All great action games have “dance” that you have to first learn before you can excel at combat, and Ninja Gaiden Black’s dance is the most fun to figure out and execute. He’s extremely mobile he can run on walls, use a jumping dash slash called the flying swallow to go right through enemies, jump off enemy heads, and by timing a heavy slash right when you land, you can immediately suck up essence and execute an extremely powerful ultimate technique. Ryu Hayabusa’s movement feels better than just about any other action game out there. Mindless violence and party style games are fun, but theres nothing quite like a good story-rich game to tickle your gaming taste buds. But fortunately, Ninja Gaiden is great about providing you with the tools necessary for dealing with its intense difficulty. With an over the shoulder camera that brings the player closer to the action than ever before, fights in God of War mirror the pantheon of Norse creatures Kratos will face. It’s hyper-focused on non-stop aggression, with enemies that would just absolutely smother you with a barrage of sword slashes, shurikens, gunfire, rockets, and all other forms of nastiness.
While Devil May Cry always served as the prototypical “stylish” action game, Ninja Gaiden Black offered something different.
