I hope you understand just how valuable you are to a group of people that need help when deciding how to play certain older games at their best. Such amazing content
@Shin Shaman Everyone is different so called ground-breaking idiot just because they look at a video for guidance doesn't mean they are inept, I bet you can't even finish Ninja Dog difficulty.
@@Psych0boost funny thing is there no any "other version" for playstation or pc users. its only Xbox users have to choose from either original or sigma versions.
I sucribed because Doofer comment... Also I played the Xbox Ninja Gaiden and defeated in max diff when I rented it on BlockBuster... so I maybe buy it on PC... I buy what I want, but I also like the info and opinions of others, wich, dont matter to me, I love Alone in The Dark, the buggy one...
I played Ninja Gaiden II on the Xbox One. It's definitely better there than on the 360. That game had a lot of frame drops and screen tearing but it's heavily improved on the Xbox One. Well in my case it was the One X.
Wow, I had no idea how complicated the Ninja Gaiden series was in terms of all its versions. As of now I own Black on the OG Xbox and Master Collection on the PS4. From what I see here I definitely would prefer Black over Sigma 1 so it's a good thing I already own it. It's enhanced version on the One X and Series X in particular is especially good, an immediate improvement for sure. As for 2 and 3, the 360 versions of 2 and 3 Razors Edge seem to be a clear winner here. The PS3's input lag is an automatic turnoff and an unacceptable flaw, plus running the 360 versions on a One X or Series X seems to iron out the relatively small number of technical issues it had on the 360. The Master Collection on PlayStation is a fine HD compilation of the Sigma versions to, it improves on everything that was wrong on the PS3 versions with the PS4 Pro and PS5 handling it spot on. I'm definitely glad to have that one on disc. Thanks for your effort in this video, it was very educational.
I didn't either, I had no idea, thats why this video is invaluable to people like me. Grew up in the 80s, so needless to say, Ninja Gaiden was a staple of my childhood. I did eventually beat the original but it took me a few years, a couple broken controllers, and a ton of curse words that led to my video game privileges being revoked temporarily. I played the 2nd one on NES a little but never finished it, same with the 3rd. Sometime in the late 90s I pretty much lost interest in gaming and went many years without playing any Ninja Gaiden games. Fast forward to 2005, a coworker talked me into hanging out with him at the midnight release of the 360. After a few drinks and some talking, I decided to buy myself a 360 as well, my friend convinced me it was the perfect time to get back into gaming. Ended up picking up Ninja Gaiden Black sometime after I discovered it was made backwards compatible, never owning an OG Xbox, so I had never played Ninja Gaiden Black or the original Xbox version. I went in not knowing what to expect and I was blown away by it. Was stuck on it for a while, very difficult game to say the least. I got about 80% through the game, set it down for a while, ended up lending the game to a friend later on down the road, never got it back, and honestly I kinda just forgot about it. I don't know why, but about 2 weeks ago out of the blue, I had the sudden urge to start playing Ninja Gaiden again. Think it was because I watched a Sekiro video that showed up in my algorithm? Anyways I've been trying to figure out which version to pick up, definitely want to start from the first one on Xbox. I honestly didn't know anything about there being an original, a Black, and a Sigma, let alone the other sequels and variations. I'm glad I watched this video because it broke everything down perfectly. I was at first leaning towards purchasing the Master Collection, but honestly now I think I'm gonna go back to the Black version, especially seeing as I have a Series X, so I'm sure it'll look much better than I remember, especially with 4K/60FPS upscaling. I haven't played the Sigma version, but from what I've seen and heard, doesn't sound like the definitive way to play. Other than slightly improved graphics, doesn't sound like there's any other advantages over the original and Black versions. And it sounds like the 360 versions of 2 and 3 are the best way to go, especially since they're playable on the Series X as well.
I played the original Black , I now have Sigma for the PS3 and play it on the super slim but do you think I should get master collection for the PS5 ? (And I’m also glad that you can play Black on the Xbox Series)
6:25 this blew my mind, i was freaking out over those motorbike ninjas, i never once thought to "throw" them off. I just kept blowing through healing items trying to hit them off.
*I really wished that Tomonobu Itagaki was or would be Executive Director of Ninja Gaiden 4. It is very unfortunate that Team Ninja passed down Ninja Gaiden 4 Project to other Studios most of us Hardcore Ninja Gaiden fans never heard of or seen !*
Cutscenes were beautiful in the Ninja Gaiden series. The cutscene with docu and the burning temple was breathtaking. I hope this comes out in a collection for PS4 and 5
Thank you so much for this video! I've been wanting to get into Ninja Gaiden for YEARS now but I rarely see anyone making great comparisons with good information compiled as great as you did. I think it's finally time for me to get into it. Thanks again for clearing up confusion, amazing vid!
@@weenuktuguy283 well, no but considering console players have the option of picking the version of the game that has for example the gore while pc player do not. its totally fair game to suggest a gore mod for pc players. and besides, jeez man dont get so offended. its just a bloody suggestion
but he also uses a third party controller... probably because the original dualshock3 controller aren't available anymore and the old ones have dead batteries which don't hold a charge anymore.
I found your channel while trying to look for more information on the pixel remasters in FF, and was blown away by the detail those videos went into with each specific port and remake of those games. Long story short, I don't care about Ninja Gaiden, never have had any interest in the modern ones, yet here I am watching a near 30 minute video on the subject matter, mainly because seeing the differences between versions of games is just really interesting, and having it being presented in such a comprehensive and digestible way is great. Seriously can't wait to see your new videos
I just want to mention, that while I'm not sure about the PSVita version of Sigma 1+, in the Master Collection Ninja Dog mode actually is still in Sigma 1, and it's actually possible to have Hero Mode and Ninja Dog Mode on at the same time.
I only watched the original NGII portion regarding the different specs for different console versions. Man! High quality knowledge and content summarized for the audience. No doubt the same quality will apply to the rest of the video. Well done!!
Thanks for the comparisons. I've just been getting back into the games with NG Black and I was hoping someone would compare the other versions. I guess I'll finish Black, then play NG 2(360), and finally NG3 Razor's Edge.
There is one other major difference between Ninja Gaiden/Black/Sigma and that is Enemy I-Frames, and certain moves (specifically the Swallow). In the original, Swallow would destroy most enemies and bosses. To counter act this, bosses were given more i-frames and dodges around such attacks in Black. Leading to various videos showing people clearly hitting the bosses in black (Alma) and the boss just ignoring it as if it didn't hit. Sigma seemingly found a middle ground between this, either less s or less dodge animation, but it feels like your attacks hit more.
So the definitive way to play these games is all backwards compatible on the Series X. Ninja Gaiden Black,Ninja Gaiden 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3 Razors Edge!!!
I began the video casually, once I saw the length, discussion of hurricane packs, and video excerpts from Bigalski I knew this would be one to sit down and really watch.
It's such a shame that we couldn't get NG Black or the OG NG2 in the master collection. It means that the most accessible way to play this trilogy has a worse version of the first two games. Mods can maybe fix up a few aspects of the PC version, but I won't be holding my breath. That means to play the best version of these games in their best quality possible, either an Xbox Series X or Emulation for PC is required, and PlayStation players are shit out of luck.
@@MegaDeox ng2 is clearly a superior version though as ignoring the gore there were lots of other changes made to the gameplay as well. Also input delay like dmc 3 hd version so major oof there.
Excellent video and great way to give folks out there a view on which one to play or what the differences are for what they have. Another difference I do remember in the original and black to run on water is to walk into water then repeatedly press A button, if not he will just fall in water to swim around or submerge. In sigma it does the water walk for you as soon has you walk into the water, in order to swim you would have to hold A and press down to submerge.
I'm rather surprised by the detailed review and comparison ,I imagined it took you a lot of time to get it done 👍 and for that you just earned another subscriber Damn man , I only suscribe to the most famous channels out there and neglect hidden gems such as this one , I'm very glad I came across this video and I'm looking forward to see what else there is on the horizon...Thank you .
For real yo like trying to do these challenges with an AI companion that get their ass kicked very quickly makes for very piss-poor challenges and yes I wish I could get rid of my partner cuz I'd rather do it by myself..... it was fine when you're able to actually connect with friends online to play NGS2..... but nope they just gave us the same s*** but just took away the ability to have a human companion with us which is garbage this collection has more lows thab it does highs...... also bring back the real gore and decapitations please it makes no sense good censor these games at all
From what I've heard, the Master Ninja trials were rebalanced to be actually doable with the AI partner since apparently they were impossible to finish on the original Vita version.
Wasn't sure about the concept of this video but I have to say the amount of work you have put in here is admirable. It's a high-quality video. I left a like for that reason. Good job! :)
Bro, XBox backward compatibility really deserves praise. It's so good to be able to play games that had some perfomance issues in original hardware better on the XBox One, One S/X or SX/SS and without paying any extra dollar over it. I played XBox 360 Ninja Gaiden I & II on my XBox One X and now I'm deciding if I play Ninja Gaiden III of the XBox 360 or XBox One remastered
Excellent analysis of all versions since the 1st NG of the xbox and each platform were released and also with each control🎮 reacts precision, you deserve an award.
Usually when these videos come around they are phoned in badly informed vids, but this one was seriously fantastic. Regarding the first game all the footage was correct, all the information was correct and great overal quality. The information on the second game is a tad wonky. Sigma 2 wasn't made on the NGII engine, but on the NGS1 engine. Ryu also got a new model, which wasn't covered (never knew why they did this though). It also notes that the Blade of the Archfiend was removed from NGS2 which is weird. Interesting to finally see visual proof that the Sigma 2 release has more input-delay than the vanilla release. All together a *great* video, seriously. PS: hey Stinger is in the sources! Nice
It’s always nice to see more quality in depth Ninja Gaiden coverage on RU-vid instead of just DMC and God of War videos. By the way your in depth Ninja Gaiden coverage is still one of the best.
liked and subbed just because at 5:01 you showed me a game I played and quite enjoyed in arcades when I was 4 and never knew it's name so I couldn't look it up later in life. It never occurred to me to google Ninja Gaiden Arcade release🤦♂️ Thanks so much buddy.
This is an extremely comprehensive analysis of the franchise across platforms, thank you! It's an invaluable resource if you're like me and considering picking up the Trilogy release during the spring sale (but already have the, well, let's say better versions of NG1 and NG2 playable on Xbox Series X). Thank you again!
Incredibly well done. I watched one review of all ng games that refused to differentiate between sigma and vanilla versions at all and was massively upset with it. Vanilla 2 and sigma 2 are two DIFFERENT games almost as much as vanilla 3 and 3RE are different games. That reviewer was sent a free copy of master collection so he could do the review of ALL ng games by team ninja and I’m sure that’s why he didn’t differentiate because he didn’t want to shit all over the MC
That’s why Austin is the goat. Square gives him free copies of one or two versions for some games he reviews, and he still goes unbiased and does thorough research.
Great vid. Thanks man.. I only played the original on Xbox and never completed it but enjoyed it at the time. I needed this video more than I knew I did haha
Thank you for this video! Its great to have an easily accessible resource when it comes to explaining the difference between these games. I do wish you mentioned emulation when it comes to the first 2 games, its not perfect but with emulation constantly improving it eventually becomes a great way to experience games. Ninja Gaiden Black has been running great on Xemu for a while now, only issues being a few minor graphical bugs and some slowdown when attacking (the latter which can be aleviated). As for Ninja Gaiden 2 it has more issues, mainly audio randomly cutting out, however other issues like the Chapter 12 crash can be fixed with canary patches and theres also some guides on youtube of how to add the DLC.
How does one alleviate the slowdown for NGB on Xemu? Asking for the future; my current PC cannot emulate Xbox well (Xemu can't run, and CXBX-Reloaded barely runs Super Monkey Ball Deluxe with multiple big issues), and I do have a Steam Deck, but have heard mixed things about NGB running through Xemu on there. Someone on the NG subreddit apparently beat Black on the Deck just fine with 99% smooth gameplay, but plenty of others there report significant problems.
Very nice and complete video , I have the vita versions , and I'm pretty happy with them , every now and then I start a master ninja run .I even got the Nintendo Ds game .Great action adventure games , but my all time favourite will forever be ninja gaiden 2 on the NES 🙂 hope they'll made a new game in the future , even if it is a reboot 🙂
Also with the PC version you have the modding community that can put stuff that is missing from the game back into the game such as the Ayane voice for the kunai tutorials. Which is why I would recommend getting the PC versions if you don't own the OG Ninja Gaiden Black and NG2 on Xbox.
This is super useful. I wasn't sure whether or not Master Collection was worth playing, since it was just added to Game Pass. As a casual fan, I think the Sigma versions will do just fine for me, and I do own Black and vanilla 2 as well if I wanna go back and see the differences.
Thanks for the video and comparison in details. I am thinking of picking the Master Collection up later. I do have Ninja Gaiden Black, 2 and RE on my Xbox. Black and RE was free from Games with Gold, had to get 2 physically used. But I do want Koei to know that we do want another game in the series. But I will say this on the Sigma copies. You would think from their last releases to now that they would have added back the missing or cut content from Black and NG2 for the Master Collection? They even had Black and NG2 backwards compatible on Xbox. So they could have reversed engineered to get the get the data, and recreated on the new engine for Sigma 1 and 2. As well have the options for gore as well like in the Vita. But other than that, awesome video. You just got a new sub.
FANTASTIC VIDEO, I will say however I think you're wrong regarding the change in soundtracks at 7:05, I believe the one you showed to be "sigma" is still used in the original, it's just in the cut-scene at the start of the level
I wish they used Nimja Gaiden Black for the Master Collection instead of the Sigma version. But at least they used Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge instead of the base game. That game improved on mostly everything that the base game lacked.
Great video one huge change seems to be on sigma 2 you dont any longer have to keep your ai partner alive at all the times will make it more managable if you want to beat the chellenge missions
I was so confused watching ninja gaiden black stuff because i have the 04 version which never accessed the tournaments. Watching speedruns was really befuddling. Glad for this video!
Hey, amazing video, but I was wondering if you had planned to cover potential changes to ai behaviour in say, sigma plus 2's port? I've heard a lot of talk from more dedicated fans that the enemy ai does things like spamming grab attacks, of which many of these have gained more attention due to the master collection using the plus version of sigma 2
Thanks for putting this together man, I've been wanting to get into these games and now I'm confident in which ones I'd prefer to start with. 3D Ninja Gaiden always reminded me of SEGA's Shinobi, but if their own 3D reboot on PS2 had been as good as Shinobi 3 and not some weird unpolished budget title.
Amazing video, it's the most complete compilation of all modern NG games that exist till date and it's straight to the point. Now, about the source code, it wasn't lost or anything like that, it's confirmed that it was a mistranslation and that it is spread across numerous systems and not organized. Still it pisses me off to know that on PC we only have access to the Sigma versions instead of Black and 2 natively.
@@harlannguyen4048 Maybe it means they have it in multiples old HDDS, devices, or something like but it's difficult to them to put to work. I don't have much information.
That Ninja Gaiden Black & NG2 originals are still the best versions is like what happened with the Original Star Wars trilogy. Thankfully they run perfectly on Xbox One X & Series X.
👍nice vid. This is the most unbiased take on the franchise I've watched to date. I don't know why, but team ninja seemingly tries to avoid anything that original lead creator Itagaki (NGBlack & NGII) had his hands on. Fan preference had always been in favor of Black & NGII being the best version's. Yet they went against the grain and made the Sigma's the canonical version's. How do you "lose" both of the favorites? Then again, maybe including those two in the "master" would not have been cost effective in the cash grab
For some reason I got Black and Sigma mixed up slightly as I assumed Black took some aspects out that I loved from the original, but I went through it again last year (maybe two years ago) and noticed it was Sigma I was thinking about and Black just adds stuff to the original, making Black my favorite. I don't know why I thought that. Sigma on PS3 was solid and I liked some of the additions, but ultimately it lacked aspects like some music being flipped around or entirely omitted. I couldn't find the motivation to beat Sigma 2 on PS3 after I beat the Statue of Liberty. I didn't like it, but Ninja Gaiden 2 on 360 (and now, better than ever on Series X through back compat) is a great game. Oh, and I also didn't enjoy NG3 so didn't get very far in it, but think the theme song is good.
@@Jason-ip6wq It's a hard game and you can pick any of the characters you want, the gameplay is no different to the original game made by the original creator, if anything the story might be garbage but the gameplay is good. Think your thinking about the storyline that's garbage