At long last, I downloaded the demo of Ninja Gaiden Σ.
Before saying anything else, I want to make a few comments on my downloading experience. Before grabbing the demo I had to update my PS3 with the latest firmware (1.70, I think), which then allowed my PS3 to download things in the background while I do other things with it. This is great because Killa was over for the evening to play some FFXII, and we would have had to stop the download when it became apparent that it was going to take forever. So we have background downloading going on. The download made it to 10 percent in approximately 30 or 45 minutes while I was waiting for Killa to arrive. We then played Tekken DR for another 45 minutes or so while the demo was downloading in the background. I must stress that Tekken has no online component that I'm aware of. During the 45 minutes we were playing Tekken, the download only crept up to 12 percent. Strange. We then spent an hour or two collecting my husband from the subway station and then eating some dinner. The download progressed to 45 percent during that time. Then we played FFXII for the next 4 hours (download still going in the background). At the end of those 4 hours, we shut down FFXII and the NGΣ demo was at 58 percent. What the hell?
If I was going to have to download it overnight anyway, then I have reaped no benefit whatsoever from the background downloading function. I hope they shore it up in the future so that it doesn't require the PS3's undivided attention to, you know, function.
Anyway, the 983 MB download is finally complete and I had a chance to play through the demo yesterday. I was pleased with how responsive the controls are. Ryu handles like the Prince (of Persia, that is), although Rachel, once you get her unlocked, handles more like a Mack truck. Mission mode (featuring Rachel) and hard mode were both unlocked by beating the demo once, which took me a couple of tries. The demo includes a robust set of weapons for Ryu (the quintessential dragon sword; nunchaku; a larger, heavier sword; a staff; and dual-wielded katanas) that you can use from the start to vary the gameplay. I am particularly enamored with the Lunar, a large bo staff useful for mowing down multiple enemies at a time. The entire first chapter seems to have been included and took me approximately 20 minutes to run through on my winning attempt.The graphics are rich, detailed, and beautiful, especially the backgrounds. Ryu and his many foes are generally moving too fast for me to get a good look at them. The action was very smooth and I found it pretty easy to string moves together to make impressive combos, although I can already see that this game relies more on precise combo input than, say, God of War, in which any combination of button presses will yield the requisite carnage. I'm a little concerned that my skills are going to need a lot of polish before I can expect to succeed at the final version of the game. Apparently there's a tank battle that emasculates all comers. We'll see. This demo is a great move by Tecmo; I was a little ambivalent about Ninja Gaiden Sigma before I played through the demo, but now I'm sure I'm going to buy it at my earliest convenience.
Finally, I'd like to express my feelings of distaste for the numbering system of this series. Ninja Gaiden 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on, would be acceptable. Alternatively, how about Ninja Gaiden I, II, III; or A, B, C; etc. But the series goes: Ninja Gaiden 1; Ninja Gaiden 2; Ninja Gaiden 3; Ninja Gaiden; Ninja Gaiden: Black; Ninja Gaiden Σ. Listen: "1, 2, 3, Black, Σ" is not a sequence! Here are my suggestions for the next next gen: Ninja Gaiden: Gaiden of the Ninja for the DSMicro; Ninja Gaiden ₤ for the PS4; and Ninja Gaiden: Plaid for the XBox 720.
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