assaulted by insanity and wondering how the hell they are ever supposed to excel at the game, I have for you a few basic tips that you should be aware of. Just remember, this is Ninja Gaiden, not Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Onimusha, God of War, etc. It is its own beast so be cognizant of that fact and treat it as such (not bashing any of those, btw.  love some of them, like others, blah blah. Ninja Gaiden is just in a league of its own in terms of both mechanics and difficulty).

The tips:

1) ALWAYS BLOCK. On the xbox, I basically hold the L trigger at all times. This should be your default position, and from there you can flick the stick to roll, initiate attacks, etc.

2) Use shurikens to interrupt enemy attacks, and also to cancel your own attacks (this becomes more natural with time....at first, use them for stuns). This will create windows for you within which you can initiate a pre-emptive attack.

3) X+A (or X and [] on the Playstation platform) will allow you to jump towards the nearest enemy. It is a tracking jump. Once you get near them, press A again to jump off of their heads. This stuns them and allows you to roll towards them and initiate a free attack.

4) Blocking reduces the damage taken from incendiary shurikens. If you time a dodge just as they explode, you completely negate the damage (due to the i-frames afforded you during an evasion) but before you get the timing for that down, at least make sure you're blocking when they blow up.

5) The center camera button is your friend. Use it often!

Good luck and again, remember that Ninja Gaiden requires a very different mindset and playstyle than does say DMC. You don't get openings, you create them. Enemies are not there for you to kill; they're there to kill you.

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth Review

Muramasa Rebirth is an enhanced port of a 2009 Wii game entitled Muramasa: The Demon Blade which was an excellent 2D side scrolling action role playing game that starred 2 characters: the princess Momohime and Kisuke, a ninja with, wait for it…..amnesia! Yes, amnesia, that old video game trope (I’ll save you the hassle of searching for the story section of this review and just tell you right now that if you are playing this game for the story you’re barking up the wrong proverbial tree).

When you begin the game you are tasked with choosing one of two stories to play through. Momohime’s  or Kisuke’s. Depending upon which choice you make you’ll either be travelling east or west; if you choose Momohime you’ll play as a princess possessed by a vengeful spirit in search of 108 legendary demon blades. Choose Kisuke and you’ll play as a ninja with amnesia……in search of 108 legendary demon blades. The stories both evolve (some might say devolve) from there but frankly, I paid very little attention. What did get my attention, however, was both the audio/visual presentation and the gameplay. The game is simply gorgeous, the music is great and it plays like a dream.

Left Trigger to Dodge and Customizable Controls

I have a gripe that I need to let out. This gripe is with the developers of hack n slash games. Actually, I have another gripe that just came to mind, which I will get to in a few minutes. The second gripe is with ALL developers. Let's get to the first one.

Gripe Number One

Hack n Slash developers, let me point something out to you: Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) was released in 2004. Almost six years ago to the day. And yet, almost none of you seemed to have received the very simple message: The right stick is not for dodging. Map that shit to the left stick! It's really easy: Left trigger is block, and the left stick is dodge. Simple, no? Here's why it's way better this way:

Speed

Think about it:

I'm in the middle of a combo. It's a four hit combo and I am just inputting the command for the fourth hit when I see one of my enemies initiate an attack. What do I do? I dodge, of course (or parry if that mechanic is built into the game) (and yes, you could also utilize a move with frame advantage and offset their attack (depending on the game) but shut up and bear with me here lol). So, where are my fingers at the moment I want to initiate the dodge? One is on the left stick, the other is on a face button, inputting the combo command. So, if the dodge command is mapped to the left stick, I can immediately dodge as soon as I see the enemy begin their attack animation, with absolutely no delay, correct?

The PS Vita Might Just Be Portable Heaven

Check out this snapshot of my PS Vita home screen (this is just the first panel, there are actually several of them but this one alone makes my point):

If you ask me, this is pretty badass. Sure, it could be argued that the 5 Vita titles shown are rehashes, and I can't disagree. I can only add the caveat that it's still early in the handheld's life cycle, and there are many titles for the Vita that are not rehashes/ports etc. I just REALLY happen to love Ninja Gaiden, DOA, EDF and Muramasa.

Speaking of Muramasa, if you've played the Wii game and enjoyed it (if you didn't you're dead inside, because the game is fantastic) (I'm only half serious), you should check out the upgraded port on the Vita if you ever get the chance. Yes, that's right, I said upgraded. The Vita is not only capable of playing a Wii game, it's capable of playing an upgraded version of a Wii game. The game POPS on the Vita screen. Simply gorgeous to look at and it now features fully customizable controls, so if you hated having to use up on the stick to jump, well, you can now change that. Personally, I still rock that method, but I also enabled the x button to act as a jump, so I have the best of both worlds.

As for the other games on that screen, sure, they are PS1 games, but they are enhanced on the Vita and even if they weren't, you're still playing PS1 games on the go, as well as iterations of current console games, all on the same system with the best screen of any handheld ever. And I do mean ever. It's stunning how good games look on it.

Play Super Mario Crossover

UPDATE: Xbox Live Error 800704DC

Just a quick update regarding the issue outlined in this post. Microsoft support finally came up with a solution, which was (of course) one that I had suggested to them during the initial phone call. 

*sigh*

Said solution being them giving me a one month free Xbox Live gold code which they finally did this past Saturday. Of course, when I went to redeem it I received yet another error ( this transaction cannot be processed at this time, please try again blah blah). It took me a few minutes to figure out the problem; it was a free gold weekend and so it was disallowing the redemption of free gold since it registered me as already having it. Once the weekend promotion was over I was able to redeem the code and download my profile.

Finally!

So for anyone who encounters this issue, just make sure to tell the support staff that you know what the issue is and unplugging your console and plugging it back in is NOT going to address it. 

Oh, btw, those who know me won't be surprised to learn that rather than play Kingdoms of Amalur, as I had been planning on doing, the first thing I played was Ninja Gaiden 3: RE.....I think I'm starting to become a parody of myself at this point. 

11 Years and 1000's of Hours of Gameplay Later I'm Still Learning How To Play Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) released in 2004, and since then I have played it (and its various incarnations) for thousands of hours. Literally. And even still I find myself, from time to time, learning new things. Either through experimentation or by watching videos/reading other people's forum posts. Just a couple of minutes ago I learned a new boss fight strategy while watching a Ninja Gaiden Black karma run video (Master Ninja difficulty) on YouTube. (For those who play the game(s), if you didn't know, you can OL UT Murai (if there's essence available) by first hitting him with >Y. Then simply OL UT him on the comedown.)

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying this depth is exclusive to Ninja Gaiden. Nor even video games.  Nor is this the only (or even close to the biggest) reason I love the series. It's just a small aspect of it that I find to be really cool and part of the reason I keep playing after all of these years. 

And for my long time readers, yes, I am still yammering on and on about Ninja Gaiden. It will never end so 

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus (Vita) Ninja Race Mode Tips

I have thus far only completed Ninja Race 01 (there are 5 courses) but I can offer some tips. These tips are for playing as Ryu Hayabusa; I have not yet tried playing with any of the secondary characters.

-Lunar Staff is obtained after beating Chapter 1 in the story mode- do this first.

-The Lunar features quick combo kills using weak, weak, strong. This is much faster than square, square, triangle, shuriken cancel, triangle with the dragon sword.

-The Lunar is also fantastic for crowd control, unlike the DS. Standing neutral strong, either stand alone or chained into a combo is good, as is the standard weak, weak, weak, strong strong. A good one for quick limb detachments is chains starting with towards and square. This is a poke with range and power and like the other combos mentioned above it seems to grant some crowd protection in the same way that VF combo strings do. The dragon sword does not carry this advantage.

-The Dragon Sword does have the flying swallow, but it whiffs too much sometimes and therefore wastes too much time. There's no whiffing with the Lunar staff.

-Minimize ET/UT usage. Keep it to the purple essence or health if you don't need it. You'll definitely want to avoid using the green essence for them as green grants time bonuses. The white essence grants speed and power bonuses so try not to utilize that for ET's/UT's either, unless you're at max speed/power or you're in trouble.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus Announced

This was announced last month but I just now found out:

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/19/ninja-gaiden-sigma-2-plus-coming-to-vita-in-early-2013/

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is coming to the Vita in "early 2013." This is completely expected but still great news for Ninja Gaiden fans, even if NGS2 was a ste'p down in terms of quality (as compared to the 'vanilla' NG2).

Any Classic or Legendary Games This Generation?

NOTE: This is an older post that was sitting in my drafts. 

Here is a list of games that I think I'm safe referring to as legendary in the sense that a significant portion of the video game community see them as being the cream of the crop, and the review scores for each of these games were very high. Of course, I personally don't like all of these games, and neither will you, but I think it's inarguable that they are highly esteemed and influential, and/or were important/noteworthy at the time of release:

Nostalgia: Do You Experience It? Also, A Hypothetical Situation.

Nostalgia: Do You Experience It? Also, A Hypothetical Situation.

Many gamers experience a phenomenon referred to as nostalgia. What this is, for those who do not know, is a feeling of longing for the past that is fraught with (often times) bittersweet sentimentality. Specifically, in reference to video games, nostalgia is a longing for a time in which certain video games systems, and certain video games, were current. The gamer was younger, and they were experiencing beloved games from what is now their past as brand new, cutting edge, and exciting. An example of this is someone remembering their  birthday in 1991, a day during which they received a Sega Genesis console with two games and they spent 10 hours that day playing those games with their brother, and hours more every day of the week for years afterwards. They remember this and they long for those days. They wish they could go back to them, and they feel like nothing these days reaches that level of emotional impact and/or just plain fun.

Ninja Gaiden (Arcade), II (NES) and III (NES) Heading to the 3DS?

Possibly fantastic news for old school Ninja Gaiden fans: Ninja Gaiden (arcade), Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES) and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (NES) appear to be heading to the 3DS via the virtual console feature.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.jsp?title=ninja+gaiden&fromHome=fromHome

That is, if you believe the listings for said games on the ESRB's website (linked above; screenshot below). I do, as news pertaining to the addition of other games heading to digital distribution channels like Xbox Live Arcade and Nintendo's Virtual Console have been leaked via ESRB listings in the past.

Please, please let this be true! If it is, that means there will be FOUR Ninja Gaiden titles on the 3DS (there's (apparently...unless it has been cancelled) an original Ninja Gaiden title in development for the little handheld that could). FOUR!

If this is indeed true, will you be purchasing any of these? I know for sure I will buy Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (one of my all time favourite games). Ninja Gaiden arcade is a probable, but not certain buy. Depends upon the price. I'm not a big fan of it but it's decent. I'll probably skip Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, as I don't really like that entry in the series.

P.S. As of now, the first NES Ninja Gaiden title (simply titled Ninja Gaiden) is not listed for the 3DS. I don't know why, and I hope that changes, because it's an excellent game, and even though I own it on the NES and the Wii I will still purchase it for the 3DS. It's not as good as the sequel that was released a year later on the NES, but it's a very good game in its own right.

Ruminating on Destruction (The Demise of Classic Video Game Franchises)

Back in January I wrote a blog post entitled “My Favourite Franchises Are Being Destroyed”

In light of recent events, I have taken it upon myself to produce a follow up to said post. I am not sure what form the following will take (measured, rational assessment of things as I see them, an angry, emotional, irrational rant, or some combination of the two) but I do know that I am compelled to revisit this perhaps tired, but in my mind terribly poignant point: Classic video game franchises are being utterly raped in this seventh video game generation.

R.I.P. Ninja Gaiden 1988-2012

Am I living in a fucking nightmare? I have been pinching myself so hard I have airplane sized welts all over my body, so I suppose that I am in fact awake, which means I really am witnessing the destruction of the Ninja Gaiden series. IGN has just weighed in with a hilariously bad 3/10 review (yes, 3/10), player feedback on the forums has been mostly bad to downright terrible, and frankly, I fucking toldyouso.