4.5/5 ★ – oldultan's review of Ninja Gaiden Black.

Now that I understand the mechanics of the franchise better after having beaten Sigma 1 and vanilla 2 twice and Razor’s Edge once, I had a much better time playing the first game this time around. While it doesn’t live up to the highs of vanilla 2 for me, this is obviously the more consistent game. I see so many seeds of the trends popularized by FromSoftware here, even moments of coherence of world design that make you lean back and smile. The combat is the main draw here of course, and the game is at its worst when the camera ruins a platforming section or you have to endure some gimmicky BS like the rocket trooper radio tower fight (that whole level in general sucks). But just like NG2, the highs make up for the handful of lows. There isn’t anything like this game, folks.