A look back at Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox

Every kid experiences a piece of media that completely changes the course of their life. The experience is so profound in shaping their artistic taste that it's like a butterfly effect moment for them. Had they not heard that song, or seen that movie, show, or, in my case, played a specific video game, then they could have grown up to be a completely different person. For me, that game was the original 2004 Release of Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox. 

Had I not happened to glance at a magazine my friend snuck into class, I would never have seen the ad for the game and been able to tell my brother about it. He would have never been on the lookout for it and eventually see the Xplay review of the game giving it a perfect score, which led to him being extremely excited to play the game as well. Then we would never have gotten an Xbox, and I would have never fallen in love with the game and become obsessed with the Xbox brand, leading to me becoming a fanboy as a kid for Team Green, which led to many embarrassing tantrums years later as 12-year-old me begged my parents for an Xbox 360. 

Eventually I got one for Christmas and due to its library consisting of mostly mature games (which looking back on it probably wasn't the best thing for my mental development as kid nor as teenager) it exposed me to amazing game franchises such as Ghost recon, dead or alive, hitman, gears of war, halo, fable, fallout, Elder scrolls, dragon age, Mass effect, Bioshock, Resident Evil, and obviously Call of duty. 

That period really refined my taste as a gamer. Before that, I mostly played Dragon Ball Z games, NBA Street, NBA Live, Need for Speed, Def Jam, Tony Hawk games, and Mortal Kombat. I had a very mainstream taste and was definitely an EA Kid, and I probably would still only play mainstream titles had I never been introduced to the Xbox through Ninja Gaiden. So, I feel it would be wrong for me to start a gaming channel and not have the first Video be about the game that is indirectly the reason I have the taste in games that I have now. So let’s finally wrap up this intro and dive right into what made this game so special to me at the time and how the 04 version is unique compared to iterations that came afterwards.

While it may be hard for people to understand in 2026 how this game was a visual masterpiece, in 2004, very few games looked as good as Ninja Gaiden at the time. Tecmo and Team Ninja were often praised for pushing the industry forward in terms of visuals, mostly due to their amazing CG cinematics at the time, and for their "core values". Many of the cinematics from this game still give me goosebumps. My favorite is Ryu's first encounter with Doku, Lord of the Greater Fiends. God, I wish there were a way to have all these cinematics remastered in 4k. 

Gameplay at the time was also something I had never experienced before it was fast, it was gory, and it was extremely hard. 22 years later and after beating the game 50 times, there are still 8 boss fights I am forever traumatized by; the Murai boss fight from the first chapter which literally took me and my brothers like 8 hours to do when we first played the game, first encounter with Alma, The weird bone dragon boss fight from chapter 10, the second phase of the Vigoren emperor and the psychopathic ryu clones you have to fight on hard mode three times. 

With that being said, most of these boss fights are still really fun because of how the game's bosses are designed to challenge you. You see, most modern video game boss fights follow a turn-based design. Typically, if the player blocks or dodges a boss's attacks, then the player can immediately take their turn and deal damage. In short, the boss takes its turn; if the player responds correctly, they are rewarded with their turn. Ninja Gaiden, on the other hand, throws that design out completely. You see the AI for boss fights in Ninja Gaiden 04/black/ and even Sigma are designed in the same way a CPU for a fighting game is designed. Meaning that the AI can block and dodge everything you throw at it, the times you do hit the boss are because the game's script allowed you to. Additionally, bosses will spam a move over and over again, and on higher difficulties, even combo their moves together with the mobs that spawn around them. meaning there is no pattern that can be easily exploited, you have to beat the boss like you were playing a fighting game. With whiff punishes, frame traps from animation cancels, and even the occasional wake-up invincible super. This is not for every boss fight in the game, as there are a few that are designed closer to modern, turn-based designed boss fights, but don't expect to hit most bosses after you dodged their attacks.

Now, admittedly, the combat of the first game didn't age as well as later titles. In fact, Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3 Razor's Edge's gameplay is far faster, bloodier, and just more satisfying than the og xbox game, but there is something in the og xbox game that later titles lack, and that is its level design. You see, Ninja Gaiden is every bit of an action game as it is a platformer and puzzle game. It's honestly kind of similar to a classic Resident Evil game, just trade in the guns and tank controls for fast, high-octane action. Old school Resident Evil games presented the player with a location with various locked doors that you have to find keys to open up areas that eventually lead to puzzles, enemy ambushes, or bosses that give more keys to unlock and explore more areas, and most of these areas eventually lead to shortcuts back to an old area. 

Ninja Gaiden does the exact same thing, in fact, that might actually explain why I fell in love with Resident Evil 1 remastered when I played it for the first time back in 2015. The game's progression felt familiar to my favorite game of all time. Simply put, the violent and gory combat is what keeps me coming back to Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3 Razor’s Edge, but the og game’s level design and its beautiful cinematography keep Ninja Gaiden 04 and all its iterations at the top of my list for the franchise.

While this article is dedicated to the appreciation of the original 2004 release of Ninja Gaiden, you can not make an article talking about Ninja Gaiden without talking about the best version of the game, which is Ninja Gaiden Black. Ninja Gaiden Black takes everything we already loved about the game and just refines it to make it an even better experience. More Weapons, enemy types, bosses, costumes, and game modes. It also contains quality of life changes, such as new voice acting for the letters from Ayane, new cutscenes, and refined gameplay mechanics, such as making the ultimate technique easier to use. You no longer needed enemy essence to do an ultimate technique; you could just charge it by holding down the Y/triangle button. With that being said, it is by no means an easier experience. Many of the mechanics that were abuseable in the original 04 release were nerfed for the black version. For example, the flying swallow technique was so exploitable that it could kill the final boss in mere seconds. This move was completely reworked in later versions of the game. Instead of being a move you can spam over and over again, in black and in Sigma, after using the flying swallow once on a boss, they get an invisible protective shield that prevents them from taking damage from the move immediately after. 

Sigma has even more changes than black. Dramatic graphical changes, changes to level design, changes to chapter structures, new cutscenes, new boss fights, changes to music (which I hate with every fiber of my body), new weapons, new inventory systems, and playable Rachel chapters. In short, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is almost a completely different experience from its 04 and black counterparts. It's not bad, in fact, from a content perspective, it is the most feature-rich version of the game. I mean, I have quite a few complaints about Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I hate the changes to music, the pacing feels off, the changes to level design, chapter structure, and cutscene feel wrong, and while Sigma is supposed to be a definitive version of the game, it's missing costumes and rewards from both Ninja Gaiden 04 and black. However, with that being said, I will always appreciate the fact that the game allows us to experience Team Ninja's "core values" by letting us play as Rachel. So, while it's not a perfect port/remaster of the game, it still has its own unique value. But even after the second remaster of the game in the master collection, there still isn't a definitive release of Ninja Gaiden that contains all the content from each major re-release of the game. 

Both iterations are missing content that was present in the 04 release that isn't in later versions. Most notable is the cyborg ninja outfit you get after beating the game on normal difficulty. This outfit is not available in black or sigma; however, the weapon attached to it is, and it becomes a golden scarab reward instead of a story mode completion reward. The other games don't have a new game plus, nor is there an amulet of tranquility, which was an amulet that slowly regenerated your health.

Replaying the games and noticing the different changes across the different versions of Ninja Gaiden is why I wanted to write this article. In the current era of the video game industry, where everything is getting a remake, Resident Evil games, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Zelda, Star Fox, etc., Ninja Gaiden 04 deserves to have a large-scale triple-A remake as well. heck, if fricken backyard baseball can get a remake, then the industry is long overdue for a Ninja Gaiden remake. After Itagaki's death, I would personally like it if it stayed true to the original game, similar to remakes like Metal Gear Solid Delta and the Oblivion Remaster. Just a beautiful, large-scale graphical upgrade to the game that allowed people to choose which version of the game they wanted to play. Boy, that would be the dream.