Brevity
05-14-2003, 04:01 PM
May 14, 2003 - We had a chance to get up close and personal with Ninja Gaiden and came away with several new facts about the game in addition to the basic information we posted here The game will use one button for your primary weapon attack and one button for your secondary weapon attack. There will be plenty of weapons in the game but no specific number has been given at this point. The weapons are roughly divided into melee weapons for the primary attacks and ranged weapons for the secondary attacks. We observed the katana and nunchakus in action on the melee side and throwing stars and the bow and arrow on the ranged side of things. You'll be able to unlock different kinds of swords, flaming arrows, ninja bombs and that thing that looks like a spike with a rope attached to it. You can carry a huge number of weapons in Ryu inventory and assign whichever ones you want to the primary and secondary slots.
The animation in Ninja Gaiden looks outstanding. Every move he makes is lightning quick but still well defined and easy to recognize. When he jumps near a wall, he can automatically stick to the wall for a split second for the purposes of pulling off another move. He can run along walls for a brief spell, and pull double jumps off of solid surfaces. In one example we saw he double jumped his way up a narrow passage way, wall-ran to the second level of a room that didn't have any stairs and run straight up a wall and backflip into a somersault. All of his animations are ninja-fied so that even walking to a ledge so he can hop down and hang from it is performed by doing a cartwheel into the ledge hang. He can grab onto horizontal bars and branches and perform gymnastic looping swings before catapulting himself through an environment.
The camera system could be one of the best to date in any videogame. Team Ninja's experience with the super fast DOA fighting games means that swinging the camera to the right place to catch the most dramatic angle of Ryu's moves is a snap. The camera will intelligently move around corners to follow Ryu as he runs down hallways or maybe even switch to a new position when the situation calls for it. Trying to trick the camera into doing something stupid by doubling back the way you came won't work either. The system reads the situation and instantly tries to position the camera in a functional place that makes the game look cool.
The combat is fast and frantic. Button mashing the attack moves will unleash combos and flurries of attacks that will chop enemies down in seconds. The enemies will be tough too. We saw an 86 hit combo dismantle a giant walking skeleton who's had his AI turned down to "timid" and Itagaki still claims the final enemies will be even tougher. Juggling attacks, combining melee and ranged attacks in one ferocioius outburst will be the bread and butter of Ninja Gaiden. The first person camera can be used for more accurate aiming on throwing stars and arrows. When you launch a melee attack from first person camera perspective, the game will instantly pullout for a third person view that will be a little bit closer to the action than normal because of the intelligence of the camera system.
Tecmo won't announce what the Xbox Live functionality will be in Ninja Gaiden until a later date. The HUD has a meter for health, ninja magic and green jewel in the upper left corner that may or may not have anything do with the Xbox Live component of the game.
IGN will have more on Ninja Gaiden one way or another in the coming days, weeks and months.
The animation in Ninja Gaiden looks outstanding. Every move he makes is lightning quick but still well defined and easy to recognize. When he jumps near a wall, he can automatically stick to the wall for a split second for the purposes of pulling off another move. He can run along walls for a brief spell, and pull double jumps off of solid surfaces. In one example we saw he double jumped his way up a narrow passage way, wall-ran to the second level of a room that didn't have any stairs and run straight up a wall and backflip into a somersault. All of his animations are ninja-fied so that even walking to a ledge so he can hop down and hang from it is performed by doing a cartwheel into the ledge hang. He can grab onto horizontal bars and branches and perform gymnastic looping swings before catapulting himself through an environment.
The camera system could be one of the best to date in any videogame. Team Ninja's experience with the super fast DOA fighting games means that swinging the camera to the right place to catch the most dramatic angle of Ryu's moves is a snap. The camera will intelligently move around corners to follow Ryu as he runs down hallways or maybe even switch to a new position when the situation calls for it. Trying to trick the camera into doing something stupid by doubling back the way you came won't work either. The system reads the situation and instantly tries to position the camera in a functional place that makes the game look cool.
The combat is fast and frantic. Button mashing the attack moves will unleash combos and flurries of attacks that will chop enemies down in seconds. The enemies will be tough too. We saw an 86 hit combo dismantle a giant walking skeleton who's had his AI turned down to "timid" and Itagaki still claims the final enemies will be even tougher. Juggling attacks, combining melee and ranged attacks in one ferocioius outburst will be the bread and butter of Ninja Gaiden. The first person camera can be used for more accurate aiming on throwing stars and arrows. When you launch a melee attack from first person camera perspective, the game will instantly pullout for a third person view that will be a little bit closer to the action than normal because of the intelligence of the camera system.
Tecmo won't announce what the Xbox Live functionality will be in Ninja Gaiden until a later date. The HUD has a meter for health, ninja magic and green jewel in the upper left corner that may or may not have anything do with the Xbox Live component of the game.
IGN will have more on Ninja Gaiden one way or another in the coming days, weeks and months.