HIGH The Ninja Gaiden series is finally available on PC!

LOW It’s a barebones port offering few additional features or graphic options.

WTF It seems a little suspicious that only the source code for the original Itagaki versions were lost…

Ryu and Rachel are back to kill again! Not content with slaughtering thousands of evildoers since the series was initially revamped in 2004, they’re back to murder on PC after more than fifteen years of console exclusivity. There have been a few notable speed bumps along the way, but the core experience still stands as some of the finest action ever crafted.

There are three games in this collection — Ninja Gaiden Sigma (2007), Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (2009), and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge (2013) and right out the gate, players are going to argue about which versions should have been included. More on that later.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a strong start for the collection — it’s a graphically overhauled version of Ninja Gaiden Black (2005) with new and retuned content including new enemies, costumes and a fully-playable Rachel with her own missions. There’s a lot of great content here. Combat is more precise and measured than later entries in the series, and the semi-open world approach is a joy to explore. It’s challenging, but rarely unfair outside of the occasional dodgy camera angle. (PROTIP: if this happens, just block and roll!)

While some may regard Sigma as slightly inferior when compared to Ninja Gaiden Black, in my view there’s not much of a gulf in quality between them. A few easy puzzles have been removed, some of the new enemies aren’t great and certain challenges have been reworked, but I certainly won’t be hurling bricks at Team Ninja’s offices protesting over any of this. It’s unfortunate that side character Rachel’s missions are mandatory given that her combat style isn’t as fleshed out as protagonist Ryu’s, but I still enjoy using her, and her Biker outfit from the Vita version Sigma Plus is a nice little unexpected bonus.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, however, is a less successful reimagining of its source material. Ninja Gaiden 2 (2008) was known for its brutality and excess, throwing waves upon waves of enemy soldiers at Ryu with reckless abandon. Enemy limbs could be amputated during combat, opening them up to a swift, bloody and beautiful execution known as an ‘Obliteration Technique’.

It was bloody, it was brilliant, and absolute masterclass in combat design. However, Sigma 2‘s approach drastically dilutes the original concept. Enemy numbers for each encounter became a fraction of what they once were, the proceedings were overall easier, cutting an enemy apart would spray out a mist of purple smoke rather than blood, and the whole thing was censored and toned down to a ludicrous degree.

There were some additions — new giant-sized bosses, more (mandatory) playable female characters in the form of Rachel, Momiji and Ayane, and a few of the rough edges were sanded down, but the result was that it was simply a less interesting game at its core. Not a bad one, though — it still holds its own against its contemporaries thanks to slick and weighty combat. However, it’s still in the unfortunate position of being an inferior copy of the stunningly violent and satisfying original.

Then comes Razor’s Edge. This one is in the unique position of being superior to its original incarnation — a good thing, because Ninja Gaiden 3 was the weakest entry in the series thanks to a massive step down in bloodshed, difficulty, available weapons, general control and other issues apparently aimed at making the game more palatable to a larger audience.

Razor’s Edge did a surprisingly good job of taking that original mediocre work and buffing it back to respectability. The gore’s back, there are a ton more weapons and magical attacks, and the difficulty/general balancing has been boosted and given an overhaul in response to complaints from series veterans. It’s not perfect game, but it is a huge improvement. However, the additional focus on ‘cinematic’ kill sequences means that there’s a slight (but annoying) loss of control while Ryu chases enemies across the screen, and he’ll occasionally attack the wrong enemy.

Still, I enjoyed Razor’s Edge more than I expected. It has some weak boss design (the Dinosaur and Goddess boss fights are excruciatingly terrible) and enemies have too much health and can escape combos after being hit, but it also feels genuinely great when the action flows and limbs and heads go flying all over the place. The bottom line is that regardless of any issues it has, it’s a marked improvement over the original Ninja Gaiden 3.

A couple of things worth mentioning about this collection as a whole is that though most of the content is faithfully replicated, certain modes online modes such as the tag team challenges in Sigma 2 and the adversarial battles from 3 are missing. Not a huge deal, but worth noting. Also, I hate to say it but this PC port is weak — it feels like emulation, there are no graphical options whatsoever, the resolution can’t be changed, and an SSD won’t help with content streaming or loading times as they’re ‘accurately’ emulating the Playstation 3 version. Hell, it can’t even be exited with Alt+F4 like a normal PC program. It opens in its own window and can be resized to full screen where it’ll adopt the resolution to the current setting — that’s it.

As a result, there are two ways to look at this collection. One is that it’s an undercooked, thin offering that does the bare minimum necessary to resell three legendary action games to a new generation of buyers. The other perspective is that these titles are still some of the best action games ever created, and still worth an action fan’s time despite not having many bells and whistles.

Sure, it’s a shame Bluepoint Games weren’t drafted to take care of this collection of and give it some real love, but what the hell. I still had a great time revisiting them, and my only real criticism is that Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was a poor pick in a world where Ninja Gaiden 2 exists. It’s a shame that more of an effort wasn’t made to jazz these up, but it’s still great that the classics are finally on PC.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei-Tecmo. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S/PS4/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the games were completed. Additionally, I’ve put thousands of hours in the series to date. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language and Suggestive Themes. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is a compilation of three action games in which players assume the roles of Ryu Hayabusa and his companions through a series of adventures. As players traverse various locations (e.g., a ninja village, ancient ruins, modern day cities), they use swords, axes, scythes, and throwing stars to kill human enemies and fantastical creatures (e.g., demons, dragons, skeletons) in frenetic melee-style combat. Some attacks result in decapitation and/or dismemberment of enemies, often from a close-up perspective. Large bloodstains and severed torsos can be seen on the ground. A handful of sequences depict additional acts of intense violence: characters impaled through the chest with swords and spikes; slow-motion depictions of characters getting dismembered; a character decapitating a human minion, resulting in large blood-splatter effects. Female characters are usually depicted wearing outfits that expose deep cleavage; some characters’ breasts jiggle in an exaggerated manner during combat and cutscenes. In one cutscene, a female character emerges from a dark pool with streaks of blood on her body; her breasts and buttocks are briefly visible before she transforms into a boss demon. The word “f**k” can be heard in the dialogue. (Rachel’s great.)

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. It’s playable without being able to hear the sound, but there are going to be issues when offscreen enemies are attacking. The sound cues help players realize that projectiles might be heading their way, and the lack of visual cues will lead to a few cheap hits.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls. FYI, it cannot be played with a keyboard and mouse.

HIGH Landing that new Break Blow animation. Yeah! Smack them in the face!

LOW As a value proposition, it’s clearly inferior to its predecessor in terms of content.

WTF Rachel and Momiji don’t make the cut but Raidou and Phase 4 do? Ugh.

It doesn’t feel like it, but it’s been quite a while since the last Dead or Alive — the previous installment was DOA in 2012. It was an excellent rebirth for the series given that it was no longer under the wing of original creator Tomonobu Itagaki, and despite some questionable additions in the form of irritating childlike characters and some truly disgusting DLC practices, it was, at heart, still a decent brawler that I put a lot of time into. Now Dead or Alive 6 steps into the ring, and unfortunately it’s looking a little tired.

Two new characters have been added – the tough as nails street fighter Diego and the horrid ‘failed cosplay scientist’ NiCO, though there’s a lot of missing faces who were previously in the roster. The Virtua Fighter characters are all gone, which makes sense given that they were guest characters on loan from Sega, but Ninja Gaiden‘s Rachel and Momiji are also gone, which should be a criminal offense as far as I’m concerned.

The fighting system will be familiar to returning players, as it still features the rock-paper-scissors approach to countering attacks that the series is known for. Holds beat strikes, strikes beat throws, and throws beat holds. The trick is to predict what the opponent going for, and then responding appropriately or forcing them into the wrong choice through aggressive tactics. Naturally, the characters all have their strengths and weaknesses, with swift characters like Christie able to whip in faster attacks than slower characters who have more powerful throw mechanics, such as Bass or Tina.

The new Fatal Stun attack replaces the Critical Burst, and offers the chance to land a single attack that forces the opponent into a stun state they can’t hold out of, instead of requiring a certain stun threshold first. It’s not a great addition in my opinion, and has led to a lot of boring, identikit combos from players I’ve encountered online at a frequency that’s much higher than previous games in the series. Landing one move, then dropping a long, precanned and inescapable combo seems at odds with the traditional freeform flow of the series’ combat.

The other big addition is the use of a super meter which allows for special holds that can catch every type of strike, a Fatal Stun combo, and the new finishing Break Blow, which often cinematically zooms in to show someone getting punched in the face in a satisfying manner. That said, there’s also a weird form of censorship at work here — the characters that look most like children have the finishing blow cut away from the close up of them getting smacked in the mouth. Isn’t that curious? If they’re the age Team Ninja claims they are, why not show the Break Blow landing in the same way as every other character?

Otherwise, much of the content seems low effort or recycled from previous entries. Many stages appear to be less-interesting copycats of previous stages, with smaller arenas and less spectacular effects when fighters are thrown through. There’s not one area that’s even half as visually spectacular and distinct as the Demon’s Church, the Great Wall of China or the Dragon Hills arenas from Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate – a game which released almost fifteen years ago as of this review.

The modes available are fairly standard. Story is absolute gunk this time around, presented like the most terrible fanfiction imaginable, constantly flitting between absurd and often meaningless events with little or no build up, and twenty second load times for brief, single-round matches. There’s also standard arcade mode, time attack and survival modes as well… though the tag mode is entirely absent. The only online mode available at present is ranked (no inviting friends into private lobbies) and the only truly new addition is a quest mode.

Unfortunately, quest mode isn’t exciting. It simply hands out three tasks to complete during a fight, such as landing a particular move, or doing a certain amount of damage in a combo. Every time one of these quests is completed, players are rewarded with gold, trivia, and a type of costume currency. What’s truly baffling, though, is that said costume currency is handed out to random characters. Anyone hoping to unlock Tina or Christie’s costumes may well find themselves receiving parts for Raidou’s wardrobe instead.

It’s a ridiculous and irritating reward system, and quest mode is the only viable option for unlocking new outfits, given that finishing other modes typically hand out one or two costume pieces instead of several hundred at a time. There’s tons of awful color swaps in there as well. Jann Lee’s Game of Death tracksuit tribute totally loses its appeal when it’s dyed navy blue, for instance.

The online quality is variable — I experienced everything from near-perfect connections to ones that were utterly infuriating. A game centered around the ability to hold certain attack strings is simply not enjoyable when the inputs don’t register in time due to network latency and the connection filter isn’t reliable.

Dead or Alive 5 was riddled with microtransactions and DLC, and Dead or Alive 6 looks set to continue that abominable tradition. Nyotengu and the abysmal Phase 4 are already being held hostage as DLC characters despite being ready before launch, and the first of (I presume) many season passes has already been released at the exorbitant price point of almost a hundred dollars. DLC for skins, costumes and even characters isn’t anything new to the genre, but Dead or Alive 5‘s went far, far beyond the pale and history seems to be on course for a repeat performance.

Under all the questionable choices, cut content and overall lack of value, Dead or Alive 6 is still a decent fighter. That said, many of the problems are hard to look past, and it feels like a bare-bones effort given the amount of recycled content on display. With an inferior roster, dull stage design and the hard reset on purchased content from anyone who was crazy enough to buy into the exorbitant amounts of DLC released during DOA 5‘s lifespan, it’s hard to recommend Dead or Alive 6 as it currently stands.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei-Tecmo. It is currently available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4 Pro.
Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 10 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Language, Sexual Themes and Violence. The violence is minimal for a fighting game, in that it’s all stylishly executed rather than resulting in someone having their lips torn off. No, it earned this for showing off loads of skin and that’s it. And possibly because the story mode is so insultingly done that it could cause brain damage.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There’s little to prevent Deaf or hard of hearing players from experiencing the game as intended — aside from certain audio cues signalling incoming attacks, the majority of the action is easily discernible through the visuals alone.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls

HIGH The Berserk Armor transformation is appropriately overpowered.

LOW That Femto boss fight is absolutely terrible.

WTF Witnessing Zodd ride a standard-size horse.

It’s fair to say that I’m a big fan of the Berserk franchise. For those unfamilair with the series, it’s a spectacularly bloody dark fantasy tale with some surprisingly excellent storytelling – especially given that the protagonist’s usual reaction to anything is to start cutting dudes in half with a massive sword that probably weighs about five hundred pounds. It’s a personality trait which should translate well to a Dynasty Warriors hack and slash, right?

Anyone who’s ever played a Musou title before will be right at home with what’s on offer here. The player is dropped into the middle of a battlefield filled to the gunnels with foes and given certain tasks to accomplish, ranging from simply murdering everything in sight to breaking open escape routes for allies or annihilating strategically-important targets such as catapults and  siege engines. The player will be often put in charge of main character Guts during the story mode, through rarely the option to control one of his allies will also present itself.

The story is mostly told through sizable anime cutscenes ripped straight out of the recent Berserk movie trilogy, though there’s some obvious censorship in effect. Lots of horrible things still happen, but intestines slopping out of torsos are often cut out and all nudity is blurred. Later on as the narrative extends beyond the scope of these movies, the developers introduce some largely decent original CG cutscenes to let players know how things are progressing. there are also some terrible in-engine sequences where the animation for character models is practically nonexistent.

On the battlefield, most enemies don’t stand a prayer of a chance against Guts and pals. They exist simply to be massacred en masse, letting players rack up dozens of kills in the blink of an eye. That said, enemy officers can withstand getting smashed in the face reasonably well, and then boss encounters pop up from time to time. The most remarkable of these are the Apostles, which are hulking monstrosities that can take a real pounding before they drop.

Aiding Guts in his fight to pulverize every living thing is an arsenal of continually-upgrading weapons. As in the source material, his circumstances continually change as the storyline develops, so he goes from having a couple of basic throwing knives to carrying around a giant cannon and some other assorted knickknacks like a repeating crossbow and improvised hand grenades.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is a pretty easy game overall, with Guts nearly always having a clear advantage over the enemy forces he comes across. The path to victory is simplistic – annihilating cannon fodder fills up a Frenzy gauge which allows him to start dishing out some serious pain and then fills up his Death Blow gauge. This allows for a massive sweeping attack that will level anything in his path, or once a certain set of armor is obtained, the ability to transform into a bloodthirsty force of nature that goes seriously crazy. It’s an enjoyable gameplay loop, though it does wear thin over the fifteen to twenty hours of the story mode.

With all that said, I do have to point out that the Femto battle is absolute bullshit. Whoever thought that a boss encounter which frequently slows the player’s movement speed by half while chucking tornadoes at them should be frog-marched into the nearest staff room and given a stern talking to.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk also, unfortunately, continues the Koei Tecmo tradition of inferior translation work on their niche titles. It’s never impossible to tell what’s going on, but it certainly lacks grace and fluidity. A little quality control would have gone a long way towards eliminating the typos and grammatical errors scattered throughout.

Once the campaign is complete, players can also choose to revisit cleared stages in Free Mode so they can try out other playable characters such as elegant fencers Griffith and Serpico, spellcasting witch Schierke, or the raging bestial mountain that is Nosferatu Zodd. It’s an interesting diversion, though returning to completed stages lost its allure quickly.

There’s also an Endless Eclipse mode which has substantial rewards associated with it – clearing the campaign allows its deepest depths to be reached, with bonuses such as character skins and additional characters handed out for reaching certain milestones up to a hundred floors down. Checkpoints unlock every twenty levels, and all playable characters have their own rewards. It’s a decent addition to the package, but there’s not a huge amount of variety to be found within.

…And that’s about the gist of it. It’s certainly not the best way to experience the Berserk saga for the first time (I’d recommend the original manga or 1997 anime series instead) and it’s not the best example of a Musou game, but for established fans of Berserk who fancy engaging in some rampant slaughter, it should do the trick. Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo. It is currently available on PS4 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 17 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Mature and contains blood and gore, intense violence, language, partial nudity and sexual content. It’s a pretty brutal franchise, and whilst some of its excesses are toned down a bit for this release, it’s still a bloodsoaked journey throughout with some pretty nasty stuff happening to all involved.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The dialogue is all subtitled and most of the warning noises have accompanying on-screen prompts.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Being a 3DS and Kinect owner as well as a fan of Japanese robots/mechs, two neighboring games on the main exhibition hall of PAX East immediately caught my attention: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor for the Xbox 360 and Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the 3DS. Both games are updates to game franchises that were once considered innovative back when they were first released.

The original Steel Battalion was a severely flawed mech simulator most noted for its outrageously priced over-sized controller that featured two control sticks, foot pedals and dozens of buttons and knobs.

Spirit Camera is a spin-off to the Fatal Frame survival horror series that incorporated a unique gameplay convention of being able to only see and combat ghosts through the lens of mystical in-game camera.

In attempting to modernize the gameplay for both game series, the developers choose to incorporate some of the latest and most popular hardware gimmicks that video games today have to offer.

In the case of Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, rather than ask gamers to open their wallets for another ridiculous controller, the game controls are comprised of a standard 360 gamepad for movement/firing supplemented with Kinect motion gesturing used to simulate the complexities of commanding a VT (Vertical Tank), which is essentially a tank with legs.

In principle, this is a smart idea. The original Steel Battalion game took a cinéma-vérité approach to its gameplay and the Heavy Armor update follows that reality-based style.

During the 25 minute demo that I played (half training, half actual combat mission), I was motioning my arms to physically shake the hands of one of my co-pilots upon meeting him, standing up to peek outside of canopy of the VT, raising imaginary binoculars to my eyes to get a closer view of my targets and giving another squad-mate a fist bump upon completing training.

In piloting the actual VT, there were panels that need to be opened and closed, buttons that need to be pressed and levers that need to be push or pulled in order to perform functions like activating different weapons payloads, ventilate smoke in the claustrophobic cabin or bring up guard panels to protect the limited targeting window.

My sense of in-game immersion and depth perception was helped by the visual representation of my arms on screen as I moved my hands to complete various actions.

Throughout the casually paced training portion of the demo, the hybrid control scheme felt fairly intuitive and performed accurately. However, once the actual mission began and I mistakenly removed the visual hint aids, things became more of a struggle.

To peer into the tiny crosshair window to view the exterior and target enemies, required that I push both my hands forward in a downward motion.

Every time my VT was hit with heavy artillery, my view would get knocked back and require that I repeat the same two-handed downward motion to regain the crosshair view. This got old quick as I was hammered several times during the hectic combat mission.

It didn't help that the longer the demo went, the harder it seemed for the Kinect to keep sync with my body and pretty soon, it felt rather unresponsive and frustrating at times to perform the simplest of actions. I couldn't help, but wonder how easy it would have been to change views with a mere button press or thumbstick motion.

That's not to say there isn't value to the supplemental motion controls. As I said earlier, it does add a level of immersion with basic character interactions, but it can also harm the experience if it doesn't perform consistently and its over utilized for functions that could be handled more reliably through the gamepad.

So keeping in mind that I only played the demo once, I walked away with a mixed reaction to the overall experience to Heavy Armor.

While I appreciate the level of detail to the gameplay and commitment to the simulator experience, I was also worried that Heavy Armor would suffer a similar downfall of its predecessor: soul crushing difficulty.

There's unquestionable potential for new avenues of gameplay and player interaction by incorporating the Kinect sensor with a mech sim. Hopefully the final release will prove to be more consistent with its controls and perhaps there were more alternative control options I wasn't aware of that would make the game more accessible and entertaining.

The gameplay in Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, thankfully proved to be less problematic with the use of its gimmicks: the 3DS camera and gyro sensor.

Since the gameplay from the original Fatal Frame revolved around using an in-game camera for hunting ghosts, the concept of using the 3DS camera within an augmented reality framework is actually a fourth-wall breaking stroke of genius.

In the rather long demo I played at PAX East, Spirit Camera shifted between exploring an in-game world, conversing with a attractive female spirit and combating another ghastly figure in the augmented reality of the Boston Convention Center.

The first-person perspective of the game was handled by pointing the 3DS camera in the direction of where the player wants to view.

The demo also emphasized a unique gameplay method of scanning pages from a booklet that produced some haunting on-screen imagery and progressed the game forward.

In the short time that I spent with Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor and Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir I was pleasantly surprised to find two games that have strong roots in traditional gameplay that were also able to incorporate some of the newer gimmicks of modern gaming in intelligent and forward thinking ways appropriate to the subject matter of the game.

Whether these games can surpass the gimmick level of gameplay of games that utilized similar technologies before it, will be determined once these games are released. Spirit Camera is due out on April 13 and Heavy Armor is scheduled for release in early June.

Is Dead or Alive: Dimensions kiddy porn? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

The Dead or Alive series has never pretended to be anything but what it was. It featured nubile, scantily-clad women with entertaining breast physics that kicked and punched opponents across a fighting ring or stage. It was a game aimed squarely at young men and over the years it catered to that demographic to much success.

Dead or Alive has held the distinction of being a launch game for many new consoles so a 3DS version made sense. Young men might want to buy 3DSes too.

Apparently, it might not make much sense for Sweden. While gamers in the US and other territories had the option of picking up or not picking up a copy, Swedish gamers might never have the option.

It seems Nintendo of Europe has decided not to release the game in Sweden through its local distributor Bergsala. Dead or Alive Dimensions features girls under 18 (Kasumi, Kokoro and Ayane) and one of the features of the game is to snap pictures of the ladies.

It's unclear whether the game actually does break Swedish law, but as with many situations where gaming and the real world collide, this is probably just an overreaction on both sides. Some consumers have supposedly complained to retailers while others have supposedly threatened to do so. Nintendo of Europe seems to want no part of this and is not even going to bother releasing the game in that territory.

This is what distributor Bergsala told Swedish website Gamereactor:

"Nintendo of Europe is due to various circumstances have taken the decision not to distribute the game in Sweden. They do not want to go into detail about why, but says there are several reasons. So unfortunately I can not describe how Nintendo reasoning on this.

The game is not reported to the police of anyone as far as I know. However, I know that there were consumers who had threatened that the police notify the game. It need not mean that the game really is contrary to any Swedish law."

Sources: Gamereactor, Kotaku

HIGH The volleyball's not horrible.

LOW Everything else.

WTF All this emphasis on skin, and you can't zoom in any further?

Chest. Rear. Rear. Rear. Rear. Chest. Rear. Chest. Rear. Rear. Chest. Two girls licking ice cream. Rear. Chest…

What do the above words represent? That string of nouns is a shot-by-shot recounting of Dead or Alive: Paradise's opening cinematic. More effective than anything I could come up with myself, this description lets players know exactly the kind of experience they're getting, right from the opening moments.

Factually, Dead or Alive: Paradise is essentially a "game" where the point is to ogle virtual women in skimpy outfits between other "activities." It's true that there's some lightweight volleyball available, along with casino pastimes like Poker and Slots. It's also true that players can buy gifts for the women on fictional Zack Island (for the purpose of "building camaraderie" with v-ball partners) but to spend more than a moment on any of those aspects would be giving them too much credit.

No, the truth is that this game is all about amply-endowed women striking suggestive poses while the player watches and takes photos. Although this might sound like red-blooded American entertainment on its surface, Dead or Alive: Paradise is a shallow, empty-calorie indulgence without enough substance to keep anyone's attention for more than an hour at best. (And really, that's stretching it.) There's just no game here. Players will be able to see all that Paradise has to offer within the first fifteen minutes or so, and everything that comes after is just deadly-dull repetition.

For example, the volleyball only uses two buttons and can be learned in less than a minute. It possesses no real depth or technique. There is no impetus to practice, or to get better since there's nothing to work towards. Furthermore, the camera often keeps your character out of view and it can be difficult to gauge depth of field, resulting in some unnecessary misses. It's not terrible, but it's hardly more than a pointless minigame.

The relationship-building with teammates is a joke. Ostensibly, players are supposed to learn likes and dislikes of potential teammates, but in practice it only involves giving certain items to make them "like" you enough to partner up.  There's no face-to-face interaction or communication between characters outside of one-line rejections (or the rare approval) and the only source for learning the girls' preferences is trial and error. When a teammate I had been getting along with suddenly decided she didn't like me anymore, I had no idea why, and had no success in reconnecting with her. Thanks to the obtuse and artificial friendship system, I spent several in-game days without a teammate, wasting time and unable to get things back on track. Compelling stuff, this is not.

There are a number of other design shortcomings that drag the game down further, such as a lack of character-specific endings, the absence of a tournament mode or goals when playing volleyball, no win tallies or success rate percentages, no "world" outside Paradise's menu screens, no way to interact with characters besides giving gifts, and for a game that's all about letting players ogle the female body, it doesn't look particularly realistic (the breast physics are a bad joke) nor can the camera even zoom in to a decent degree! No matter which aspect is touched on, I absolutely fail to see the point of Dead or Alive: Paradise.

Don't misunderstand me—I don't object to the female form, nor am I a prude or conservative. The amount of virtual flesh on display is not something I'm against, and I'll happily go on record as saying such. However, flesh for flesh's sake is not something I support, nor is it good for video games in general. Without marrying any substantial content or meaningful context whatsoever to the visuals, this is the type of cheap titillation that only serves to reinforce the sex and/or violence gutter that Fox News and Roger Ebert perceive games to be in. No thanks. Rating: 1.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PSP. Approximately 2.5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains partial nudity, sexual themes, simulated gambling. It has been rated "M" for Mature players. It's kind of ironic, since I'd say that there's nothing mature about it, but the rating is appropriate. There is no violence or salty language, but this is certainly not the kind of stuff I would want my children playing. No need to explain—I think the screenshots speak for themselves.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: You shouldn't have any issues. There is barely any dialogue in the game to start with, and what is there comes with text subtitles. Also, since there's not much "game" in the game, there are definitely not any significant auditory cues needed to play. There are no accessibility barriers here.

HIGH Pulling off the dual-sword finishing combo that turns your opponent into the second-best thing since sliced bread.

LOW Stupid, pointless fetch-quests.

WTF Big-boobed sidekick gets her own helicopter and a bazooka, while I get little throwing stars and arrows.

Ninja Gaiden II, like its predecessor, is the kind of game that I am usually ready to write off as stupid and immature after about an hour of play time. Honestly, how else can one describe a game that features numerous patches of excessive frustration, a bunch of half-assed "get the key" quests, female characters with breasts as large as their freaking heads, and a horrendous story? However, whenever I play something like Ninja Gaiden II or its blood-splattered, equally ridiculous ilk, something strange happens just as I'm ready to place it in the "meh" category—I start having fun.

The premise behind Ninja Gaiden II is simple, as it was in the first title. The player is a ninja named Ryu. Within the player's plane of existence there are other ninjas and some demons along with other assorted snarling assholes that apparently don't like ninjas all that much. As a ninja, it is the player's job to eviscerate all of them. Got that? Good, because that's really all there is to it. Sure there's a bunch of nonsense about the resurrection of some snarling asshole that is bigger and badder than all the other snarling assholes in the game, but everything is so contrived and ludicrous that it isn't worth trying to follow.

The narratives of both the recent Ninja Gaiden games aren't bad—they are pure drivel. I know for a fact that there are lots of independent writers out there who could come up with a story that would be infinitely better than what Team Ninja slapped on this game, and they could probably be had for a reasonable price. Granted, I understand that a game about a ninja slicing everyone he finds into thousands of tiny pieces isn't exactly a venue for storytelling excellence. But this game obviously had a significant budget, so would it really have killed them to hire a writer to make something that would at least be decent enough not to make me cringe when someone talks?

Also, let me say first that I very much enjoy females and their breasts. I am a fan, one might say. However, I can't stand the juvenile portrayal of Sonia, the jiggly, apparel-challenged CIA operative whose apparent mission is to find random ninjas and tag along on their adventures, similar to the ridiculous character of Rachel in the original Ninja Gaiden. This sort of thing makes me embarrassed to be playing the game, and ironically this is what pushes a title towards a "Mature" ESRB rating when in fact it fits the very definition of immaturity. It isn't cool, and it isn't sexy. It's just stupid.

My ranting aside, Ninja Gaiden II effectively preserves the one thing that made the original fun to play—brutal, gory action. Ryu slices his way through horde after horde of opponents, leaving a trail of blood and dismembered bodies behind him. The controls are identical to the first game for the most part, making the use of combos and finishing moves very intuitive and easy to learn. From the very beginning I was executing massively over-the-top attacks with relative ease and sending limbs all directions, the height of ninja awesomeness. The additional weapons I came across weren't completely useless as they were in the original, but I still found myself switching back to the normal sword for the majority of the game. Jumping and wall-running is still a bit of a pain, as a forward jump will always take players a set distance forward even if they're standing still, making precision jumping harder than it should be. Wall-running has a similar problem, as the slightest miscalculation in where to start the run caused me to fall short of my destination. There are however fewer instances that require precision acrobatics, making the problem a little less evident.

While at its heart there hasn't been a whole lot of change, Ninja Gaiden II has actually made a number of small but worthwhile improvements over its predecessor in terms of gameplay. A weapon/item selector that is accessed through the D-pad takes away the tediousness of having to change items by pausing the game and using the menu. The use of arrows is much better, as they can be charged like a normal sword attack rather than in the original where I would always be at full capacity for the useless arrow types, but be out of the good ones.

While there is still no in-game map, enemies will no longer respawn if I run back forth through an area more than once, which is a very welcome change since the lack of a map makes it very easy to get lost or turned around. Also making a return are the bothersome little fetch-quests, which consist of finding a locked door, then finding a key ten feet away in a chest out in the open. This only serves to take time away from hacking and slashing, and none of these incidents are even remotely challenging in any way. I'm confused as to what purpose the key quests are meant to serve in a game whose appeal lies entirely in constant action, and I was disappointed that the game decided to keep trying to masquerade as something it's not.

Ninja Gaiden II is as challenging as the first game if not more so, even on normal difficulty. As a result frustration and a lot of cursing abounded throughout the game. As taxing as it was however, ultimately the challenge proved (again, as it did in the original) to be very refreshing in a way. The feeling of satisfaction after pulling off a massive combo and sending body parts flying in all directions or defeating a particularly challenging boss was very real. Make no mistake—this game will constantly be throwing enormously cheap opponents your way and push your ragequit urge to its limit. And when I made it through (granted, with a ragequit here and there), the feeling of accomplishment was all the better for it.

Ultimately Ninja Gaiden II retains everything from the original, for better or for worse, and makes a few small but very noticeable improvements. It's immature, it's nonsensical, and its image of women is apparently that of a 14-year-old boy who has seen Heavy Metal a few too many times, but underneath all that is a very polished action game that delivers what one would expect from the genre. Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via rental and reviewed on the Xbox 360. Approximately 12 hours of play was devoted to single-player modes (completed 1 time). There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains blood, gore, and violence and has received a Mature (17+) rating. Simply put, this isn't for kids and they shouldn't be playing it for all the reasons listed above.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: All spoken lines can be subtitled (not that it helps to understand what's going on) and gameplay is not dependent on audio cues in any significant way.

For example, here's Tecmo's new PSP title, Undead Knights. One common refrain over the years from gamers has been "hey, why can't we play games as the bad guy?" No one ever gives  a satisfactory answer for why this is (and to be fair, there have been some recent games where you can play as the villain), and now gamers who want to explore their dark side will have another opportunity to do it when this game eventually hits shelves.

Basically, a family of three is killed for daring to speak out against the new queen. They make a deal with a demon, though, who resurrects them and grants them the power to turn their downed enemies into zombies. Said zombies are then unleashed upon the living in a quest for vengeance. I suppose it's debatable if players are actually the "villains" of this game, but turning the living into the undead isn't exactly your normal heroic behavior under any circumstances.

At this stage, it appears as though players will be able to control up to ten zombies at once and use them as fighters or as a puzzle-solving mechanic. According to IGN's early look at the game (which also features a bunch of screenshots), they can be tossed at large enemies in order to weigh it down (making it easier for you to then run in and bring the pain) or lined up to be utilized as undead bridges or ladders. Sounds pretty cool.

Undead Knights is due out later this year. Have a look at the game's trailer (above), which is sadly devoid of actual gameplay footage.

Find more on The Horror Geek blog.

Back before Tecmo was known for overrated ninja games with dysfunctional cameras or beach excursions with surreal bouncing physics, they made quirky titles that were light on eye candy but heavy on originality and gameplay. One of the most unusual was Deception—a game that tasked players with murdering people by laying gruesome traps in order to resurrect the devil. Needless to say, it was in a happy little genre all by itself.

Though that game was good times, it was heavily flawed. Two sequels followed after, each enjoyable, but neither made it through development without picking up a new set of problems. Trapt is now the fourth attempt to get this formula right, and I'm happy to say that it's still not perfect but definitely the best one yet.

Although the camera is ridiculously slow and unresponsive (an intentional choice to alleviate the motion sensitivity Japanese gamers are so prone to?), it's as sickeningly entertaining as it ever was to lay down a giant bear trap, snap it closed on an approaching attacker, shoot him full of electrified spears and then drop a giant flaming boulder on his head, laughing as the whole mess explodes.

Certain elements of the game have been pared down and menus are now extremely clear and streamlined, giving the game a speedy, quick feeling. In fact, a player could fly through the story mode in two to three hours, but that's not a complaint. There's a lot of replay offered via multiple endings and the feverish desire to unlock every trap. Some are pretty nasty and some are just for laughs, but mixing and matching them for the most effective (or comical) killing strategy is guaranteed to provide a few hours of good, clean fun.

The story may be as dull as dirt and the graphics may lack a satisfying level of detail, Актуальное рабочее зеркало на сегодня 1xbet but there's no denying that Trapt (and its three predecessors) provide a crazy sort of skewed gameplay that simply can't be had anywhere else. Very few projects actually make me laugh out loud with maniacal glee, but this was one. It's too bad that most of the attention Tecmo's developers get these days are for games I find woefully unsatisfying… in my opinion, their eccentric side is what made them such a notable development house, and Trapt is a prime example of where I'd like to see them focus their efforts. Rating: 7 out of 10

Parents will want to note that this game has received a Mature rating, and has essentially earned it. Scantily clad women, bouncing breasts, cheesecake cutscenes with some "almost nudity coupled with the violence and blood makes for a not-so-kid-friendly game. Honestly, though, it's not that the game is so 'over the edge' in terms of material—it's just so cheesy that it would embarrass your kids to see it with you in the room and vice versa. All of which brings us to another question—at this point in the series, why are Team Ninja still playing coy with these characters? They got the M rating and have gone as close to showing their voluptuous fighting babes in the nude as they can without actually doing it…so why not just do it already?

Hardcore fighting fans have long looked down on the Dead or Alive franchise for lacking any sort of depth in terms of the combat. While fighting in this installment is still counter-heavy, there's a lot of tweaking that's been done to the engine. Button mashers can still play, but skilled opponents actually have an advantage this time around.

Casual gamers have always been drawn to the pretty graphics (and no doubt the bouncing breasts) and that won't change with this outing. What is changing is the level of accessibility. It doesn't take long before the computer AI starts punishing players who simply smash buttons with no clue as to what they're doing. Add in a really cheap last boss in most of the story mode matches, and this is the most challenging game in the series to date—and one that could be a little too hard for anyone just wanting to pick up a controller and mash the buttons for a few minutes.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers have nothing to worry about—the game is fully subtitled. Of course, no one ever says anything worth reading anyway, but that's beside the point.