ESSENTIAL GAME

Ninja Gaiden Black

During the early part of the Noughties, Tomonobu Itagaki’s Team Ninja was creating amazing games which ably demonstrated the power of Microsoft’s console. As good as the Dead Or Alive games are, we have to give the nod to Ninja Gaiden, an epic hack-and-slash adventure which revived Ryu Hayabusa for the 3D age. As well as being visually stunning, the game offered gory combat that was incredibly smooth and satisfying, while providing a ferocious challenge. The enhanced Black version contains new enemies and additional difficulty modes, as well as the original DLC challenges, and it is the version to go for.