Ninja: a member of a group of mercenaries in feudal Japan who were trained in stealth and the martial arts and employed as spies, saboteurs, or assassins.

We all know that a ninja is that guy dressed in black; we can see only his eyes, moves real fast, walks on the walls, knows a lot of jiujutsu and throws with metal stars called shurikens. Yap, we must be talking about Ryu Hayabusa, a man who was first met in Ninja Gaiden for NES in 1992. Then, in 2004, Ninja Gaiden was released for the Xbox and later Ninja Gaiden Black: an update for the original Xbox game. After 3 years, Team Ninja comes again with their latest product: Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the Playstation 3 console, probably one of the best action game on the market.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma is not a new game. It is a remake after the old Xbox version, with many enhancements.

But first, let me tell you about Ryu Hayabusa. He’s a descendent from the Dragon Lineage who sworn to protect the Dark Dragon Blade. This sword is said to be the most powerful sword ever, so an evil lord comes and steals it. Ryu tries to oppose but he’s injured and his entire village is turned to ashes. With revenge in his eyes and heart, he goes after the one responsible, to kill him and get the sword back.

Although this is a port from the original Xbox game, Sigma features 16 missions plus 3 unlockbable extra missions. Also, the voluptuous blonde girl – fiend hunter named Rachel, who appeared now and then in cinematics, is now a playable character and has her own weapons, fighting techniques and pace. Rachel yields a War Hammer that is slower than a sword but it does more damage and as a range weapon she has a Peluda Tail that can grab enemies. On the other hand, Ryu’s weapons arsenal has more variety, ranging from Nunchaku, Vigoorian Flail, Lunar (wooden stick) to Dragon’s Claw & Tiger’s Fang (dual wielding katana) and a set of range weapons like Shuriken (normal, incendiary and windmill type), a bow or smoke bombs (that can blind enemies in the area). The story is not necessarily that “special thing” the developers were thinking to keep players interested. But the journey itself, with plots and different types of enemies you encounter, skills and weapons you must upgrade or bosses you must defeat is “something”.

Even if Rachel is a “newcomer” to the action of the game, the developers have made her quite “interesting”. The looks are not everything… they say. She’s a real mean fighting machine. The War Hammer is not upgradable and she has only one ranged weapon. But she’s here only to change the pace of the game every once in a while. She can be customized with earrings that will increase her damage, increase the Ultimate techniques and other cool stuff, plus you find different hairstyles for her, to make her look after your own desire (arrrrgggghhhhh matey).