(continued from previous page) ...in the second chapter where Ryu heads back to find his home village burning to the ground. As the killing machine that you are, you can now play through a new section where you enter a burning building and take out a number of enemies, and then exit all to be beaten by the handsome Samurai boss with purple fire for a face, Doku. Of course, had Ryu not been beaten, the story wouldn’t continue and he would most likely start eating bon bons and submerge under whatever river he tries to glide on. To enrich the added experience, three new enemies (MSAT bikers, Mermen, Ghost Fires) and two new bosses (Garnov, Alternator) have been added to be utterly humiliated by Ryu.

Despite the additions, there are features from the Black version that have been removed for this game, such as the opening introductory with Dragon Sword and the Dark Dragon Blade, the movie theater, puzzles, and some encounters and costumes. There are no additional starting weapons for the higher difficulties, some effects from power moves are not present, the Armlet of Tranquility is gone, and the monster Gobdecks is no longer present. What a shame.

Although the gameplay is, on the whole, fantastic, there is one major problem: direction. Tairon is still a maze, and towards the end of this chapter when you need to face off against turrets, the only clue your given is to head over the nearby drawbridge and you’re left guessing what to do next. As women already know, all men can be stubborn in admitting they took the wrong “shortcut” and are “not lost.” Throughout the game, there are certain areas that require a ninja knows how to multi-wall-run. If you miss the hints, then you’re just left gracefully circling the area with your agility until you inevitably pass out from exhaustion.

In short, the Mission Mode from Black returns once you've beaten the game, as do more costumes and the ability to upload your high Karma score on the PlayStation Network.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma encompasses sharp visuals. Texture resolution is excellent, character detail is unprecedented and it runs at an eye blistering 60 fps even at 1080p. The environments look good, but are certainly not mind-blowing due to a simple transition and zero use of parallax mapping to enhance the background immersion. Just by playing the game, you can tell the lighting is HDR. Characters feature self-shadowing, which while subtle does look nice, far from the previous additions. A slight irregularity appears in the light cast for Ryu on certain terrain platforms, but you have to seriously study the details to truly notice this.

Overall, the game has a lot of positives and newer additions to make this, dare I say it, Ninja worthy. The moment your hands grasp the controller, you only strive to live by the Ninja’s life code of honour, valour, and faith. So, go out there! Show them what you’re made of with your deadly Katana skills. Just make sure you take your ninja attire to the dry cleaners. No one likes blood stains on their attire when they’re looking gracefully sexy for the camera.