Returning from the grave has its own problems. Tecmo spaced save points far apart, meaning players must wade through the easy segments before reaching the spot they died.
Sigma's difficulty makes these issues much worse. In designing Ninja Gaiden, developer Team Ninja went old school, programming relentless, oftentimes cheap enemies that unleash life draining attacks. The difficulty doesn't suck, and patient, skilled gamers will feel a great sense of accomplishment beating Ninja Gaiden Sigma instead of some easy platform adventure, but it does grate on the nerves, especially when the camera obscures enemies. If the developers intend to torture people with punishing artificial intelligence, then they need to program a fair, technically sound video game.
Despite these faults, Tecmo delivers the quintessential action adventure, one full of bloody decapitations; multi hit combos and memorable characters, some of which take up the entire screen. It also did a masterful job with the PS3 hardware, tweaking the aged Xbox graphics to create one of the system's most gorgeous games. Not only does everything move at a lightning fast 60 frames per second, it looks amazing at 1080p, some of the blurry cut scenes notwithstanding.
It also contains bonus content. In addition to the Dragon's Claw & Tiger's Fang, gamers will play a separate campaign as Fiend Hunter, Rachel. She moves a bit too slow and controls like a truck, but her levels offer mild amusement.
Finally, the game features limited SIXAXIS motion control. Before executing a Ninpo attack, gamers shake the controller to power it up. It's a subtle feature but at least it tries to do something innovative by use the most forgotten feature of Sony's PS3 controller.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma, warts and all, demands everyone's attention, particularly PS3 owners that never experienced the Xbox games. It is without question one of the most intense experiences on a console. However, its faults (poor design choices, really) keep it from being triple A.
Final Score: 8 (out of 10)
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