Tecmo’s Team Ninja is bringing the highly anticipated Ninja Gaiden 2 to Xbox 360 very soon. What better way to celebrate than to take a look back to the very beginning, when Ninja Gaiden was at the peak of its popularity on the 8-bit Nintendo? Even back then, Ninja Gaiden was known for its cutting-edge action gameplay, catchy music, and punishing difficulty. After three well-received games on the NES, a game boy spin off , various Sega-developed games featuring the title, and a Super Nintendo compilation pack of the three NES games, the most we would ever see of the series would be Ryu Hayabusa’s appearance among the cast of the Dead or Alive series. When the Xbox was nearing its release, one of the games announced for it was Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden, an all new game unrelated to any previous game in the series. It would finally see a release in 2004, and became as much of a favorite among Xbox players as the originals had been among Nintendo players. The Xbox game took what was awesome about the NES games and bought it into 3-d. As a nod back to it’s past, it even included the three NES games as unlockables. Lets take a look now at this franchise’s 8-bit roots.

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In the world of 3-d fighting, there are two kings: Namco (Tekken and Soul Calibur) and Sega’s AM2 (Virtua Fighter). Tecmo’s Team Ninja and its Dead Or Alive franchise is closely behind the two, and is quickly gaining steam. Although Dead Or Alive has been criticized for it’s more simplistic play mechanics and heavy focus on the female form, it has earned praise for it’s envelope-pushing graphics, gorgeous backdrops, awesome looking player models, and robust online system. While DOA may not be a huge innovator in the fighting world, Team Ninja’s fighting franchise becomes deeper and more enjoyable with each iteration, and the series’s first appearance on the Xbox 360 is no different.

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At the time of its release, this Data East-developed game was second only to Konami’s X-men game in terms of multiplayer beat-em-up action, and even today it maintains its charm. Taking control of either Captain America, Iron Man, Vision, or Hawkeye, you battle your way through various supervillians in order to make it to the Red Skull’s moon base. You’ll meet Whirlwind, the Wizard, Ultron, Crossbones, and several other familiar Avengers villains. You’ll even run into Juggernaut and the Sentinels from the x-men comics. Quicksilver, Namor, the Wasp, and Wonder Man make cameo appearences. There are even some shooter segments to mix up the action. The game’s English translation took some hits (“Why should it goes well?”) when it came over here, but the game is still enjoyable, especially when you bring along friends. There is an absolute zero chance of this being re-released in any way (primarily due to the fact that Data East no longer exists and Activision holds the licensing rights to most major Marvel properties), so you’re going to have to do some searching to find the cartridge or cabinet. If you do manage to run across the game, check it out, and it will tide you over until Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 hits sometime down the road.

Double Agent is the fourth entry in the Splinter Cell series and the first to hit the new generation consoles. Ubisoft Shanghai has taken some bold new steps with the formula, not the least of which is having series protagonist Sam Fisher juggle his loyalties to both Third Echelon and the terrorist organization which he is tasked to infiltrate. While there are some missteps in this new direction, Double Agent still manages to bring the series into the next generation with style.

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This is 1980s arcade run-and-gun absurdity at its finest. Back then, you didn’t need a complicated backstory, fancy unlockables, top-notch graphics, downloadable content, a promotional tie-in, or online play. You only need an itchy trigger finger, loads of quarters, 30 – 45 minutes to spare, and a friend. You take control of a mercenary (or two if playing in two player), and you are assigned the task of retaking an underground nuclear complex from a group of terrorists. You are armed with a weapon and grenades, and like in most top-down shooters, you collect power ups. One in particular, the Heavy Barrel, is split into 6 pieces which form an awesome super weapon once they are found and assembled. The gun will only remain active for 30 seconds, but its firepower can be used to easily take out some of the harder enemies, including the bosses. There really isn’t much more to it, it’s just a fun shooter in the vein of Ikari Warriors and Contra.

Only time will tell if this game will show up on Virtual Console anytime soon, as Data East went bankrupt five years ago. Many of its intellectual properties were bought out by Japanese Corporation Paon, who developed Donkey Kong Barrel Blast for Wii, DK King of Swing for Game Boy Advance, and DK Jungle Climber for Nintendo DS. They have released several Data East games for the Virtual Console already and are no doubt planning to release more, so we can only hope Heavy Barrel is one of them.

Koei and W-force’s Musou games (known over here as Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors) are Japan’s equivalent to our sports franchises, except for the fact that they have educational value added to them. They featured anime-styled versions of historical figures and battles throughout the Warring States and Three Kingdoms eras. The games get periodic releases with a roster update, slight graphical updates, and some new features added. They also get a bad rap for their repetition and simplistic playing mechanics. While some of the criticism is deserved, the series does a excellent job of catering to it’s small-but-devoted fanbase, and this entry is no exception.
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In 1994, MGM released the Roland Emmerich-directed film Stargate. It told the tale of a portal which led to an alternate world which was not unlike ancient Egypt, but with futuristic technologies. Although it received a lukewarm reaction from critics, the public enjoyed it enough for it to eventually become a franchise, complete with comic books, TV spin-offs, an animated cartoon, novels, made-for-dvd movies, and a few video games. One of these video games was a decent if by-the-numbers 16-bit title from Acclaim. It wasn’t anything mind-blowing, but you could do a lot worse for a Super Nintendo movie tie-in.
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While this might not have been the most original open-world crime game, it was one of the best and most unique. When it was released, Grand Theft Auto 4 was more than a year away from release. Volition’s (The Punisher, Red Faction) game helped to make the wait much more bearable, and it even improved some of Grand Theft Auto’s game mechanics. With a sequel on deck for later this year, GTA IV less than a week away from release, and even Mercenaries 2 arriving this fall, now is a perfect time to visit Stillwater, if for no other reason than to get yourself ready for the open-world goodness arriving throughout the next several months.
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