It has been well documented by now that Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a remake of the classic Xbox title, Ninja Gaiden Black, however since, for some reason, I did not have the pleasure of playing this game, I will be concentrating on telling you why Ninja Gaiden Sigma is one of the best games on the Playstation 3 rather than making any comparisons to it’s Xbox counterpart, so if you want to know why you should part with your hard earned cash then read on.

Lets get one thing straight from the start, this game is not for someone looking for an easy ride, it’s hard and there is no escape from this, especially when you have hundreds of ninja’s constantly breathing down your neck, but then would you have it any other way?

The game begins as Ryu is returning to his village, only to discover that it has been set alight by the evil Lord Doku, who has also taken the Dark Dragon Blade, obviously Ryu is not happy about this and wants his revenge, so he sets out to get the sword back and destroy Doku, however before he will be able to do this he must get though the hundreds of ninjas, spirits, military agents and numerous bosses standing in the way.

As is in similar fighting games, Ninja Gaiden Sigma has a few different combinations of moves available to help you cut through the enemies, the main attacks are assigned to the square and triangle buttons, with projectile weapons using the circle button. As you progress through the game you will learn new moves which are performed by using a combination of buttons, there is quite a good range of these moves and when combined with your ninja magic techniques (also known as Ninpo) they have a devastating effect on the enemy.

Ryu has been animated superbly, you would maybe expect to see some jarring when the fighting gets fast and furious but you don’t, the animation stays smooth throughout. Ryu has also been given some pretty impressive non-combat moves, for example he can run along walls or run on the surface of water and while not being crucial to the game itself, these are a pretty nice addition to the overall feel of the game.

Later in the game you come across a new character called Rachel, she too is playable and sports a large Warhammer and a whip, although she isn’t quite as impressive in combat as Ryu, she is still a nice addition to the game, Rachel is also given some of her own missions which gives the game a bit of variation.

Graphically this is one good looking game, the cut scenes being especially impressive, in fact they look that good you could watch them all day. The only criticism of the graphics would be that the backgrounds can become quite bland after playing for a while, however with this minor detail aside it would be hard to criticise anything else, the frame rate is perfect (as briefly mentioned earlier) and some of the in game effects look incredible, Team Ninja must be proud of the job done here.

If you are a Ninja loving PS3 owner or just an action junkie then Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a must own game, it grabs you with it’s stunning gameplay right from the beginning and just doesn’t let go, sure it is very difficult and therefore won’t be instantly accessible to everyone, but if you stick in there and master it you will reap the rewards of what is one of the Playstation 3’s must have games. Highly recommended, enough said.